UNIT 1 : THEORIES AND

THEORIST
“​
Our highest human endeavours must be to develop free
human beings who are able to themselves to impart purpose
and direction to their lives​
”
(Steiner, 1996)
 Outline of 20th Century Theories
INDEX: ​

■ Psychoanalytical Theories
◻ Psychosexual: Sigmund Freud
◻ Psychosocial: Erik Erikson

■ Behavioral & Social Learning Theories

◻ Behaviorism: Classical Conditioning -
John Watson & Operant Conditioning -
B.F. Skinner
◻ Social Learning - Albert Bandera

■ Biological Theories

■ Cognitive Theories
◻ Cognitive Development: Jean Piaget
◻ Socio-cultural: Lev Vygotsky

■ Systems Theories
◻ Ecological Systems: Urie Bronfenbrenner
 1. PSYCHOANALYTICAL THEORIES
Beliefs focus on the formation of personality. Main goal is understand
children’s behaviour. According to this approach, children move through
various stages, confronting conflicts between biological drives and social
expectations. This approach reckons the importance of early experiences.

FREUD’S THEORY OF PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT

Biography

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was born in May 6th 1856 in Moravia (Czech
Republic). Because of his family situation, the curiosity woke up in him and he
sharpened his intelligence. His few economic resources and little prospects of
improving his situation, made to desist from his
career as a researcher and decided to live as a
doctor.

Theory

He emphasized that a child’s personality is

formed by the ways which his parents managed
his sexual and aggressive drives.

There are two main aspects to Freud’s theories:

1. To Freud personality has three structures: id, ego and superego

● Id: The largest portion of the

mind, is the source of basic
biological needs and desires.
The id dominates early life and
behaviour. It is primitive part of
personality. It is formed by
biological needs, desires or
instincts seeking immediate
gratification.

● Ego: It is a more realistic awareness of self and the world, which develops
with the child. The ego is the conscious, rational part of personality,
emerges in early infancy to redirect the id’s impulses.

● Super Ego: Between 3 and 6 years of age, the superego, or conscience,

develops as a result of teaching parents and society. The superego is a
more developed part of personality which involves moral reasoning. Now
the ego faces the increasingly complex task of reconciling the demands of
the id, the external word and the conscience. For example, the id impulse to
 grab an attractive toy from a playmate versus the superego’s awareness
that such behaviour is wrong.

According to Freud, the relations established between id, ego and superego
during the preschool years determinate the individual’s basic personality.

2. Psychosexual development, which stresses the importance of early

childhood relationships for healthy development, linking early sexual
behaviour to parts of the body (oral, anal and genital) and the difficulty of
balancing the basic needs in early childhood. If parents strike and
appropriate balance, children grow into well-adjusted adults with the capacity for
mature sexual behaviour and investment in family life.

Freud´s Psychosexual Stages

● Oral Stage (Birth-1 year): Pleasure centers around the mouth. If oral
needs are not et through sucking from breast or bottle, the individual may
develop such habits as thumb sucking, fingernail biting, or smoking.

● Anal Stage (1-3 years): Toddlers and preschoolers enjoy holding and
realising urine and feces. Toilet training becomes major problem between
parents and children. If parents toilet train before children are ready or
make too few demands, conflicts about anal control may appear in the form
of extreme discipline or disorder.

● Phallic Stage (3-6 years): Children take pleasure in genital stimulation;

they feel sexual desire for the other-sex parent. Freud’s Oedipus conflict for
boys and Electra conflict for girls arise. To avoid punishment, they give up
this desire and adopt the same-sex parent’s characteristics and values.

● Latency Stage (6-11 years): Children sexual instincts die and they
acquires new social values from adults and same-sex partners outside their
family.

● Genital (Adolescence): With puberty, the sexual instincts reappear and it

extends through adulthood. Successful development during earlier stages
leads to marriage, mature sexuality, and child rearing.

