Personal Development and the Ecological Model
Liberty University
Abstract
Urie Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory of development revolves around the concept that an individual is impacted by several distinct relationships during their lifetime. According to this theory, these relationships are broken down into five levels that represent an individual’s five major interactions during their life; microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem. These five systems are based on the ecological theory that these continually changing environmental systems impact the individual throughout childhood and into adulthood. This paper will demonstrate Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory of development by looking at how it shaped this author’s development and influenced the direction that was taken in her life.
In addition to Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory of development, this paper will apply the ‘At-Risk Tree’ metaphor in order to better understand the issues that this author was at risk for during her childhood and adolescent years and which influences impacted whether the author’s tree bore fruit or was barren. The ecological model and the At-Risk Tree metaphor will be presented in a parallel manner in order to give better perspective to how these two models are good indicators for detecting at risk influences in an individual’s development.
Analysis Paper One:
Personal Development and the Ecological Model Ever wondered how the world around us impacts how a child develops? Well, Urie Bronfenbrenner did and he proposed a concept called the Ecological Systems theory which holds that individuals grow and develop within five different levels of interacting systems (McWhirter, McWhirter, McWhirter, & McWhiter, 2013). These five levels of relationship are identified as the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and the chronosystem with the individual at the center (McWhirter, et al., 2013).
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