The Many Contexts of Human Development

We often think of development as originating within the individual – the result of such internal factors as genetic programming, physical maturation, cognitive growth, and personal choices. However, development is also greatly influenced by forces outside the individual, by the physical surroundings and social interactions that provide incentives, opportunities, and pathways for growth. Taken as a whole, these external forces are the context of development.

Calling attention to these external influences more than twenty-five years ago, Urie Bronfenbrenner, a leading developmental researcher, began to emphasize what he calls an ecological approach to the study of human development. In essence, this approach regards human development as a “joint function of person and environment”. Thus, just as a naturalist studying a flower or a fish needs to examine the organism’s supporting ecosystems, Bronfenbrenner argues, developmentalists need to study the ecological systems, or contexts, in which each human being seeks to thrive.

To depict the main ecosystems that support human development, Bronfenbrenner has devised an ecological model that organizes the broad contexts of development in terms of the relative immediacy of their impact on the individual. At the center of this model is the individual. Each immediate social setting that surrounds and shapes that individual is called a microsystem. Examples of microsystems include the family, the peer group, the classroom, the workplace, and so on. The mesosystem comprises the connections between various microsystems – such as parentteacher conferences that link home and school. Next comes the exosystem,the specific economic, political, educational, and cultural institutions and practices that directly affect the various microsystems and, indirectly but often powerfully, everyone in those microsystems. Surrounding and permeating all these developmental contexts is the macrosystem, the overarching traditions, beliefs, and values of the society.

The influences within and between these systems are multidirectional and interactive. For example, research has shown that the quality of life in the family microsystem directly affects a worker’s productivity on the job. At the same time, the microsystem of the workplace – specifically the stresses and satisfactions at the office, store, factory, or farm – affects the quality of life at home, including how satisfied a couple is with their marriage and how responsive they are to their children.

These reciprocal interactions between home and work are also affected by factors in the surrounding exosystem and macrosystem. In North America, for example, hard work and pioneer self-sufficiency are bedrock values, and, for most Americans, being productive and independent is key to their sense of self-worth. Consequently, if the family breadwinner loses a job, that loss may affect family life not only through the financial strain it causes but also through the psychological stress it creates. This link among systems is dramatically reflected during times of economic recession: as unemployment in a community increases, domestic violence and divorce typically increase as well.

Bronfenbrenner’s ecological approach to development is very useful in highlighting the complex influences, both immediate and distant, on any one person’s development. However, Bronfenbrenner’s terminology, and his depiction of spheres of influence, nested one inside the other, sometimes lead students to think of these ecosystems as discrete entities, with clear boundaries between them – when, in fact, the various systems are inextricably intermeshed, their effects dynamic, fluid, and overlapping.

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