Child Development From Infancy to Adolescence. Laura E. Levine
Kuther, 2017.
It will be easier for you to remember the various systems that make up ecological theory if you are able to recognize examples of each of them. Active Learning: Examples of Ecological Systems gives you a chance to do this.
Active Learning: Examples of Ecological Systems
Match each description below with the correct level of the ecological system it represents. The levels are the microsystem, mesosystem, macrosystem, exosystem, and chronosystem.
Answers: (1) chronosystem, (2) mesosystem, (3) macrosystem, (4) microsystem, (5) macrosystem, (6) exosystem, (7) mesosystem, (8) chronosystem, (9) microsystem, (10) exosystem
Modern Applications of Ecological Theory
Ecological theory has expanded the range and number of variables (characteristics that can be measured and that can have different values) that researchers include to more fully understand a child’s development within multiple contexts. For example, this theory helped researchers understand the full context in which immigrant children in the United States develop by examining the influences from family and peers (microsystem), the interaction of family, peers, and school (mesosystem), neighborhoods (exosystem), and immigrant cultural values (macrosystem) as they apply to the transition from adolescence to adulthood (chronosystem; Paat, 2013).
Variable: A characteristic that can be measured and that can have different values.
Another legacy of human ecology is the application of theory to social policy. A human ecologist believes all levels of society affect human development. The logical extension of this belief is to become active in the creation of social policy, including legislation and programs at all levels of government. Bronfenbrenner himself was active in the creation of Head Start, a program designed to help disadvantaged children by providing interventions at several different levels. Head Start not only provides an excellent educational program for children but also helps their families by providing help with financial, social, educational, and psychological difficulties they might be experiencing. It also creates links between the classroom setting and the child’s home. You will read more about Head Start and the impact it has had on children’s lives in Chapter 9.
Social policy in action. The development of the Head Start program was strongly influenced by Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory because it was designed to provide interventions at several of the levels described in the theory.
AP Photo/Peter Cihelka
Check Your Understanding
Knowledge Questions
1 Why is it important to understand children within the context of the world around them?
2 What are the five systems that make up Bronfenbrenner’s ecological system?
Critical Thinking
A 7-year-old child is overly aggressive in school. Beginning with the child’s own characteristics, what kinds of influence at each level of the ecological system might contribute to the child’s difficulty?
Dynamic Systems Theory
As the study of children has become increasingly sophisticated, researchers have realized that development is a complex process that includes the interaction of biology, the environment, the way we control ourselves and interact with others, and the way we think about, or represent, our experiences in our minds (Sameroff, 2010). Dynamic systems theory states that all these different aspects of development interact and affect each other over time. In this theory, development is more like a jazz improvisation than a written piece of music (Spencer, Perone, & Buss, 2011). Each part adjusts to every other part as the child seeks solutions for developmental problems that arise, and each child creates a unique pattern of behavior as a result.
Dynamic systems theory: The theory that all aspects of development interact and affect each other in a dynamic process over time.
To illustrate how this process works, we can look at how Esther Thelen applied the theory of dynamic systems to the development of motor skills. Thelen found that the nature of physical development was flexible, not absolute. For example, newborn babies have a stepping reflex in which they appear to be walking when held upright, even though they cannot support their own weight. This reflex typically disappears at about 2 to 3 months of age, and the disappearance was initially thought to be a product of brain maturation. However, Thelen found that these babies will begin stepping again if placed up to their chests in water so their legs are not so heavy, which means the disappearance of this reflex is not driven solely by brain development (Thelen, 1989). Infants stop “stepping” reflexively when their legs become too heavy for them to lift.
The stepping reflex. The stepping reflex is present in young infants. If you support their weight and allow their feet to touch a flat surface, they will raise and lower their legs as though they are walking. What causes babies to lose this reflex?
Jennie Woodcock; Reflections Photolibrary/Corbis
Modern Applications of Dynamic Systems Theory
Dynamic systems theory considers characteristics of the whole child, including the nervous system, the musculoskeletal system, and the child’s motivation or readiness, the environment, and the nature of the task itself when planning an intervention (Darrah et al., 2011; Sauve & Bartlett, 2010). In recent years, it has been used to promote the understanding of many different aspects of child development, including cognitive development (Samuelson, Jenkins, & Spencer, 2015). This theory helps us understand that systems of the body interact in complex ways. While the brain affects the body, the body also affects the brain in an ongoing dialogue that continues over time (Spencer, Austin, & Schutte, 2012). This interaction was demonstrated in one study in which adults saw a photo of a pitcher such as the one shown in Figure 2.7, with the handle either on the right or the left of the pitcher, and pressed a button to answer the question “Is this a pitcher?” They responded more quickly when the button for the “yes” response was on the same side of their body as the handle for the pitcher (Thelen & Smith, 2006). People recognized an object more quickly when the response they made was compatible with their action on the object (picking up the pitcher). Action and visual perception are thus connected and influence one another.
Figure 2.7 Senses and action interact.
Check Your Understanding
Knowledge Questions
1 In what way is human development similar to a jazz improvisation?
2 How does dynamic systems theory show that motor activity influences the activity of the brain?
Critical Thinking
Earlier in this chapter you read about the concept of embodied cognition as a modern application of an aspect of Piaget’s theory. How would embodied cognition also relate to dynamic systems theory?