~Bronfenbrenner's Model Flashcards
What is a theory?
Theories in any science are something we use as an organizational framework to understand the avalanche of data that researchers collect on a topic.
What is a theory in Developmental Psych?
Theories in developmental psychology are an organized set of concepts and propositions that helps us organize, describe, and explain observations about development. Theories propose mechanisms behind children’s development.
What did Piaget’s theory of children’s development test?
Their ability to perform on a task, and how that lined up with others their age
What did Piaget’s theory of children’s development describe?
He described their cognitive performance at different points in development.
Good theories help us predict ___
Future Observations
Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Model takes a ___ view of development than most
Wider
What was Bronfenbrenners theory?
That children’s development happens through their interactions with these connected and interacting systems. The child has their own skills, characteristics and strengths that they bring to the world around them, and their development is a function of both that, and the different contexts in which they grow up.
Why are children an important part of their own development?
Their characteristics affect their abilities and what they’re able to accomplish in a given task, their characteristics also affect the world around them.
What are Bronfenbrenner’s 3 categories of children’s individual characteristics?
Demand Characteristics, Resource Characteristics, and Force Characteristics
What are Demand Characteristics?
Child characteristics that they don’t have direct control over (in most cases), that still influence how others engage with them, for better or for worse. (e.g, age, race, gender)
What are Resource Characteristics?
Mental/emotions resources (past experience); intelligence/skills, and various material resources, like access to housing, and education
What are Force Characteristics?
Motivational, cognitive, social, personality/temperament/persist in the face of challenges. Affects how others engage with them as well
What is the Microsystem?
Represents the child’s immediate surroundings that the child is a part of day-to-day. Contexts in which they are an active member
What are examples of a Microsystem?
- The child’s family life is an example of a microsystem; How they interact with their parents and siblings
- School; Child can have a different role in a school setting than at home
What is the Mesosystem?
These are ways the Microsystems interact with each other that can influence the child’s experience and developmental trajectory. Connections between the child’s Microsystems. Ways in which members of the child’s daily life interact..
What are examples of a Mesosystem?
- Parents x School;
- Parents x Friends;
What is the Exosystem?
Contexts that do influence the child’s life, but the child isn’t directly a part of
What are examples of an Exosystem?
Parents jobs; School board; Local government; etc
What is a Macrosystem?
All-encompassing social and cultural factors that shape all of our lives, including children’s lives
What are examples of a Macrosystem?
Economy; National politics; Cultural norms & biases; etc.
What is the Chronosystem?
Changes in any one of the above systems with the passage of time
All of these systems are dynamic, and changes to any one of those systems can change the child’s experience.
Changes that occur over the child’s lifetime, altering existing dynamics.
What is an example of a Chronosystem?
- E.x., Microsystem - A new baby in the family; Affects how the parents interact with the older child.
- E.x., Exosystem - Job loss or promotion.
- E.x., Macrosystem - Shifts in cultural norms and policy decisions.
What was the late addition to Bronfenbrenner’s System?
The Chronosystem
What is a Normative Change?
Changes we can expect most, if not all, most children to go through. We expect that change to happen around the same time for all kids.
What is an example of a Normal Change?
School entry, puberty
What is an Idiosyncratic Change?
Changes that some kids will experience, it’s not guaranteed, and if it happens, there’s no way of predicting what it will be
What is an example of an Idiosyncratic Change?
Death or illness, Sociohistorical events (Covid), etc.