An evaluation

Freud’s theories have received much criticism for three main reasons: because of
the emphasis on sexual feelings in early development; because his theories failed
to take into account cultural influences and could not be applied in other context;
because he developed a theory of childhood by studying adults. However, his
theories remain important because they were the first theories which recognised
the importance of early experiences on future adult life and development, and also
because they were developed and modified by other psychoanalysts, such as Erik
Erikson.

Know a little more about Oedipus complex

This complex appears in the children when they are between 3 and 7 years old
(phallic stage). Boys tend to be attracted by their mother and begin to show
hostility towards their father and same happens with girls, they tend to be attracted
by their father and begin to show hostility towards their mother. Over time, this
trend disappears, when boys start to identify with the dad, and the girls with the
mom.

How can we deal with Oedipus complex in class?

Your attitude is important for the child to identify with his sexual role and to
understand family relationships.

• First of all, consider this complex as normal and passenger in their development.

• Don’t make fun of him. For him it’s a very serious issue even though for you, may
be funny sometimes.

• Don’t get into his game. He is confused and you must help him. If he tells he
wants to marry you, tell him that, that’s impossible because you’re married to dad
and when he grows up, he will meet a girl that he’s going to fall in love
with, like dad with you. (We would do the exact same thing with girls).

Over time, the child’s feeling toward his father evolves and they pass from rejection
to admiration. It’s when the child begins to identify as a man and takes his father
(or mother in case of girls) as a model.
ERIK ERIKSON PSYCHOSOCIAL THEORY (1902-1994)

Several of Freud’s followers took what was useful from his theory and improved on
his vision. The most important is Erik Erikson (1902-1994), who expanded the
picture of development at each stage. In his psychosocial theory, Erikson
emphasized that in addition to mediating between id impulses and superego
demands, the ego makes a positive contribution to development, acquiring
attitudes and skills that make the individual an active, contributing member of
society.

He was one of the first to recognize the lifespan nature of development. Also he
emphasized that at each stage, the child acquires attitudes and skills resulting
from the successful negotiation of the psychological conflict.

Unlike Freud, Erikson pointed that normal development must be understood in

relation to each culture’s life situation. For example, in 1940s, he observed that in
Yurok Indians of the U.S northwest coast deprived newborns of breastfeeding for
the first 10 days, instead feeding them a thin soup. At age 6 months, infants were
abruptly eating solid. From our cultural point of view, these practises may seem
curel. But Erikson explained that because the Yurok depended on salmon, which
fill the river just once a year, eating solid by that time is essential for survival.

Erikson 8 Stages:

● Trust vs. mistrust – From warm, responsive care, infants gain a sense of
trust that the world is good. Mistrust occurs if infants are neglected or
handled harshly. So in infancy is where trust provides physical comfort and
a lifetime of expectant trust is begun.

● Autonomy vs. shame/doubt – one to three years – Using new mental

and motor skills, children want to decide for themselves. Begin to discover
that their behaviour is their own and begin to assert independence. Parents
can foster autonomy by permitting reasonable free choice and not forcing
or shaming the child – overpunishment could produce shame and doubt.

● Initiative vs. guilt – preschool years – Through make-believe play, children

gain insight into the person they can become. Initiative –a sense of
ambition and responsibility- develops when parents support their child’s
sense of purpose. Child begins to assert oneself and assume
responsibility. If parents demand too much self-control, children experience
excessive guilt and anxiousness since due to his short life he can give them
what they want.

● Industry vs. inferiority – elementary school years – At school, children

learn to work and cooperate with others. Inferiority develops when negative
experiences at home, at school, or with peers lead to feelings of
incompetence.
● Identity vs. identity confusion – adolescence and role exploration – By
exploring values and vocational goals, the young person forms a personal
identity. The negative outcome is confusion about future adult roles. This
means, in this exploration, authoritarian demands by parents to assume a
chosen role can lead to identity confusion.

● Intimacy vs. isolation – Young adults establish intimate relationships.

