The modern world is cruel, and we frequently witness instances where a person intentionally hurts another person. Society is now concerned about other issues, like child abuse. Babies hurt someone to defend themselves or to get what they want; it is not in the least bit cruel for a newborn to do so. Young children can offend due to their inexperience and lack of understanding. The suffering and weakness should be explained to children under three. After three years, children understand the suffering of others, though, like before, they may still be unable to control some of their behavior. However, by early childhood, a child is conscious of other people’s emotions, comprehends and accepts other people’s suffering, and has self-control. If the child acted cruelly during this time, it could already be said they were cruel.
Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory is one of the most widely accepted theories for how the social environment affects human development. According to this theory, our environment during development has an impact on all of our life plans. Many social factors will influence how we think, feel, and like. Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory is crucial for environmental studies because early childhood interpersonal violence is a fundamental modernity problem (Elliott & Davis, 2020). The researcher establishes that aggression during childhood depends on how factors affect children at various early stages of development. The ecological systems theory is the child’s socialization and development theory since it explains social contexts and how they impact children.
Analysis of The Main Concepts of Bronfenbrenner Ecological Theory
The theory is based on the idea that various elements significantly impact a child’s development and character, which he divided into several categories. Four systems influence a child’s communication and attitude to violence, and each of these systems impacts a person’s development during early childhood. The founder of this theory, Bronfenbrenner, observed that children’s behavior varies depending on their upbringing. He, therefore, decided to research the factors that, in most cases, govern a child’s development. The psychologist saw the environment as a collection of interdependent systems. The levels of this environment are referred to by Bronfenbrenner as microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem (Tudge & Rosa, 2019). Social ties and family make up the microsystem, and the relationship between the first level forms the mesosystem. The ecosystem is associated with elements that affect the lives of children, but they are not directly related to them, and the macrosystem level includes culture.
The author demonstrates how the issue of interpersonal violence in early life impacts others. Additionally, Bronfenbrenner shows how various parents, teachers, and societal behaviors influence child violence. Groups that interact with the child directly make up the microsystem. Although there may be many opportunities, family and school are two of the most significant. This system affects a child’s development, but the relationship is reciprocal. Therefore, a child’s behavior is directly influenced by the parent’s beliefs. This person can, however, also affect the family members’ perspectives. The school and the other groups that make up the microsystem experience the same thing (Labella & Masten, 2018). The child’s family, parental attitudes, and environment influence their personality. The child develops more calmly, manageably, and amicably if the family is friendly. Contrarily, marital conflict is typically accompanied by inconsistent disciplinary methods and animosity toward children, which leads to a cycle of childish retaliatory hate.
Parents frequently respond positively and calmly to a friendly, attentive child, whereas a confused and restless child is often disciplined and has less freedom of movement. The environment of the family is constantly changing. Even in the case of identical twins, we cannot identify the developmental environment because the two are subject to different demands and expectations. The connections between the levels of the first level make up the second system, which is outlined by Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory (Eriksson et al., 2018). In conjunction with the microsystem, the family and the mesosystem indirectly influence the child’s development. The baby’s relationship with kindergarten teachers affects the relationship between parents and kids and vice versa. The relationship between the child and parents and between t teachers improves if they are willing to work together and communicate.
Ecosystem refers to adult social networks, which represent various aspects of people’s lives. These can be official institutions, like where the parents are employed, or local social and medical services. Flexible work schedules paid time off for mothers and fathers, and parental sick leave in the event of a child’s illness are just a few ways the ecosystem can support parents in raising children and indirectly promote development (Martinelli et al., 2018). Support from the ecosystem can also take the form of informal assistance, like that provided by friends and family who offer advice, engage in cordial conversation, or even provide material assistance.
Generally, the more connections a family has with social organizations, the better it is for the family and the child’s development. The fewer connections they have, the more unpredictable the family situation and the child’s development are. For instance, an overestimated conflict and child abuse level is more frequently observed in isolated families with few informal or personal ties. The macrosystem is the final of the four systems that Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory initially listed (Labella & Masten, 2018). These components of the culture in which the individual is raised make it up.
Bronfenbrenner emphasizes the flexibility of both forward and backward links between these four systems, making the model appear straightforward and self-evident while accurately describing a wide range of situations. For instance, allowing a woman to focus more on her education and having a flexible schedule at work will indirectly benefit the child’s development. A mother’s ability to manage her time more freely typically improves her mental health and indirectly influences the rise in the productivity of women’s labor. Ecological systems are mobile and dynamic, according to Bronfenbrenner. The child’s relationship and environment can change due to the birth of a younger brother or sister, the start of school, or the parents’ divorce. For a baby who is just learning to walk and a school-aged child who has many outlets for communication and interests outside the family, the birth of a new baby has very different effects.
According to the ecological systems theory, children are both products and creators of the environment. Bronfenbrenner believed that events in a child’s life can either be forced upon them or come about due to their actions. As kids age, they alter their surroundings and reconsider their past experiences (Martinelli et al., 2018). Even in this situation, interdependencies still exist because children’s performance is influenced by their upbringing and what they were able to take in from their environment, in addition to their physical, intellectual, and personal characteristics.
In future practice, it will be essential to take a comprehensive approach to solve the problem of early childhood interpersonal violence. It is crucial to look into the child’s motivations and the context of the future with a small group of friends and the parents’ quality of life. Considering the overall context is crucial because society’s state and cultural norms impact the child’s behavior. The nation’s cultural practices, values, customs, and resources comprise the macro system. Micro-, meso-, and exo-systems may be unable to compensate for the lack of maternal attention experienced by a child if a country does not promote fertility and offer parental leave (Elliott & Davis, 2020). On the other hand, the central tenets of the way of life and worldview are preserved in the subculture regardless of specific external circumstances.
Children’s aggressive behavior is frequently viewed inadequately: as wrong, incorrect, and undesirable. Negative emotions are considered unacceptable or forbidden; in each scenario, parents conclude that they have failed. Parents are in the grip of the idea that negative emotions are wrong, that they need to be avoided, to calm the child, to fill his childhood with an endless fountain of positivity. However, the only effect is that the kids don’t know how to deal with frustration correctly because they have never had to deal with negative emotions, so they don’t know how to deal with them or express them.
Critique of the Bronfenbrenner Ecological Theory
The author clearly explains the cause-and-effect relationships, demonstrating complete clarity and consistency in ecological theory. Modern psychology shows in practice that the approach works because psychologists today are constantly dealing with past and family problems. However, the ecological model excludes biological and cognitive factors because it only considers the contextual aspect of personal development. To make the theory complete biological elements should be added to the study. This will make it possible to think about a person complexly, considering all the causes and influences that impact their lives.
Children are born with a physical component that affects their growth, influences the propensity for aggression, and determines how well they can control it. Ecological theory lacks consideration of the genetic aspect since the child can inherit some behavioral patterns (Eriksson et al., 2018). This perspective on the environment has primarily been criticized for giving insufficient consideration to the biological and cognitive aspects of development that form its basis. However, this theory is frequently employed when discussing network education and the overall responsibility of schooling because it strongly emphasizes the contextual aspect of human development, a setting in which one can directly intervene.
As social beings, people are surrounded by environments with distinct cultures and contexts, and at the same time, our surrounding is a globalized structure constantly changing. The cultural mediators and the interconnectedness of systems mentioned in Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory lead to personal development (Martinelli et al., 2018). Since the totality of systems is both an agent of socialization and individuation and serves to understand the influence of personality in different contexts, people must consider the interaction between personality variables and the environment. This is necessary to understand the development of character through theoretical interactions, as well as to consider existing criticisms of the model.
Conceptually, the theory is coherent and clear and enables psychologists to examine a person’s overall character to assist in solving problems. Additionally, the theory can be empirically tested; all that is required is careful consideration of a specific child’s behavior and environment. When, for instance, the aggravating factor is removed, which will be established by the theory, and the child improves, the thesis will be proven.
Conclusion
In conclusion, interpersonal aggression is a more serious issue today, affecting kids at a young age. Bronfenbrenner’s theory was one of the best resources to correct, decipher, and comprehend the causes of prefiguration. Bronfenbrenner’s friendship with fundamental methodologies unquestionably played a significant part in this. His original systematology for personality development was influenced by scientific knowledge, particularly with a systematic approach and dialectics, whose influence can be seen as decisive. He developed the theory of personality development as a result of a compelling dialectical and systemic reading of social reality in contemporary psychology. Bronfenbrenner explains how a child’s early years are shaped by their parents, teachers, and culture. A child can become aggressive toward others due to indirect factors, such as a mother’s workplace conflict with management.
References
Elliott, S., & Davis, J. M. (2020). Challenging taken-for-granted ideas in early childhood education: A critique of Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory in the age of post-humanism. Research handbook on Childhoodnature: Assemblages of childhood and nature research, 1119-1154. Web.
Eriksson, M., Ghazinour, M., & Hammarström, A. (2018). Different uses of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory in public mental health research: what is their value for guiding public mental health policy and practice? Social Theory & Health, 16(4), 414-433. Web.
Labella, M. H., & Masten, A. S. (2018). Family influences on the development of aggression and violence. Current opinion in psychology, 19, 11-16. Web.
Martinelli, A., Ackermann, K., Bernhard, A., Freitag, C. M., & Schwenck, C. (2018). Hostile attribution bias and aggression in children and adolescents: A systematic literature review on the influence of aggression subtype and gender. Aggression and violent behavior, 39, 25-32. Web.
Tudge, J., & Rosa, E. M. (2019). Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory. The encyclopedia of child and adolescent development, 1-11. Web.