Our final three theories will offer more comprehensive ways of looking at development, approaches that seek to combine contexts, explain the origins of behaviors, and/or combine the two. Just as seeking to explain behaviors as nature or nurture is too simplistic, trying to account for any aspect of human behavior with a single theoretical perspective is likely to ignore important influences.
Ecological Systems Theory - Putting it All Together
Urie Bronfenbrenner (1917-2005) developed Ecological Systems Theory, which provides a framework for understanding and studying the many influences on human development (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). Bronfenbrenner recognized that human interaction is influenced by larger social forces and that an understanding of these forces is essential for understanding an individual. The individual is impacted by several systems including:
Microsystem: This includes the individual’s setting and those who have direct, significant contact with the person, such as parents/caregivers or siblings and access (or not) to health care services. The input of those is modified by the cognitive and biological state of the individual as well. These influence the person’s actions, which in turn, influence systems operating on them.
Mesosystem: This includes the larger organizational structures, such as school, the family, or spirituality and how they interact with each other, which can indirectly affect the child. These interactions can affect the child’s self-image, growth, sense of accomplishment, and schedule thereby impacting the child, physically, cognitively, and emotionally.
Exosystem: This includes the larger contexts of community. A community’s local policies, social services, and media and can impact the organizational structures it houses.
Macrosystem: Thisincludes the cultural elements such as attitudes in a culture, values, philosophies, and a society’s responses to the global community.
Chronosystem is the historical context in which these experiences occur. This relates to different generational time periods such as what the baby boomer generation experiences while growing up and what millennials experiencing.
In sum, a child’s experiences are shaped by larger forces such as family, schools, access (or not) to resources, culture, and time period. Bronfenbrenner’s model helps us understand all of the different environments that impact each one of us, simultaneously.
Ethological
Ethology is the biological study of behavior and is closely related to evolutionary biology, which explores the evolutionary reasons for behavior. In ethology we find the intersection of animal and human behavior, with connections established between biological instincts and some of our most seemingly human drives. This is most clearly demonstrated in the area of attachment. Many species will imprint on a potential caretaker - presuming that first visual contact to be "mom" and then literally following that "mom" - whether it be an individual of a different species or a toy. We see ethology here as there is clearly a biological drive that causes this behavior and evolution here as that caregiver is necessary for the survival of the individual and the species. As we will discuss later, this imprinting on a caregiver translates into human attachment and may have a lasting impact on relationships throughout life.
As we have explored, we have diverse theories that seek to explain different components of development. An eclectic approach borrows from the various theories - combining approaches as needed. A theorist with an eclectic approach might consider attachment to be a product of a biological drive that is further modified by experience (learning) and ultimately establishes a sense of trust or mistrust in the world (psychosocial).
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