September 24th, 2011

Urie Bronfenbrenner.

In yesterday's class we learned about Urie Bronfenbrenner. In my opinion he was a man who knew what he was talking about. Of the three theorists we have discussed thus far in the course, Bronfenbrenner seems to be the most "in tuned". His theories seem, to me, to be a needed balance bewteen those of Piaget and Vygotsky.

Here is a little about Bronfenbrenner's life:

He was born on April  29th, 1917 in Moscow, Russia. When he was 6, his family moved out of the USSR and into the United States. He attended Cornell, on a scholarship, where he completed his double major in psychology and music. He also went to Harvard and the University of Michigan. After all that schooling he decided to enlist in the US army as a psychologist. When he came back from the Second World War he becme a teacher and went on to teach at many of the schools he had attended. The APA actually renamed one of their awards after him, calling it the "Bronfenbrenner Award". Sadly, he died on September 25th, 2005 in Ithaca, Ney York; but, as you can see he lead a pretty damn amazing life! He was 88 when he passed.

The Bronfenbrennerian Ecological Systems Theory

The picture to the right is of a "Bronfenbrennerian Ecological Systems Chart". To put the concept into basic words: everything in your life is connected in some way; this chart shows how something like the death of a family friend could influence another part of your life like maybe it causes you to miss school. This example would be the "exosystem" effecting the "microsystem". Another example could be... you are strongly religious, so that influences the school you choose to attend. This time it would be the "macrosystem" effecting the "microsystem".

I believe this theory is more than just someone's idea of how people develope their sense of self through social interaction and personal cognitive processes. It is a guide to dealing with those around you.. it is a road map to understanding why others act the way they way they do.  

In my mind, and I know this may sound cliche... but... this theory is telling people to "dig deeper", or "don't judge a book by its cover". Now, you may be saying... "HUH"??!?!?! So let me break it down for you.

When something happens, let's say a teacher (who is normally very soft spoken and polite) yells at you in class... what do you automatically think of that teacher? You probably think, "jeeze, what a jerk... he must hate me...". What this theory is telling people to do is look deeper... Maybe that teacher had a rough night lastnight and mistakenly took his or her frustrations out on you. Maybe he or she is going through a divorce and something went sour right before class began. Those would be prime examples of the different ecological systems (individual, micro, meso, exo, macro, chrono) effecting eachother.

So basically, what the theory is all about is... the concept that you never know what is going on in someone's personal life (micro and exo systems) so try not to judge based on superficial knowledge. And; also, you can never really know what conditions that person grew up in (chronosystem), so that plays a huge factor on how they act as adults as well.  

Thank you for reading,

now it is time for me to "hit the hay"....

goodnight everyone!

Sincerely,

Natasha!! <3