The Ecology of Human Development

By Urie Bronfenbrenner

Book Overview

Here is a book that challenges the very basis of the way psychologists have studied child development. According to Urie Bronfenbrenner, one of the world's foremost developmental psychologists, laboratory studies of the child's behavior sacrifice too much in order to gain experimental control and analytic rigor. Laboratory observations, he argues, too often lead to "the science of the strange behavior of children in strange situations with strange adults for the briefest possible periods of time." To understand the way children actually develop, Bronfenbrenner believes that it will be necessary to observe their behavior in natural settings, while they are interacting with familiar adults over prolonged periods of time.

This book offers an important blueprint for constructing such a new and ecologically valid psychology of development. The blueprint includes a complete conceptual framework for analysing the layers of the environment that have a formative influence on the child. This framework is applied to a variety of settings in which children commonly develop, ranging from the pediatric ward to daycare, school, and various family configurations. The result is a rich set of hypotheses about the developmental consequences of various types of environments. Where current research bears on these hypotheses, Bronfenbrenner marshals the data to show how an ecological theory can be tested. Where no relevant data exist, he suggests new and interesting ecological experiments that might be undertaken to resolve current unknowns.

Bronfenbrenner's groundbreaking program for reform in developmental psychology is certain to be controversial. His argument flies in the face of standard psychological procedures and challenges psychology to become more relevant to the ways in which children actually develop. It is a challenge psychology can ill-afford to ignore.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674224574
• ISBN13: 9780674224575
• Release Date: September 1981
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A 'Must' for Family Researchers

Bronfenbrenner is a must for family researchers to define the variables of human development from the individual to the community and world surrounding them. A highly recommended theory for social/family researchers.

Bronfenbrenner at his best.

I have been in search of this book at an affordable price for many years. Bronfenbrenner's 'ecological systems' model is a brilliant framework through which to look at inextricable factors present in the individual's developmental environment. His definitions and hypotheses are clearly stated, his argument is sound and thought provoking and he brings together psychological theory and concepts that enhance theoretical understanding. A collector's book, excellent price, condition and value Judith Hudson Wales. UK