Bronfenbrenners Ecological Environment - Research Paper Example

Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Environment Bronfenbrenner’s ecological environment is one of the best theories that explain human development from an early age to mature development. It might be viewed as the scientific study of the mutual accommodation, which is progressive throughout one’s life between a human being that is actively growing and the rapidly changing settings of the immediate environment in which the developing person lives. The process is largely affected by these settings and the larger contexts in which the settings are embedded. Largely, Bronfrnbrenner by creating these structures led researchers in making a deeper examination of the family, political structures and the economy. The theory largely illustrates how the environmental factors affect early education of a child towards full maturity. Though many theories put more emphasis on the nurture vs. nature relation (Paquette and Ryan, 2), Bronfenbreenner’s ecological system theory goes deeper into the perspective of the child’s environment in terms of the quality and context of the child’s environment. Therefore, in order to understand human development in a better perspective of the entire ecological system has to be considered and its relation to the growth and development of the child. This involves considering the micro systems that refer to the relationship between the developing person, the environment and the macros system, which refers to institutional patterns that include customs, economy and bodies of knowledge. The theory is much detailed and goes beyond the facts considered by other developmental theories in child development. Bronfebrenner (38) explains that the first proposition of the general ecological model state that especially in the early stages and largely to the entire life, the human development takes process though complex, reciprocal and progressive process that interacts between an active evolving bio-psychological human organism and the persons, objects, symbols that are in the immediate environment. The forms of interaction in the immediate environment are referred to as proximal process and may include, mother –child and child-child relationship. The theory implicates that a child has to be considered in the context of a wider scope to the social spheres of influence. The child cannot develop outside a unique historical, ideological and sociopolicatical set of circumstances. The advantage of this theory is that while others concentrate on the impacts of thinking, perception, motivation and learning that is perceived at an isolated level of the individual (Watts, Duncan and Cockcroft, 502). He goes further to focus on the content of these functions on what is feared, perceived, desired, acquired knowledge or what is desired throughout the traditional development theories. The nature of this psychological material changes as a function of a person’s exposure to an interaction with a particular environment (Watts, Duncan and Cockcroft, 502). This is development viewed as evolving conception of the ecological environment by Bronfenbrenner. Bronfenbreenner’s layers of ecological development Microsystem. Microssytem is the lowest level in the development of a child and is the layer that is more close to the child, due to the structures that are close to the child (Paquette and Ryan, 2). This layer involves all the relationships and interactions between the child and the immediate environment. These environments are home, family, the neighborhood and other child care environments. It is at this level that relationship is very important and defines the child’s development behavior and beliefs. The child also has the potential to affect the behaviors of the child as Paquette & Ryan (2) elaborate; this is the stage of bi-directional influences. This layer provides a complex pattern of activities interpersonal relations that are experienced by a developing person. It involves the face to face interaction with the material and physical features. Thompson (202) further argues that it is in the microsystem that an individual engages in several roles that influence them that include parent, teacher, employee, daughter and others. It is in this system that an individual develops distinct characteristics that include systems, of belief, temperament, personality and the belief systems. Mesosystem The mesosystem defines the interrelationships and linkages taking place between two or more major settings that contain the developing person in a particular point in life (Thompson, 202). These relationships may be the relationships between home and school, school and the workplace. It is mainly the interaction between the family school and the peer groups. It might also include the church, workplace and other areas. It might be considered to be a system of Microsystems. Bronfebrenner (40) argue that this stage illustrates the developmental impact of two way communication and participation in decisions making concerning the development of a person by these interlinking microssytems. For example, an individual in an elementary school would show better performance characteristics when parents and teachers are jointly and closely involved in ensuring the child development. In school as Bronfebrenner (40) elaborate, a child that is brought up in effective interaction between the teachers and the parents, the neighborhood and religion and other microsystems would portray a higher degree of independence, initiative and receives better grades on entering elementary school. Exosytems Bronfebrenner (40) explains that exosystem comprises of the linkages and process that are taking place between two or more settings, where one setting does not contain the developing person, but events of these settings have a significant and indirect influence on the settings of the developing person or where they live. This might be for example, the relation between the home of the child and the workplace of the parent. A child might be influenced to learn and take career of the parent in the future, through being influenced by the workplace of the parent. Ahuja (4) argue that though an individual has no active role in these social settings, they indirectly influence the experience of the individual in an immediate context. The parent’s job experience has an effect on the family life that directly affects children. These may include the travel requirements, job stresses