Bronfenbrenner Ecological Theory Paper

Innocent
A prison cell clanged behind a thirty- five year old named Keri, a female imamate of Tennessee State Department of Corrections. The prison guard escorted Keri to the prison’s chapel where she was scheduled to meet Dr. Kenneth Wales for the last time. Dr. Wales, an aging but intelligent psychiatrist, had more than a fair amount of accomplishments to show for in his career. Dr. Wales should have been filled with excitement; after all, he was finalizing his study with Keri, and he would soon be retiring with dignity and honor. However, Dr. Wales sat in the prison’s chapel with a look on his face that did not match his dignity and honor. He took out a ballpoint ink pen, and he drew a Bronfenbrenner’s Five Environmental System Theory

chart that he studied from Urie Bronfenbrenner. At each level of the chart, he labeled the Bronfenbrenner’s System, in which contains the microsystem, the mesosystem, the exosystem, the macrosystem, and the chronosystem (Santrock 22). With the Bronfenbrenner’s System, Dr. Wales’ hoped to get some answers about Keri’s life by focusing on her environmental areas.
Keri entered the chapel, and the correctional officer uncuffed her. Next, the officer exited the chapel, and he stood right outside the door. Keri’s body appeared as if she were starving herself. She walked down the aisle to greet Dr. Wales. He sat at a long table that the warden previously prepared as a working area. Keri was full of emotion because she knew this was going to be her last session with Dr. Wales. Out of her lips came a common motivational phrase that Dr. Wales stated all the time, “Shackled, yet you are free in the mind. Thank you Dr. Wales.”
Dr. Wales replied by nodding his head and with good manners, he pulled the chair out for her and kindly said, “Please, have a seat.” Dr. Wales glanced at her and asked, “Keri, I want to know how a person like you ended up serving a life sentence? Perhaps, if we start from the beginning one last time to reexamine things; I need to get to the core.”
Dr. Wales sat down and placed one finger onto the Bronfenbrenner’s chart that he had drawn on a blank piece of paper, and he slid it to Keri. Dr. Wales began to explain, “Microsystem is the environment of a person’s most inclusive, such as family, peers, school, and neighborhood (Santrock 22). Ms. Keri, I need you to write down everyone that may have had an impact on your life based upon the categories that were given.”
Keri had a quick puzzled look on her face, but she trusted Dr. Wales, so she began to write. After five minutes passed, she started to discuss what she wrote: “I grew up living in a shaggy, two bedroom house in Clifton, Tennessee, where the river banks were not high enough to stop the water from flooding our backyard, and our roof would leak during the summer storms. In that home, lived my mother, younger sister, grandfather, and my grandmother. I never knew my father nor had I a picture to even know what he looked like. My grandmother often told me he was a smart man, but I could never visualize him as being smart. If he was such a smart man, he would have been there to rescue me in my times of struggle.” Keri paused, “Are you okay?” She asked Dr. Wales.
“Yes indeed.” He pulled out his handkerchief to swipe a falling tear from the corner of his eye.
Keri continued with her pause because she had never seen Dr. Wales so emotional. Dr. Wales had probably heard her story countless times. Keri picked up the Bronfenbrenner chart that Dr. Wales had drawn out, “You know, I never heard of these words that you have listed on this paper.”
She tried to sound out the next word on the Bronfenbrenner’s chart, and Dr. Wales interrupted her saying, “Mes-so-system. This system deals with the bond between microsystem or links between contexts. In other words, the relation of family experiences to school experiences or school experiences to church experiences—” (Santrock 22).
Keri interrupted, “I was nine years old when I discovered that the world was a dark place, and I only found peace at Sunday school at the local church in Clifton. During the week, I dealt with bullies that would call me names because I smelled bad. Little did they know, my grandfather was the only person in the house who had an income, and he would blow his money on booze and prostitutes, and our house would go months sometimes without electricity to take showers or wash my clothes with a washing machine, instead of dipping them into the river outback. Kids would make me angry, and I got myself into many fights. Teachers would isolate me and drill me with questions about my mother and how life was at home. But I never told them the truth because the state would take me out of my sickly grandmother’s life, and my little sister and me would be separated, and I could not protect her in this dark place we call the world.”
She explained with a tremble in her voice, “One Sunday morning, I walked to Sunday school ready to feel at peace. My mother called earlier that morning and said she would come get me after church. Keep in mind Dr. Wales: I had not seen my mother in like five months, so I was deeply excited to see her. When I got to the church, we had a new Sunday school teacher ready to teach kids all the elementary things to know about the Bible. His name was Thomas, and he seemed very nice at first, but that quickly changed. The kids and the rest of the members had left the church, but the Pastor, Mr. Thomas, and I were the only souls left in the building.” Keri paused and gazed at the cross that was near the back wall of the chapel. Her eyes were so focused that one could almost see her experiences rehearsing inside her pupils.
Keri began, “I waited for a long time outside on the church step. I decided to go back inside the church to use the restroom. I flushed the toilet. Suddenly, the little church bathroom door was pryed open. There stood Thomas, and his eyes looked as if Satan was jumping out of them.” Keri had a knot in her throat, and she felt she could not swallow it. Keri asked, “Dr. Wales, should I continue this story?” Dr. Wales reached in his leather briefcase and pulled out two old jail documents. One had Thomas Whitherspoon, and the other document had the Pastor on it. Both men were charged with child rape. Keri explained, “Since then, I could not stand the thought of church— let along be inside a chapel, as we are now. Thank you, Dr. Wales, for helping me break my fears!”
Dr. Wales became highly impressed with Keri’s ability to understand the Mesosystem and to apply it with her life. A proud look came upon Dr. Wales’s wrinkly face then quickly vanished. Dr. Wales picked up his shiny pin, tapped it twice on the table and asked, “If you don’t mind, Miss Keri, can I fill in the next level of the Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological theory chart?”
