Human Development - Essay 2

Human Development - Essay 2

  • Submitted By: gvjohnson
  • Date Submitted: 07/19/2011 9:12 PM
  • Category: Psychology
  • Words: 1144
  • Page: 5
  • Views: 1

Brofenbrenner's ecological theory of development is known as the Ecological Systems Theory. This theory specifies four types of nested environmental systems with bi-directional differences between and within the systems. It holds that development reflects the influence of several environmental systems:
Micro system: This is the setting in which the individual lives. It also consists of the person's family, peers, school and neighborhood. It is in the microsystem that the most direct interactions with social agents take place; Example: parents, teachers and peers. The individual does not simply take the experiences of these settings in but he/she is someone who helps to construct the settings.
Mesosystem: It refers to the relation between micorsystems or connectiosn between contexts. Examples are the relation of family experiences to school experiences, school experiences to church experiences and family experiences to peer experiences. For example children who have parents that reject them may have a hard time developing postive relations with teachers.
Exosystem: It involves the link between a social setting where the individual does not have an active role and the individual's immediate context. Example: a husband's or child's experience at home may be influenced by a mother's experience at work. The mother may get a promotion that requires more travel which may cause a conflict with the husband and change ways of interaction with the child.
Macrosystem: It describes the culture where people live. Cultural contexts include developing and industrialized countries, socioeconomic status, poverty and ethnicity.
Chronosystem: The patterning of environmental events and changes over a lifespan, as well as sociohistorical circumstances. For example: Divorce is one transistion. Researchers have found that the negative effects of divorce on children often peak in the first year after divorce. Approximately two years later family is interaction stabilizes and is...

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