Brofenbrenner’s Ecological Model

This is gonna be different from my blog entry before this because it concerns a lesson for Social Science. The Brofenbrenner’s Ecological Model is a theory developed by Urie Brofenbrenner wherein he divides the environment of the person into 5 different parts. These parts are as shown in the picture the Chronosystem, Macrosystem, Exosystem, Mesosystem and Microsystem. The theory shows about the qualities of a person and how interaction with the environment affects how the person develops.

The Chronosystem are the changes overtime that affect younger people. These are usually what we call “Life-Changing” Experiences. Despite this change being something that happens through time, it can also affect the Macrosystem or Microsystem of a person.  For example, when a young person undergoes a car crash wherein people get really hurt. They undergo trauma which really affects their ideals. Some people who are risk takers become more paranoid through experiences like this. In my life, one thing that has really gotten to me was when my grandmother passed away.  It really affected somehow in a positive way. When I was a child, I had times that I became disrespectful to my elders especially to my grandmother because she always asked for kisses and I hated it. But thinking about it now, I always do my best to respect what they want and what they say. Aside from that, she became the reason why I wanted to pursue Medicine. She died of cancer and ever since then, I’ve wanted to find a cure for it.

The Macrosystem talks about the Cultural environment of a person. This can refer to the country, social status and race. All of these have an effect on the person because everyone lives with these and each culture produces their own values that people live by. For example, for Filipinos they are family people. This is because of the culture that they live in which gives emphasis on respecting elders. The Macrosystem affects me not only in the cultural way that Filipinos live by but also how Jesuits do things. I’ve been in a Jesuit school my entire High School life and it was there I learned the value of Magis. Through that, I’ve learned to also incorporate Magis in my life.

The Exosystem are things that a person has no active role in but it affects them indirectly. An example for this can be the work environment of the parent of a person. It doesn’t affect the person but it affects someone close to the person. If the environment is stressful, the parent might get really stressed out and do something that will affect the individual. One experience that I had which involved the Exosystem was when my dad used to travel a lot for work. It affected me because it caused conflict with him and my mom.

The Mesosystem is when two microsystems interact with each other. For example, when my mom has talks with the teacher to ensure I’m being good. This is the interaction between Microsystems. This is because these two microsystems are making sure that I am developing well.

Finally the Microsystem, it is the environment that directly affects a person. It includes family, friends, school and etc. These are factors that have direct impact or influence to a person. How someone reacts to these will also affect how they will be treated. This is important to a person as this is big in development.

Knowing about the Brofenbrenner Model made me more appreciative of Psych. Although it was a little complex, I realized how it works in daily life. It made me realize that we really shouldn’t judge a book by its cover because we don’t know what a person goes through everyday.