Keri replied, “Sure.” Keri slid the paper back to Dr. Wales.
“Now, Miss Keri, before I begin, I must explain to you the meaning of exosystem. According to “Essentials of Life-Span Development” by John Santrock, an exosystem links between a social setting in which the individual does not have an active role[sic] with the individual’s immediate context” (22). Because I know your story so well, I would like to take this opportunity to fill in this part of the chart. I reason that your mother, who did not come get you after church that day, and who didn’t come back into your life until several months later, was repressed by your grandmother and grandfather. Around the time your grandfather began to dis-own your mother is the same time when he began to take his anger out on you. By this you had no control nor active role of your family’s behavior until you got older.”
“Yes!” Keri replied, “At age eighteen, I finally ran away. I was officially an adult, and I got tired of my grandfather physically beating me and cussing my sickly grandmother out for not doing household chores, because her body lacked strength and energy. Not to mention, he had my younger sister sent off to a juvenile camp because he lied to the police and judge on the court date, and he said that my sister set his car on fire.”
Dr. Wales nodded his head in disbelief, and then moved to the next level of the chart labeled macrosystem. The macrosystem “involves the culture in which individuals live” (Santrock 23). In other words, the macrosystem consist of how culture can shape the way people believe, think, or behave (23). “In this level, I rationalized that when you ran away, you became ignited to discover your own life, but your culture and environment must have influenced you a great deal. While trying to discover your own life, you started drinking, like your grandfather. Then all in one year, you fell in love with five men, like your mother. Do you believe that your grandfather’s and mother’s behavior had some part of influence of the reasons why you are serving a life sentence in prison?” Before she could answer, Dr. Wales began to jot down the definition of the last Bronfenbrenner’s system.
Keri stood up out of her seat, and blood gushed out her nose. She sat down on the floor, as if she was in fear of fainting. Dr. Wales went for his leather briefcase again, this time pulling out a tissue wipe. Overhearing the commotion inside, the prison guard rushed in to assist Keri. Dr. Wales sat next to Keri, and he stuffed tissues up her bleeding nose. Then, Keri came to and released a cry out of her belly that she had been holding in since she was nine years old. Sweat started to peak from underneath her skin. She screamed, “Even in my dying days, my father is still not here to be by my side!” The guard rushed her away to the prison hospital. Dr. Wales sat on the chapel floor with his head toward the ground. He felt as if he had lost everything.
Two weeks later, Dr. Wales came back to the prison and met with the warden. Anxiously,
Dr. Wales did not give the guard outside the warden’s office a chance to greet him. Rather, he wanted to meet with Keri immediately. Dr. Wales rushed into the warden’s office.
The warden was dressed in a tailored black suit and his grey beard was neatly trimmed. “Come in, Dr. Wales.” The warden had concerned look on his face. “You know doctor, there is a time for everything; there is a time for the sun to rise, and there is a time for the moon to go down. The other day I was thinking Keri was a good girl despite her trials and tribulations, despite all the things she went through in life I still feel she was an extraordinary young lady.”
Dr. Wales impatiently blurted out, “Where is she? Can I see her?”
The warden paused moved around the room. His footsteps made no sound, and he said, “I apologize doctor, but Keri died last night. She was diagnosed in her last stage of cancer a few months ago. She knew she didn’t have much time, but I am not sure why she did not tell you.”
Dr. Wales stood there in disbelief.
A week later, after Keri’s funeral, a fireplace was burning inside Dr. Wales’ home, much like his heart. Dr. Wales was writing a letter that read something like this, “Chronosystem is a pattern of environmental events and transitions over the life course. Keri, as your biological father, I was never in your life. As a result, this transitioned you into a position of feeling lost, lonely, and most of all not feeling rescued. You acted out of depression from not having me in your life when you killed those five men. You searched for the smart man, which your grandmother told you about; however, you never found the smartness inside any of those men. I recall times in our sessions when you would say you were innocent, and I believed you one hundred percent. Although, I could never fight back the nerves to confess the truth. The truth is I am guilty for not being there when you were nine years old and had to experience the evil, dark side of this world. I should have mended your broken pieces. I should have come to your rescue in your time of struggle. Keri, you are not guilty but innocent.”
There were many theories that Dr.

Wales could have utilized, such as the famous Erikson’s theory, yet no one theory can totally explain an individual’s development (Santrock 23). The Bronfenbrenner Ecological Theory was used to evaluate all of Keri’s environmental factors from growing up to her adulthood. Unfortunately, Dr. Wales was too late to confess to Keri the truth that he was her father. Dr. Wales was a man of character, and a man of high intellect. He pursued many bold honorary achievements but never found the boldness to be an active father in Keri’s life. In the back of Dr. Wales mind he knew that if he was more in her life most likely Keri’s context and experiences would had been shaped a little differently. Perhaps if he was a part of Keri’s environmental factors that would have produced another outcome. For example, in the mesosystem, Keri, at nine years old, would have left the church with Dr. Wales before being sexually abused. Not only did the Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory was used to identify the core issues of Keri’s life, but away for Dr. Wales to introduce himself into Keri’s life. Yet he was too late: Keri died serving a life sentence in prison at a young age of thirty-five, and Dr. Wales learned something that he had never learned before. Confession is better confessed before it is too

late.