The Bioecological Model of Human Development

In this writing it will be discussing childhood development, as well as some vital issues that might come along during those stages of development. Child development consist of the stage where the child is developing physically, cognitively, socially and spiritually. During these stages of development a child is maturing from infancy to becoming a young adult. For many years theorist such as Sigmund Freud, Erik Erikson, and Lev Vygotsky’s have researched how children mature from infants to adulthood. Each of the theorist have profound facts to how children develop, but which of the three men are correct on their findings?

All children and young people develop at different rates, but the order which they advance in differs very little. Children’s development tends to progress from head to toe, inner to outer, from simple to complex and from general to specific.

Crandell, T. L., Zanden, J. W. V., & Crandell, C. H. (2009). Human Development. New York City, NY: McGraw-Hill.

The chapter discusses how human development is affected by the nature in which a person is born into. It discusses how worldviews regarding child 's development vary among different regions throughout the continents. The chapter goes into the similarities of cultures as well as the differences of how humans develop across the board in all areas of thought in different regions of the world. The author tries to link human development with cultural aspects of how problem solving occurs as far as cultural influences are concerned. The nature of human development may occur in a pattern with all types of cultures and background.

There are many theories of child development largely because many different people have studied the field for many years. Each theory has their different factors; biology, sociology, genetics, environment, and relationships are just a few of them. “Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous -- and how well I know it. ”! (Psalms 139:14).  One might ask the question: "If theories are so useful, why do we need so many?"  Having a multitude of theories allow us to see how children develop from a variety of

Bronfenbrenner U. (1977). Toward an Experimental Ecology of Human Development [Electronic version]. American Psychologist, 32, 513-531.

On top of the expected pattern of children and young people’s development including “physical, communication & intellectual & social, emotional & behavioural development there are also “personal and external” factors which will affect how they develop.

* Your Christian/Other worldview – this implies that you understand your worldview and clearly define how it relates to the theories discussed.

Human development is a continuous process of maturing. When one examines the photographs of how they were when they were children and compare it to how they are now, they will notice many differences such as height and weight among others. There have been many studies focused on describing the human development and specifically human behavior in a social environment. The studies show that there are many factors that affect human development including biological, environmental, cultural and psychological factors. Throughout an individual's life, environmental factors influence their natural

Development psychology has many ideas of how humans are influence during their development. The ones that this paper will be covering are the Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems, nature and nurture influences and cultural influences. I have also given my own personal influence to further demonstrate my understanding of each idea.

Many human development specialists have examined memory loss of adults later in life. During the past fifty years, there have been many studies in children’s cognitive development and earlier childhood memory loss. Ernest G. Schachtel conducted studies on why people forget childhood memories as they grow older. He described the processes that could be involved in early memory loss (Crain, 2005). He was influenced by Sigmund Freud’s cognitive theory (Crain, 2005). Lev S. Vygotsky, however, described children’s early memory development as a holistic process that involved society, physiological, cultural, and economical environments. (Vygotsky,

Bronfenbrenner’s (1977, 1979, 1989, 1993, 1994) ecological theory suggested that child (human) development occurs for the child within the context of various environments. These environments, or systems, are influenced from within and between other environments. The individuals within each system influence each other through various transactions that occur between them.

Developmental psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner first introduced the Ecologicial Systems model in the 1970’s. Bronfenbrenner argued that to understand human development, the environment in which the person belongs must be understood (Bronfenbrenner, U.1979). The Ecological Systems model concentrically depicts how a person’s development is influenced by their wider environment. In the original model there were four ecological levels in the system, however in 1979 Bronfenbrenner added an additional fifth level (Bronfenbrenner, U. 1994). With the developing person in the centre, the five progressive levels of environment include the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, marcosystem and the chronosystem.

The development of a child is viewed from a number of different perspectives by several developmental theorists. While some say that development continues throughout the life, others would hold an opinion that children stop to develop as soon as they mature. Therefore, lifespan developmental theorists have focused on a number of areas while studying the development of an individual. Some of these areas include cognitions, social development, sexual development, moral development and more. Each of these theories is important in order to completely analyze the process whereby which a child matures and transitions into an adult.

There are three foundations of human development. The foundations are the biological development, psychological development, and social development. The concept of human diversity and cultural competences demonstrates how different people can be. General systems theory and social order are connected in some way.