Bioecological model

The bioecological model of development is a theoretical model of gene–environment interactions in human development. This model, first proposed by Urie Bronfenbrenner and Stephen J. Ceci, in 1994, is an extension of Bronfenbrenner's original theoretical model of human development, called ecological systems theory. Bronfenbrenner developed the bioecological model after recognizing that the individual was overlooked in other theories of human development, which were largely focused on the context of development (e.g., the environment). The bioecological model of development is a theoretical model of gene–environment interactions in human development. This model, first proposed by Urie Bronfenbrenner and Stephen J. Ceci, in 1994, is an extension of Bronfenbrenner's original theoretical model of human development, called ecological systems theory. Bronfenbrenner developed the bioecological model after recognizing that the individual was overlooked in other theories of human development, which were largely focused on the context of development (e.g., the environment). The bioecological model of human development can be applied to both children and maturing adults, and is thus a lifespan approach to development. The framework emphasizes the importance of understanding bidirectional influences between individuals’ development and their surrounding environmental contexts.In the bioecological model, in contrast to his earlier models, Bronfenbrenner also includes time (known as the chronosystem in his model) as an important component in the way that people and environments change. The bioecological model proposed a new method of conducting research which was heavily influential in developmental psychology and is still considered relevant today. Bronfenbrenner named his original model 'ecological systems theory'. Through this framework, Bronfenbrenner identified the need to understand individuals' development within their environments. In order to conceptualize environmental contexts, Bronfenbrenner described five ecological systems: Bronfenbrenner informally discussed new ideas concerning Ecological Systems Theory throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s during lectures and presentations to the psychological community. As he examined his original theory, he began to identify the role of other key factors in development. In 1986, Bronfenbrenner published his new theory and named it Bioecological Systems Theory. One of Bronfenbrenner's main influences was Lev Vygotsky, a Russian teacher and psychologist. Vygotsky created the social learning theory of development in the 1920s and 1930s to understand how people learn in social contexts and how social environments influence the learning process (1962). Vygotsky recognized that learning always occurs and cannot be separated from a social context and that this process is integral to a child's development. Kurt Lewin, a German forerunner of ecological systems models and the founder of modern social psychology, pioneered the use of theory and experimentation to test hypotheses. He focused on the life space, which he defined as a person's psychological activities that occur within a kind of psychological field. The life space that contains all the events in the past, present, and future that shape and affect an individual. This focus on individuality led him to diagram the life space, containing arrows leading to and from possible life goals, both positive and negative. In sum, Lewin's ecological systems model emphasized situational and proximal causes. Additionally, Lewin's theory demonstrates that behavior is a function of the current person by their environment, which are all affected by past experience. Bronfenbrenner was also influenced by his colleague, Stephen J. Ceci, with whom he co-authored the article “Nature-nurture reconceptualized in developmental perspective: A bioecological theory” in 1994. Ceci is a developmental psychologist who redefined modern developmental psychology's approach to intellectual development. He focused on predicting a pattern of associations among ecological, genetic, and cognitive variables as a function of proximal processes. Together, Bronfenbrenner and Ceci published the beginnings of the bioecological model and made it an accessible framework to use in understanding developmental processes. The history of bioecological systems theory is divided into two periods. The first period resulted in the publication of Bronfenbrenner's theory of ecological systems theory, titled The Ecology of Human Development, in 1979. Bronfenbrenner described the second period as a time of criticism and evaluation of his original work.