Bronfenbrenner

bioecological model
– the 3 theory
rd
LYNDA TURNER
Recap

 Vygotsky – focus on learning relationships

 Can things beyond the dyad have an influence on learning?
 E.g. School policies, class sizes (local influences)
 CoP – focus on community membership and identity
 Can things beyond the community have an influence ?
 E.g. Government policies or funding (wider influences)
Think back to the TED talk at
the start of the module
 What is the most important thing in child development?
 Western audiences – attachment, play mates, school, trust funds!
 Westerners tend to think of the child “floating in space” – how has this
shaped the developmental research methods which isolate the child from
their context?
 Critical question - Where in the world is the child ( or person) ?
A distributed explanation

• Human behaviour varies according to where you are

• The psychology of a person is shaped by experience in
context
• Provides a framework for psychologists to examine
the individual’s relationships within communities and
wider society – useful for policy?
• Research should consider context as well as the
individual
Pre lecture activity

 Reflect on who you were as a person 10 years ago. What

things did you like doing, who did you interact with, what
places did you go to, what societal restrictions were there as
a consequence of your age or gender? Then think about
your life now. What has changed and what has stayed the
same? Development is a life long process and
Bronfenbrenner's theory can provide a framework to think
about this. 
Reflection

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Dv2Hdf5TRg 
 Think about the ways in which context affects development
 If you were making policy recommendations to the
government what would you suggest?
Importance of relationships

 “ every kid needs at least one adult who is crazy about him”
 Child needs progressively more complex, reciprocal activity
with one or more persons with whom they develop a strong
bond
 These connections enhance the child’s responsiveness to
other features in the environment that invite exploration,
elaboration and imagination – which in turn accelerates the
child’s psychological growth
Proximal influences

 Regular and reciprocal interaction between the individual

and persons, objects and symbols in the immediate
environment. Interaction must be enduring over a period of
time (link to Vygotsky)
 Proximal processes are the “primary engines of
development”
 Family, school, friends, work place – development is life
long!
Distal influences

 These close relationships are influenced by the principal

settings in which children and parents live their lives – the
home, child care facilities, school, the parents place of work
 There should be ongoing patterns of exchange between
these settings and a sense of mutual engagement and trust
 At a wider level children and parents should also be
supported by public policies and practices which provide
stability, status and recognition to child rearing activities
The Context

Relationships Desirable
Activities

Government

Tools

National culture
 Introducing complexity –
ecological theory
‘development is defined as the
phenomenon of continuity and change in
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 2001
 The systems
 The microsystem
 The intimate social and immediate physical
environmental setting of the person and could
be thought of as the personal relationships and
activities in which they engage
 The mesosystem
 The network of relationships which constitute
the microsystems in a person’s life, it represents
the connections between these systems
 Systems cont’d
The exosystem
 The larger community setting in which an individual lives and
might be the employers of parents, access to facilities, public
transport
The Macrosystem
 The societal blue-print, that is the values and culture of a
given society, the political landscape, the prevailing religious
imperatives etc.
The Chronosystem
 Environmental events and transitions over the life course, as
well as socio historical circumstances.
Person-context-task

 Person – how you look, your emotions, your physical

abilities, your engagement
 Context – the people in the context, the practices in the
context, the purpose of the context
 Task – the nature of the task, the goals of the task
 These interact in non-predictable and individual ways to
construct psychology
Post lecture activities

 Check out the reading on Brightspace

 E book Bronfenbrenner “The Ecology of Human
Development”
 Use the reading guidelines to help you
 Prepare for the seminar to apply Bronfenbrenner to your life
 Look at the assignment guidelines/issues