Because of earlier disappointments, some individuals cannot form close
bonds and remain isolated. In early adulthood, achieving a relationship in
which one “loses oneself” in another.

● Generativity vs. stagnation – In middle adulthood, developing meaningful

and useful lives versus stagnation in having done nothing for future
generations. Generativity means giving to the next generation through child
rearing, caring for others, or productive work. The person who fails in these
ways feels an absence of meaningful accomplishment.

● Integrity vs. despair – In later years, the person retroactively views his or
her life positively or negatively, which affects the condition of their psyche in
old age. Integrity results from feeling that life was worth living as it
happened. Older people who are dissatisfied with their lives fear death.
2. BEHAVIORAL AND SOCIAL
LEARNING THEORIES

Beliefs that describe the importance of the environment and nurturing in

the growth of a child. Develoment is observable behavior that can be
learned through experience with the environment.

They were developed as a response to psychoanalytical theories. It is

described as a more scientific approach

Behaviorism became the dominant view from the 1920's to 1960's.

JOHN WATSON’S CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

Biography

John Broadus Watson was an American psychologist who

established the psychological school of behaviorism.
Watson conducted research on animal behavior, child
rearing, and advertising. He also published several reviews
and surveys. He was born in Greenville ( South Carolina ) in
1978 and he died in NY in 1958.

Theory

Watson developed the conductivism, which nowadays

constitutes one of the main psychological sources and
applies many therapies with high effectivity.
In 1913 Watson published the project that has been considered the most important
of his life. “ Psychology from a conductist point of view “ . This work is really
important for behaviorism and in it, Watson describes generally the ideas of which
will be his new philosophy.

He based his work on Pavlov's experiments on the digestive system of dogs.

(​
Pavlov’s classical conditioning – A neutral stimulus (the bell) acquires the ability to
produce a response originally produced by another stimulus (food)).
The behaviorism emphatizes the observable conduct ( human and animal ), which
considers to be subject of psychology research and the relation between stimulus
and answer,​ more than the mental intern status of the people.
He conclude that children are passive beings who can be molded by controlling
the stimulus-response associations.

SKINNER OPERANT CONDITIONING

(1904-1990) An American behaviorist who developed a system based on

operant conditioning​
. "Operant Conditioning" is the idea that we behave the
way we do because this kind of behavior has had certain consequences in the
past.

The work of Skinner was rooted in a view that classical conditioning was far too
simplistic to be a complete explanation of complex human behavior. He believed
that the best way to understand behavior is to look at the causes of an action and
its consequences. He called this approach operant conditioning.
Skinner stands out in the history of psychology as a great system builder. His
greatest contribution was his description of effects of reinforcement on responses.
Skinner related these findings to individuals as well as social groups

Operant Conditioning deals with operants - intentional actions that have an effect
on the surrounding environment. Skinner set out to identify the processes which
made certain operant behaviours more or less likely to occur.

Skinner introduced a new term Reinforcement​ . Behavior which is reinforced

tends to be repeated (i.e. strengthened); behavior which is not reinforced tends to
die out-or be extinguished (i.e. weakened).

Skinner identified three types of responses or operant that can follow behavior.

• Neutral operants​ : responses from the environment that neither increase

nor decrease the probability of a behavior being repeated.
• Reinforcers​ : Responses from the environment that increase the
probability of a behavior being repeated. Reinforcers can be either positive
or negative.
• Punishers​ : Responses from the environment that decrease the likelihood
of a behavior being repeated. Punishment weakens behavior.
We can all think of examples of how our own behavior has been affected by
reinforcers and punishers. As a child you probably tried out a number of behaviors
and learned from their consequences.

For example, if when you were younger you tried smoking at school, and the chief
consequence was that you got in with the crowd you always wanted to hang out
with, you would have been positively reinforced (i.e. rewarded) and would be likely
to repeat the behavior. If, however, the main consequence was that you were
caught, caned, suspended from school and your parents became involved you
would most certainly have been punished, and you would consequently be much
less likely to smoke now.

