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  • 1960 for a young psychologist appeared before the us Congress with a mission, it was a time when most people thought that the reason poor people stay poor was a matter of biology and had nothing to do with the environment they grew up in the psychologist, Yuri Bronfenbrenner wanted to change that and convince the world that to help those less fortunate.

  • We also needed to change their surroundings.

  • But did he succeed?

  • Mhm Bronfenbrenner ecological system theory conceives that a child is influenced by five ecological forces.

  • First comes the micro system of family and friends that affect the child directly.

  • Second are the forces of the connections between the people around the child, parents with teachers and teachers with peers.

  • Then there are links between social settings that do not directly involve the child, such as the father with his boss, The piers with their parents and the teacher with the principal.

  • Next is the overarching culture, religion and social norms that influences all others.

  • And lastly, there is time which changes everything Over the course of one's life.

  • Children are born into a micro system that influences the child's experiences directly.

  • Children from unfortunate backgrounds are more likely to experience problematic family structures, even if it's simply for the fact that parenting is more difficult if you are poor, they also encounter more negative situations at school or bad influences through friends.

  • Consequently, a child that grows up in a negative micro system will find it hard to succeed.

  • Yeah the meso system represents the interconnections between the elements that surround the child, for example, the relationship between the father and the school teachers.

  • If the father doesn't get along with a teacher, the child might suffer.

  • The exhaust system involves the links between social settings that do not involve the child.

  • For example, a child experience at home can be influenced by their parents, experiences at work.

  • If the mother loses her job, there might be more arguments with the father, resulting in changes in their interaction with the child.

  • Yes, the macro system describes the overarching culture that influences all other systems, such as a child's geographic location and ethnicity.

  • Intelligent people who happen to live in bad places are more likely to move to better ones.

  • But that also means that they are more likely to be strangers in a richer society.

  • So regardless of the child's biological potential or upbringing on a macro level, he or she may still be at a disadvantage.

  • The Kronos system refers to changes in the child and the environment over time.

  • As the child grows up, the parents may stop loving each other and divorce, which can be traumatic for an eight year old boy.

  • Five years later, he may have come to terms with how things turned out.

  • But when the boy turned 16, his mom's new boyfriend moves into their tiny apartment and things get difficult again.

  • Yeah, Bronfenbrenner who was influenced by love by got ski and kurt Lewin convinced the U.

  • S.

  • Congress that a child's prospect is not genetically predestined, but is the result of the larger environment.

  • They happen to be placed in Children who grow up in unfortunate social structures therefore need a form of support that not only reaches their families but also elements of their community.

  • Bronfenbrenner theory helped form the Head start program in 1965.

  • A government program that has served more than 35 million poor Children since.

  • Yeah, decades later, Bronfenbrenner and Stephen Ceci proposed an extension of this theory called the bio ecological model.

  • This new model recognizes gene environment interactions and acknowledges the role of heritability but adds that genes themselves are under the influence of the environment.

  • In other words, the process of heritability varies in a magnitude of potentials.

  • How much a child can make of the potential they inherit depends on the ecological environment.

  • Yeah, Bronfenbrenner made a critical contribution to our realization that parent child relationships do not exist in a social vacuum but are embedded in the larger structures such as community, society and culture in order to develop.

  • Well, he allegedly said every child needs at least one adult who was irrationally crazy about him or her.

  • Now it's your turn make five circles, draw yourself in the center and at a timeline at the bottom then put all the people institutions and forces that affect you through the five different systems on the timeline below.

  • You can add some major events from the past and those you expect in the future.

  • Can you tell how the five forces are shaping your life?

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1960 for a young psychologist appeared before the us Congress with a mission, it was a time when most people thought that the reason poor people stay poor was a matter of biology and had nothing to do with the environment they grew up in the psychologist, Yuri Bronfenbrenner wanted to change that and convince the world that to help those less fortunate.

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