and the amount of pay. The government may fund agencies that create Microsystems such as libraries and parks. The travel requirements and the life that the parents live as facilitated by their jobs makes many children either to accept and follow the areas of professions as their parents or either reject them. This directly influences the areas of learning and level of education that the individual would be required to attain to have the same life as their parents or different. Macrosystem Thompson (208) argues that macrosystm refers to overarching institutional patterns of the culture or sub-culture. These may include the economic, social, legal, educational and political systems. These systems manifest the micro, meso and exosystems as Thompson elaborates. The system are carriers of information and ideology that has both implicit and explicit endowment meaning and motivation to particular agencies’ social networks, activities, roles and the interrelation between these factors. Paquette and Ryan (2) argue that laws, culture, customs are well portrayed in this layer, and encompass all the other layers. For example; culture provides that parents be responsible for providing their children. Though culture does not provide resources, it affects the patterns in which the children function. It affects the parent’s ability or inability to carry out this responsibility within the microsystem context. Lifestyles and opportunity structures are developed in this level and goes beyond the labels of culture in indentifying more specific social and psychological features at the macrosystem level that affect occurrence of particular conditions at the microsystem level (Bronfebrenner, 40). Chronosystems The passage of time has shown to be important in defining development of a person. Time is considered as an attribute of growth in human beings, and as a property of the surrounding environment not only in the life course of the individual but also across the historical perspective (Bronfebrenner, 40). The change over time is not only in the characteristics of the developing person, but also the surrounding environment in which the individual lives affects the development of the individual. These changes might include change over the life course of a family structure, the socioeconomic status, place of residence and ability in everyday life. As Ahuja (2) argues, the disruptive effects of divorce in a family might peak one year after the divorce, affecting the children, with sons being more affected than daughters. Watts, Duncan and Cockcroft (507) argue that time entails the partnering of environmental events and transitions over the life span. The effects of death of a loved one gradually decrease as time goes by. Also women who are born and brought up today are more focused on fighting for the development of women, compared to women of previous years. These developmental issues are facilitated by time or the chronosytem. Application Applying these levels to a particular case scenario for a person studying a masters in Human services, the microssytm stage affected through the behavior of being considerate to others as impacted by parents and the communal upbringing, that impacts value of belonging to a set of structure that takes care of one another. In the mesosystem stage, the teacher- parent relationship and interaction in the early years of schooling impacted confidence, the urge to succeed and a better performance through close nurturing by the two microsystems. The exosystem level affected in that having visited areas such as hospitals and other human service departments, the urge of being a human service provider was influenced by the operations of these departments. This was more influenced by relatives who work in similar departments. The cultural values and customs that attach more value on the cause of humanity, and value the human life in the society were the impetus under the macrosystem level to becoming a human service provider. The microssytem settings at this stage were very crucial in making this decision and the government passed laws that have led to many NGOs and the government funded service departments in the community. A the chronosystem level, the passage of time and the observation of human suffering in major disasters in life has further been the motivation to pursue studies in human service, to be in a position to manage and assist people in similar disasters in future. This was further influenced by an experienced disaster in an earthquake that clearly portrayed the essence of human services in the community. The career goals in future after attaining a master’s degree would be to be in a position to mange teams and other organization bodies that take care of human services in case of disasters or as a general routine work to determine the needs of a society. Bronfenbrenner in hi s levels of development goes further to explain the effects of child environment upbringing to the values, beliefs and the characteristics of behaviors that a child adopts in their behaviors as a result of the interaction between the various levels of development. The ecological theory of development describes the development of a child to maturity by considering and evaluating the environmental factors and other external influences that are pertinent in the individual’s environment. The theory goes beyond the emotional and thinking aspects that have been critically researched in previous theories, to determine the cause of these attributes. Therefore, the theory looks at both the causes and strengths of an individual in relation to their environment at several levels. Bronfenbrenner’s theory of ecological framework in child development is more elaborative and more descriptive of the child development stages compared to other development theories. Work cited Ahuja, Yukti. Bronfebrenner Ecological theory http://www.mymontessoriacademy.com/newsletters/websitebronfenbrennerecologicaltheory.pdf 3 Nov. 2011 Bronfebrenner, Urie, Ecological models of human development. International Encyclopedia of Education, Vol. 3, 2nd ed. Oxford: Elservier, 1994. Paquette, Dede and Ryan, John. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory. National-Louise University. http://pt3.nl.edu/paquetteryanwebquest.pdf 3 Nov. 2011 Thompson, Linda. Young bilingual children in nursery school. NY: Multilingual Matters ltd, 2000 Watts, Jacki, Duncan, Norman and Cockcraft, Kate. Developmental psychology. Cape Town: UCT Press, 2009. Read More