THE ECOLOGICAL MODEL OF BRONFENBRENNER - PSYCHOLOGY - 2025

The ecological model of Bronfenbrenner is an environmental focus on the development of the individual through the different environments in which it operates. The different environments in which people participate directly influence their change and their cognitive, moral and relational development.

From this point of view, a high importance is attached to environmental factors. In other words, people are born with a series of genetic attributes that develop based on the individual's contact with the environment.

Ecological theory of development of Bronfenbrenner. Source: Hchokr / Pubic domain

This model is one of the most used today in psychology; it can be applied in all its fields and related to other sciences. It is based on the fact that human development occurs in the interaction between genetic variables and the environment, determining a series of basic systems that make up personal relationships.

Characteristics of the ecological model

Urie bronfenbrenner

The Bronfenbrenner ecological model was designed and produced by Urie Bronfenbrenner. This Russian psychologist born in 1917 in Moscow, began the theory of environmental systems that influence people and their development as a human being.

This theory appeared in response to traditional research during the past century, which was based on highly clinical laboratory contexts that did not allow the study of situations and behaviors developed in real life.

Bronfenbrenner's ecological model postulated a more comprehensive, systemic, and naturalistic view of psychological development. Understanding this as a complex process that responds to the influence of a great variety of factors closely linked to the environment.

Bronfenbrenner's basic postulate is that natural environments are the main source of influence on human behavior, and therefore, on the psychological development of people.

Today, Bronfenbrenner's ecological model is one of the most widely accepted theories in the field of modern evolutionary psychology.

The model determines a series of environmental structures at different levels in which the human being develops. These structures come into contact with people from the moment they are born and accompany them throughout their lives.

Ecological model systems

Scheme of the Bronfenbrenner model

Bronfenbrenner's ecological model is characterized by the specification of different detectable systems in people's lives. Each one of these has certain particularities.

Likewise, the model is based on the idea that systems relating to the environment of individuals play a dimensional role. That is, each one of the specified systems contains another one inside.

The four systems that make up the ecological model are: microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem and macrosystem.

- Microsystem

The microsystem determines the level closest to the person. This includes the behaviors, roles and relationships characteristic of the daily contexts in which the individual operates.

It forms the context in which the person is able to interact face to face with others. Specific environments that would be included in the microsystem would be the home, the workplace, relationships with friends, etc.

The main characteristics of this first postulated system in the ecological model are:

Relatively stable

The spaces and environments where people spend most of their day to day tend to be stable. The home, the job, the school, the relationships of friends, etc. they are elements that are not usually subject to great variety.

However, at specific times these can be modified and directly affect the individual. The main elements that can change a person's microsystem are:

Change of residence and of the people with whom one lives, formation of a new family, change of school or job, suffering from an illness that requires hospitalization and change of friends.

The elements of the microsystem feed back

The elements that make up the microsystem of a person include a multitude of variables and factors that interact and feed into each other.

In this way, a child's microsystem at school can directly affect his family microsystem and vice versa. All people are exposed to the fact that the relationships and dynamics established in a close environment can affect others.

Microsystems directly affect the person

The relationships established in microsystems are characterized by being the most influential in the development of the individual.

Depending on what the person does in their day to day, the direct stimuli they receive from the contexts and from the relationship with the people they interact with mark their cognitive, moral, emotional, ethical and behavioral development.

- Mesosystem

The mesosystem comprises the relationships of two or more environments in which the individual participates actively.

Specifically, it refers to the feedback between microsystems previously described. For example, to the interrelation between family and work, or social life and school.

In this way, the mesosystem is understood as a system of microsystems that is formed or expanded when the person enters a new environment.

The main elements that determine the mesosystem are:

Information flow

The mesosystem involves a wide flow of information between microsystems. That is, the individual develops the role of communicator between people who are interrelated by himself.

For example, a child establishes a certain type of communication with the teacher (school microsystem) and with his parents (family microsystem).

The fluctuation of the communications developed in each of the associated microsystems will determine the relationship between these and the development of the individual in each of them.

Behavior empowerment

The mesosystem presents one of the elements that has a greater capacity to influence the personal development of individuals.

This element deals with the empowerment of behaviors. That is, of aspects learned and reinforced in two different microsystems.

For example, if a child is taught to eat with their mouths closed at home and at school, this learning will present twice the potential, as it is reinforced by two different microsystems.