Positive reinforcement strengthens a behavior by providing a consequence an

individual finds rewarding. For example, if your teacher gives you £5 each time you
complete your homework (i.e. a reward) you will be more likely to repeat this
behavior in the future, thus strengthening the behavior of completing your
homework.

The removal of an unpleasant reinforcer can also strengthen behavior. This is

known as negative reinforcement because it is the removal of an adverse stimulus
which is ‘rewarding’ to the animal or person. Negative reinforcement strengthens
behavior because it stops or removes an unpleasant experience.
For example​ , if you do not complete your homework, you give your teacher £5.
You will complete your homework to avoid paying £5, thus strengthening the
behavior of completing your homework.

Punishment is defined as the opposite of reinforcement since it is designed to

weaken or eliminate a response rather than increase it. It is an aversive event that
decreases the behavior that it follows

Like reinforcement, punishment can work either by directly applying an unpleasant

stimulus like a shock after a response or by removing a potentially rewarding
stimulus, for instance, deducting someone’s pocket money to punish undesirable
behavior.

Note​ : It is not always easy to distinguish between punishment and negative

reinforcement.

There are many problems with using punishment, such as:

● Punished behavior is not forgotten, it's suppressed - behavior returns when

punishment is no longer present.
● Causes increased aggression - shows that aggression is a way to cope
with problems.
● Creates fear that can generalize to undesirable behaviors, e.g., fear of
school.
● Does not necessarily guide toward desired behavior - reinforcement tells
you what to do, punishment only tells you what not to do.

How to applicate behaviourism theory in our class

Using behaviorist theory in the classroom can be rewarding for both students and
teachers. Behavioral change occurs for a reason; many students work for things
that bring them positive feelings, and for approval from their peers. They may
change their behaviors to satisfy the desires they have learned to value. They
generally avoid behaviors they associate with unpleasantness and develop
habitual behaviors from those that are repeated often. The entire rationale of
behavior modification is that most behavior is learned. If behaviors can be learned,
then they can also be unlearned or relearned. Behavior is something that an
individual has learned and does repeatedly. When there is a change or interruption
in their environment, then there will be a change in the students’ behavior.

A practical example, could be, during 'listening time' on the carpet, pupils are
required to remain quiet and put their hand up when they want to make a vocal
contribution to the class. When a child manages to sit and behave in the exemplary
way, the teacher may say, 'Great effort, Jamie' or, 'Well done, Louise - just like I
asked'. Undoubtedly, the student will feel pleased with themselves after getting
such a positive response. The feeling of pride and self-satisfaction is one they are
going to want to emulate in the future, and so they are likely to behave well during
'listening time' from here onwards.
SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY ​
ALBERT BANDURA

Albert Bandura (1952-2011) is a Canadian psychologist who was the principal

representative of the social learning theory. He agrees with the behaviourist
learning theories of classical conditioning and operant conditioning​
. However, he
adds two important ideas:

1. Behavior is learned from the environment through the process of

observational learning. Observational learning is a process in which
learning occurs through observing and imitating others
2. Recognised the role of cognition in behavior, since four important elements
are essential for effective observational learning: attention, motor skills,
motivation and memory

.
Albert Bandura's social learning theory suggests that in addition to learning
through conditioning, people also learn through observing and imitating the actions
of others.

Through his observation of children and his famous research using the bobo doll
experiment, Bandura identified the role of imitation, modelling and self regulation.

