Bronfenbrenner Analysis of Ecological Human Development Theory

The ecological theory of development was created by a Russian American psychologist named Urie Bronfenbrenner. He developed the theory based on his belief that all children grow and develop differently based on their environmental factors and the situations surrounding those environmental factors. The theory was comprised of four levels and later a fifth level was added. The microsystem level focused on those factors that immediately surrounded the child. Those factors could include: family, school, neighborhood, and church. Mesosystem level is a connection between two different environments, like school and neighborhood. Those external environmental factors such as the media, government, and extended family and friends are referred to as exosystem. The fourth level of the theory included environmental factors that were tied to cultural beliefs and national economy. The fifth level, chronosystem, was later added by Bronfenbrenner to show that changes occur over time within each individual. In studying these different levels of ecological development, it became clear that each of these levels has influenced my life at different stages. And each level had a different environmental influence on my progress.

In Bronfenbrenner’s model my microsystem consisted of my mother, father, and two younger brothers. My mother always worked full time outside of the home and only had one year of college. In contrast, my father had no college but had graduated from high school. He could not read very well and worked as a construction worker. His medical problems were many and he was diagnosed as disabled for most of my childhood. One of my brothers was only fifteen months younger than me, and the other was five and a half years younger.

The nex...

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...rsue a second masters in career counseling. I just recently got to the final stages of a job offer as a career counselor and was not offered the position. When asked for feedback about my interview, I was told that although my resume and interview was very impressive and I was among the top 3 candidates, I was not chosen because of my lack of direct education and experience as a counselor. So this just confirmed my decision that I have chosen the right time pursue another masters degree.

Works Cited

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Unviersity Press.

Crandell, T.L., Crandell, C.H., & Vander Zanden, J.W. (2009). Human Development (9th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill highter Education.

Paquette, D., Ryan, J. (nd) Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory. Retrieved from http://pt3.nl.edu/paquetteryanwebquest.pdf