Establishment of partner support

The exosystem includes environments in which the person does not participate in a direct way, but in which events occur that affect the functioning of the individual's environment.

Some examples of these environments would be the partner's workplace, the children's school, the brother's group of friends, etc.

The person does not participate directly in these contexts (although in some they can do so and become a microsystem). Likewise, the changes or alterations produced in these environments usually have repercussions in some way on the individual.

The factors that can be included within the exosystem are:

Third party opinion

The relationships established in the exosystem do not directly concern the person but do indirectly. In this sense, the opinions of others about oneself can modify the development of the individual.

For example, the opinion of the teachers of a person's child, the comments of the couple's friends about oneself, the image offered to acquaintances or people in the neighborhood, etc.

Previous history

These elements refer to acquaintances or relatives from the past that the person has not come to know.

Family and social history (both of oneself and of those close to them) can contextualize one's development and establish some operating premises.

Satisfaction with close relationships

Finally, the relational quality of the individuals closest to a person determine their state of satisfaction.

Likewise, the personal satisfaction of the subjects with whom the day-to-day is shared modulates, in part, the type of relationship established. For this reason, the relationship between third parties indirectly affects the development of the individual.

- Macrosystem

Finally, the macrosystem encompasses all the factors linked to culture and the historical-cultural moment in which the person develops.

According to Bronfenbrenner, in a society the structure and substance of the micro, meso and exosystem tend to be similar. As if these were built from the same master model.

This fact is explained by the enormous influence that the macrosystem produces on the previous systems. Social class, ethnic and religious group, social customs and socio-cultural norms determine, to a large extent, the individual development of each person and the quality of their relationships.

The main aspects that define this last system of the ecological model are:

Government policies

Each region has a series of laws and policies that dictate which behaviors of individuals are allowed and which are penalized.

In this way, a large part of personal development is limited by the norms and laws imposed by the governmental levels of the region in which the individual operates.

Socio-cultural norms

In each context, the functioning of people is implicitly determined by a series of socio-cultural norms.

These norms allow the socialization between individuals and the coexistence between them. Likewise, their objective is to establish operating standards that allow mutual understanding.

Socio-cultural norms vary in each geographic region and especially in each cultural region. The greater the cultural differences between regions, the greater differences can be observed in the individual development of its members.

Social ratings

Beyond the rules, there is a great variety of operating rules that is dictated by the social valuation of the members of the environment.

For example, sitting on the ground in the street is not prohibited behavior. However, it is a socially extravagant element in different contexts.

These infinity of social rules dictate a large part of people's behavior and notably dictate their development.

Criticism of the ecological model

The Bronfenbrenner ecological model provides a detailed analysis of the environmental factors of human development. At present it constitutes one of the most accepted and used theories in the framework of evolutionary psychology, since it allows to analyze in a detailed way the influence of context and environment on personal development.

However, this model has also received a number of criticisms. Especially due to the little attention that theory pays on biological and cognitive factors.

The ecological model explains personal development only through the contextual aspect, which is an element that can be directly intervened.

In this sense, despite the fact that multiple investigations have shown that environmental factors seem to have a greater weight in the development of human beings than biological factors, the existence of the latter cannot be denied.

Each individual is born with a biological part that determines their development and progression. Although genetic elements are often highly vulnerable to the environment, they also seem to play a more or less relevant role in the development of the personality and individual characteristics of the subjects.

Thus, despite the fact that the ecological model is a very good theory to explain individual development, it lacks explanatory elements about the biological differences of people.

References

1. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1976). The ecology of human development: history and perspectives. Psychologia, 19 (5), 537-549.
2. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1977a). Lewinian space and ecological substance. Journal of Social Issues, 33 (4), 199-212.
3. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1977b). Toward an experimental ecology of human development. American Psychologist, 32 (7), 513-531.
4. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of Human Development. Cambridge, Harvard University Press. (Trad. Cast.: The ecology of human development. Barcelona, ​​Ediciones Paidós, 1987).
5. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1986). Ecology of the family as a context for human development: research perspectives. Developmental Psychology, 22 (6), 723-742.
6. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1992). Ecological systems theory. In R. Vasta (Ed.), Six theories of child development: revised formulations and current issues. (Pp 187-249). Bristol: Jessica Kingsley Publisher.
7. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1999). Environments in developmental perspective: theoretical and operational models. In SL Friedman (Ed.),. Measuring environment across the life span: emerging methods and concepts (pp 3-38). Woshington, DC.: American Psychological Association.