The bobo doll experiment was designed by Bandura to try to prove that children
imitate the behavior of an adult model. A stuffed doll air but gets the vertical
position when the children strike. Bobo has the face of a clown.He organized a
group of preschoolers and divided them into three groups:The first one , saw as an
adult hit the doll,so these children they acted in the same manner. The second saw
the adult without damaging the doll and playing with other things. So this group,
they saw peaceful games and therefore did not attack the clown.The last group,
did not see anything,serving as a control group.These two last,they acted in the
same peaceful manner.Through this experiment was also observed that children
copied more aggressive behavior when someone is performing the same gender,
and also repeated aggressive behavior in boys was much higher than that of
women.It was also experiment with real clowns and the result was the same.
Bandura undertook a variety of different studies using the Bobo doll and
established that the modelling process required the learner to:

● Be attentive
● Retain the image: that is, to remember the behaviour
● Reproduce the behaviour
● Be motivated and wish to imitate the behaviour. This motivation could be
because the behaviour has been reinforced through punishment or reward
in the past, or because there are future incentives expected, or because the
behaviour has been seen to be reinforced with others.

For Bandura Individuals that are observed are called models​ . In society, children
are surrounded by many influential models, such as parents within the family,
characters on children’s TV, friends within their peer group and teachers at school.
Theses models provide examples of behavior to observe and imitate, e.g.
masculine and feminine, pro and anti-social etc.

We can apply this theory in class, for example, teachers will read books during
quiet reading time, to encourage children to read, or be in silence so students
imitate they saying nothing.

We can conclude adding that one of the ways a child has to learn is by
imitating adults behaviours. This learning will be more significant if the
behaviour is reinforced positively.
3. BIOLOGICAL THEORIES
The biological approach believes us to be as a consequence of our genetics and
physiology. It is the only approach in psychology that examines thoughts, feelings,
and behaviors from a biological and thus physical point of view.
Therefore, all that is psychological is first physiological. All thoughts, feeling &
behaviour ultimately have a biological cause.

4. COGNITIVE THEORIES
Cognitive psychology is the study of mental processes such as "​ attention​
,
language use, memory​ , perception​
, problem solving, creativity​, and thinking​.
These theories describe how children learn and focuses on children’s conscious
thoughts.

JEAN PIAGET

The most influential theorist in the study of cognitive development was Jean
Piaget, who was born in 1896 and died in 1980.

Piaget’s theory is often described as a constructivist view.

According to constructivists​ ,people interpret their environments and
experiences in light of the knowledge and experiences they already have. People
do not simply take in an external reality and develop an unchanged, exact mental
copy of objects or events. Instead, they build (or “construct”) their own individual
understandings and knowledge. For Piaget, the essential building block for
cognition is the ​
scheme​ .

A scheme is an organized pattern of action or thought. It is a broad concept and

can refer to organized patterns of physical action (such as an infant reaching to
grasp an object), or mental action (such as a high school student thinking about
how to solve an algebra problem). As children interact with the environment,
individual schemes become modified, combined, and reorganized to form more
complex cognitive structures.

Piaget believed that extensive interaction with the environment is absolutely

essential for each person’s cognitive development. Though Piaget acknowledged
that biological maturation sets the general limits within which cognitive
development occurs, he placed much more emphasis on the rol of the
environment​ . Children who have severely limited interactions with their
environments simply will not have the opportunities to develop and reorganize their
cognitive structures so as to achieve mature ways of thinking.
To Piaget intellectual growth involves three fundamental processes:

Assimilation involves the incorporation of new events into pre-existing

cognitive structures.

Accommodation existing structures change to accommodate to the new

: information. This dual process,
assimilation-accommodation, enables the child to form the
schema.

Equilibration: involves the person striking a balance between themselves

and the environment, between assimilation and
accommodation.

Let’s explore this process using the example of Lily, a 2-year-old who is learning to
name animals, shown in Figure 5.1. Lily has a dog at home, and according to her
“doggie scheme,” “doggies” are animals that have four feet and fur and that bark
and fetch balls. One day, riding in the car with her mother, Lily points to a field with
several cows and exclaims, “Look, Mommy, doggies!” She is excited to see so
many “doggies,” especially ones so large! We can see that Lily is trying to
understand these new animals by thinking about them as some-thing she already
understands: “doggies.” This is an example of assimilation, the process of
bringing new objects or information into a scheme that already exists.

