Compare And Contrast Ecological Systems Theory And Ellie Bronfenbrenner

When comparing two family development theories I compared Erickson Psychosocial theory of human development to Ulie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological systems theory. The three a key elements to Erickson Psychosocial theory 1) Ego Identity human interactions more conscious of one self and their surrounding 2) Ego strength oneself becoming more competent confidant and therefore feel more important 3) Conflict. Will experience conflict, could sustain person growth or failure depending on the outcome. (Galvin. K., 2015)

Ecological systems theory, surrounding environment 5 levels: Micro System: relationships to the ones closet and most influential to a child’s life, they would include parents, teachers, friends. 2) Mesosystem: extended relationship that the child is exposed to example parent/teacher is it positive or negative do they support each other. I would suppose that this

could include divorced parent as another example. If the Mesosystems supports the micro system than the two systems working together would have a positive outcome. 3) Exosystem: Outside influences to the family that a child would have no control over. Parent’s employment, pay raise, job loss and also, what kind of career, police military, does that job instill anxiety. (Roundy)) 4Macrosystem: Cultural environment in which the person lives, third world country vs industrialized nation, old country values, and do those values align with the pressure from society.5) Chrono system: relationship of time , timing of event historical event growing up in different eras.
Ecological systems theory bases more emphasis on environment and how that influences ones development vs Erickson’s theory is based more on social interactions. What they do share in common is the human interaction does play a part in development. Similarities in both are the important role parents play on the development of a child, Erickson’s started with the 8 stages of development all involving parent and Ulie stated that the Micro system the level of parent/child relationship is most influential.

I feel the most important component in building strong families: Individual family strengths. Balanced families generally are found at the connected or cohesive level; such families tend to be more functional. (Galvin. K., 2015). Attachment theory focuses on the relationship between caregivers and care seekers. (Galvin. K., 2015). Both of these put pressure for strong family bonds upon the parents or care giver.
Boundaries can inhibit a student/teacher relationship with the lack of support and information given to teacher.

Rules can play into part between home and school, and get complicated when home rules cross over into the classroom inhibiting the effectiveness of the teacher. Equifinality states that there are different ways to reach the end result, this flexibility can be beneficial in a school setting understanding that not all children learn the same. Wholeness would play a part with a teacher/student relationship as the teacher might understand the context of the family and make accommodation’s necessary for the child learning environment.

4a) If a tragic accident happened in our family the significance and resilience factor would depend on who was left to deal with the aftermath. If I was left a widow and my children lost their father my family would be devastated and feel like the world had just ended for a while. In time I would seek outside resources to help us navigate the loss. We have a strong sense of faith and would rely on our church family for support, and also are family and

friends.
4b) Gentle breezes of change seem to always be happening in our house. Four kids, two in college it seems like there is always movement and adjusting family dynamics. Balancing change and accepting the “new normal” seems to be a way of life for us. As long as the gentle breeze is considered a positive event our family seems to do ok.

References
Carroll, .. (n.d.). Ericksons Phycososial theory human devopment. retreived from: http www.youtube.com/watch ?v=zpE18fKhAey.
Galvin. K., B. B. (2015). Family Communications: cohesion and change. Pearson Education, Inc.
Roundy, R. (n.d.). Ecological systems theory.

Annmarie Rabe