Urie Bronfenbrenner (1917 – 2005) was a Russian- born American psychologist who is renowned for his ecological systems theory, which is also known as “human ecological theory” and “development in context” (and sometimes the bio- ecological systems theory, with individual biology being considered a sixth system; see below) and which he first described in his 1979 book The Ecology of Human Development: Experiments by Nature and Design. Simply put, this theory views human development in terms of an “ecological system,” which can thus be divided into five subsystems, or “layers of environment,” which he regarded as important in understanding the development of the human being from childhood to adulthood. These “layers” may be defined as follows:
Each of these systems influences the individual’s psychological development in its own way. For instance, with regard to macrosystems, poor inner- city families experience more social problems than rural or urban middle- class families. The systems are so intricately intwined that conflict in one adversely affects all the others.
Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory has influenced the thinking of psychologists throughout the world ever since the scientist first put it forth, particularly in the field of child and youth care, where such models as the ecological onion, cube, and umbrella models have been based on Bronfenbrenner’s theory. The first of these “…reflects an ecological perspective, wherein consideration is given to the reciprocal interactions between human development and the multiple environments in which it occurs.”
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