Thinking of these new animals as “doggies,” Lily fully expects that they will also
bark and fetch balls. Such misunderstandings are common when we try to force
new objects into ill-fitting schemes. Her mother, however, comments, “No, those
are cows. They are bigger than dogs. And see the udders underneath? Cows give
us milk.” These comments place Lily into cognitive disequilibrium—she is
confused. Lily realizes that she has never seen udders under dogs and also has
never seen dogs that large. To resolve her cognitive conflict, Lily adjusts her
understanding of animals. She adds new information about dogs (they are smaller
and don’t give us milk), and she learns a new animal (cows are like dogs but
larger, and they give milk). These adjustments are examples of accommodation,
the process of modifying old schemes, or creating new ones, to fit better with
assimilated information. Now Lily can properly identify dogs and cows, and her
new success in naming the animals moves her into cognitive equilibrium. Lily
 remains in cognitive equilibrium until she visits the zoo and encounters a new
animal: an elephant. How will she assimilate this animal?

Piaget, then, claimed that we try to understand new experiences by assimilating

them into the schemes or cognitive structures that we already have. If the
assimilation does not work completely, there is an imbalance between the new
experience and the old scheme. Piaget described this imbalance as a state of
cognitive disequilibrium.

To resolve the disequilibrium, we accommodate, or adjust, our schemes to

provide a better fit for the new experience. If we are successful, we achieve
cognitive equilibrium. Equilibration therefore is the dynamic process of moving
between states of cognitive disequilibrium and equilibrium as we assimilate new
experiences and accommodate schemes.

·
Piaget’s theory identifies four developmental stages and the processes by which
children progress through them. The four stages are:

Sensori-motor stage (o-18 It is the earliest stage of cognition. The child

month) builds their early ideas about reality through
physical interaction with their environment. their
first ideas about the world are action schemas.
They assimilate information through their senses
and via experiences. They start to build up
mental pictures of the world but they do not know
that physical objects remain in existence even
when out of sight.

Preoperational stage (ages During which children develop their early ideas
18 month-7 years): including mental imagery and thinking skills,
although their thinking is very uncoordinated and
irrational. It is also during this stage that
language develops. The child is not yet able to
think abstractly and needs concrete physical
situations.

Concrete operations (ages Children’s thinking gradually becomes more

7-11 years): coordinated, rational and adult-like. Children can
think logically if they can manipulate the object
that they are thinking about. Abstract problem
solving is also possible at this stage. For
example, arithmetic equations can be solved
with numbers, not just with objects.

Formal operations By this point, the child’s cognitive structures are

(beginning at ages 11-15): like those of an adult, their thinking becomes
more abstract and logical and children are able
to solve mental problems.

Piaget convinced the field that children are active learners whose minds consist
of rich structures of knowledge.

Piaget’s work has been extensively criticised over the years by those who
continued to work in the area, such as Lev Vygostky. Some of his findings were
found to be incorrect, especially with regard to the ages at which children develop
cognitively.

The constructivist classroom

In the constructivist classroom, the focus tends to shift from the teacher to the
students. The classroom is no longer a place where the teacher ("expert") pours
knowledge into passive students, who wait like empty vessels to be filled. In the
constructivist model, the students are urged to be actively involved in their own
process of learning.

Students construct new understandings using what they already know, and prior
knowledge influences what new or modified knowledge they will construct form
new learning experiences.

VYGOTSKY’S SOCIOCULTURAL THEORY

Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) was a Russian

teacher, psychologist and philosopher.
Vygotsky’s theory has been especially
influential in the study of children’s cognition.
Vygostky agreed with Piaget that children are
active, constructive beings. But whereas
Piaget emphasized children’s independent
effort to make sense of their world, Vygotsky
viewed cognitive development as a socially
mediated process, in which children depend
on assistance from adults to acquire new
knowledge. His ideas have had a great
impact on educational developments in
number of areas:

The central theme in Vygotsky’s theory is that

children acquire cognitive structures
from their culture and from their social
interactions of skill adults.

