The ecological systems theory developed by Urie Bronfenbrenner explains human development through the interaction between individuals and their environments. It argues that people actively shape their own development and that both people and environments are constantly changing. The theory examines a person's environment through several layers of interaction - from immediate relationships (microsystem) to broader societal influences (macrosystem) - and how these impact development over time (chronosystem). While widely applicable across fields, the ecological systems theory is difficult to empirically test and some of its systems like the mesosystem remain vaguely defined.

1. Ecological Systems Approach

2. Ecological Systems Approach
• Originally developed by psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner (1979), ecological
systems theory explains human development by describing aspects of the
individual, the environment, and the interaction between the two.
• Ecological systems theory argues that people are actively involved in their
own development (versus some developmental theories that argue that
people are passive—they do not play an active role in their development) and
their environments and that both development and environments are always
changing (Brandell, 1997).

3. Tenets
• A fundamental tenet of ecological systems theory is that the way people
perceive their environments and experiences significantly affects their well-
being. Specifically, the meaning that people place on the things that happen
to them and the way they interpret these events in the context of their
environments have a major impact on how these events influence their well-
being (Mullaly, 1997).
• All people have transactions, or positive and negative exchanges, with others.
For example, a positive exchange would be when a person receives praise or
money for doing good work. A negative exchange might occur when a child
is scolded for not sharing toys.

4. Cont.
• People are actively engaged in their environments, they receive and expend energy in
the form of inputs and outputs.
• To maintain health and well-being, people must be able to adapt to changes in their
environments. Because, according to ecological systems theory, people and their
environments are always changing, adaptation is a significant issue.
• It is concerned with the interdependence of people with others and their
environments. In the context of their environments, people have a mutually reliant
relationship in which each depends on the other for growth and development.

5. levels/classes
• Ecological theory contains several levels that describe factors within a person’s
environment that are significant in development. The theory describes levels of the
environment which are:
1. Microsystem
2. Mesosystem
3. Exosystem
4. Macrosystem
5. chronosystem

6. Microsystem
• The microsystem consists of all the roles and relationships that a person has
in the immediate environment.
• Closest to the person, have direct control /impact
• This level contains physical places such as home, school, work, daycare and
the neighborhood; these are places where people have daily face-to-face
contact with one another. Hence, it typically includes family, peers or care
givers

7. Microsystems Cont.
• Relationships are bi-directional/ two way i,e bi-directional
• One’s reaction to the people in the microsystem will affect how people treat
you in return
• Examples parent-child relationship, a child witnessing abuses

8. Mesosystem
• The mesosystem focuses on the interactions among two or more
environmental settings in which people live.
• To put it another way, the mesosystem comprises a system of microsystems.
• e.g parent subsystem, sibling subsystem
• For example, the dynamics in a person’s work and home lives often impact
one another; this is exemplified when a person brings home the tensions
from her work.

9. Exosystem
• The exosystem consists of all of those social settings (for example, child’s
school, parent’s workplace, neighborhood community center) in which things
happen that affect people indirectly e.ga child being affected by the parents
non- payment of salaries, work transfer affecting children .
• Although the person is not necessarily an active participant in these settings,
what happens in them will impact the person directly or indirectly.

10. Cont.
• An example is policy decisions about school closures in a community.
• Though residents of the community are not involved in making these
decisions, their children and families are affected by them.
• Some families may decide to move to another school district or bus their
children to a school that is far away.
• Residents who do not have children will experience the impact of
community change created by the decisions.

11. Macrosystem
• The macrosystem refers to all the ways in which larger cultural factors affect
the other levels of a person’s environment and, consequently, how they affect
a person’s development.
• This includes aspects such as laws, political philosophy, and religious and
cultural beliefs. Societal attitudes against gay marriage, laws prohibiting it,
and resulting discrimination in benefits (such as health care for a partner) are
examples of how issues in the macrosystem can play out and affect
individuals.

12. chronosystem
• Transitions and shifts happening in life
• E.g death of parents, divorce of parents

13. Strengths
1. Wide Application
2. Provides Actionable Inputs

14. Wide Application
• The ecological systems theory (EST) finds application across a number of
fields – from classrooms, to immigrant support services, to helping
underprivileged children.
• EST can even be applied to the corporate world by, for instance, helping
companies innovate through the use of the ecological systems theory.
• Such an approach, as outlined by Costello & Donnellan (2011) views
innovation in a business setting as an ecosystem with internal and external
components, rather than in isolation.

15. Provides Actionable Inputs
• Unlike many other theories in the social sciences, the ecological systems
theory provides credible actionable inputs that can translate to public policy
action implemented for the betterment of society.
• For instance, the recommendations of the theory have been used to design
community support services in the US and elsewhere.

16. Weaknesses
1. Difficult To Test Empirically
2. Vaguely Understood Systems

17. Difficult To Test Empirically
• While the application of the ecological systems theory in practice has yielded
tangible positive outcomes, it is not always clear that such outcomes were, in
fact, caused by the application of the ecological systems theory.

18. Vaguely Understood Systems
• Several aspects of the theory such as the mesosystem and the chronosystem
remain vaguely defined and understood.
• For instance, the mechanism(s) through which the components of the
mesosystem such as the family, school, friends, etc. interact with each other
to affect a child’s development are not clearly understood (Leventhal &
Brooks-Gunn, 2000).

19. REFERENCES
• Brandell, J. R. (Ed.). (1997). Theory and practice in clinical social work. New York:
The Free Press.
• Costello, G.J., & Donnellan, B. (2011) An Ecological Perspective on Innovation
Management Conference: Making a World of Difference: Nation Building and the
Role of Management Education.
• Mullaly, B. (1997). Structural social work: Ideology, theory and practice (2nd ed.).
Toronto, Canada: Oxford University Press.
• