The ecological systems model
Microsystem
Child
M
e
sosytem
Exosystem
M
a
crosystem
Bronfenbrenner’s original ecological systems model included increasingly distant influences on individual development. In recent years, the influences of biology and the passage of time were added.
Source: Adapted from Bronfenbrenner, U. (1975). Influences on human development. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 8
Eventually, Bronfenbrenner came to believe that this model was incomplete, that it needed to incorporate the child’s own biological development as well as the influence of time. Referring to time, Bronfenbrenner said that over a lifetime, individuals learn new skills and knowledge at increasing levels of complexity. In addition, at the outer levels of the system, historical periods and their changes needed to be taken into consideration. Important to parents especially was his contention that for a child to develop wholly, he or she requires “a strong, mutual emotional attachment” to one or more people “who are committed to the child’s well-being and development, preferably for life” (Bronfenbrenner, 2005, p. 9, emphasis his). To this requirement for optimum development, he added, “. . . and when available, staff members of family support and child care programs” (p. 11). The most recent versions of the ecological systems model incorporate an outer ring termed the chronosystem, which indicates the importance of the continuing, yet changing, nature of time and its effect on “the biopsychological characteristics of human beings both as individuals and as groups. The phenomenon extends over the life course across successive generations and through historical time, both past and present (Bronfenbrenner, 2005, p. 3, emphasis his). This more complex new model may now be termed bioecological systems model.
Bronfenbrenner has been credited with influencing much of today’s understanding of the complex interactions between child, home, center, school, community, and the larger society. Directly, or indirectly, his work has contributed to what you will read in the upcoming sections of this chapter.