He identified the zone of proximal development (ZPD), or the difference

between tested levels of cognitive development and potential development that
can be achieved through interaction with adults. This zone is the difference
between the things that a child can do without help and the things that a child can’t
do by his own and needs guidance and encouragement from another person like
his parents or teacher.
Vygotsky coined the term Scaffolding, which consists in providing supportive
help when a child is developing a mental function or learning to do a particular
task. Think about a building being constructed, and picture the supports that the
builders set up during the construction process. These scaffolds support the
workers until they complete the building. Cognitive scaffolds do exactly the same
thing—they provide support for children as they develop the cognitive processes
needed for a particular task.

He believed there was a strong interrelationship between language and thought

and that speech was a tool developed in a social context which becomes a vehicle
for thought.

How to apply social constructivism in the classroom

In social constructivist classrooms collaborative learning is a process of peer

interaction that is mediated and structured by the teacher. Discussion can be
promoted by the presentation of specific concepts, problems or scenarios, and is
guided by means of effectively directed questions, the introduction and clarification
of concepts and information, and references to previously learned material.
5. SYSTEMS THEORIES
ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS THEORY

Urie Bronfenbrenner (1917-2005) was born in

Russia and went to live in the Usça at the age
of 6. He graduated in developmental
psychology and continued his research in the
area, putting forward theories and providing
advice on the implications and applications of
his theories. His ecological systems theory
views the child as developing within a complex
social system, affected by relationships and the
surrounding environments.

These environments extend beyond home, school and the local community, as
follows:

● Microsystem: This is the closest system to the individual child and

involves the child’s immediate surroundings; their immediate family, their
immediate carers and the community in which they live and play. The
microsystem influences the child’s behaviour, although not their innate
characteristics (physical attributes, personality, abilities).

● Mesosystem: This system involves interactions between the child’s

microsystem, such as home, school, neighborhood...Which affect the
child’s social and psychological development. For example, a child’s
academic progress depends not just on activities that take place in
classrooms but also on parent involvement in school life and on the extent
to which academic learning is carried over into the home.

● Exosystem: The exosystem consists of social settings that do not contain

children but that nevertheless affect children’s experiences in immediate
settings. It involves child’s extended family (grandparents, aunts, uncles),
friends, neighbours, workplace, church and community or health system.
Research has shown that families with few relationships in the exosystem,
affected by unemployment or who are socially isolated, with few personal or
community-based ties, show increased rates of conflict and child abuse.

● Macrosystem: This is the system furthest remove from the individual child
and involves the cultural values, laws, customs and resources which affect
the support children receive in the microsystem. For example, in countries
that require generous workplace benefits for employed parents and
high-quality standards for child care, children are more likely to have
favorable experiences in their immediate settings.
AN EVER-CHANGING SYSTEM​ . According to Bronfenbrenner, the environment
is not a static force that affects children in a uniform way. Instead, it is
ever-changing. Important life events, such as the birth of a sibling, the beginning of
school, a move to a new neighborhood, or parent’s divorce, modify existing
relationships between children and their environments, producing new conditions
that affect development. For example, the arrival of a new sibling has very different
consequences for a homebound toddler that for a school-age child with many
relationships and activities beyond the family. Bronfenbrenner called this temporal
dimension of this mode the ​ chronosystem​ (the prefix chono-means “time”).

This theory, published in 1979, has influenced many psychologists in terms of the
manner of analyzing the person and the effects of different environmental systems
that he encounters. The ecological systems theory has since become an important
theory that became a foundation of other theorists' work.

Although generally well received, Urie Bronfenbrenner's models have encountered

some criticism throughout the years. Most criticism centered around the difficulties
to empirically test the theory and model and the broadness of the theory that
makes it challenging to intervene at an any given level.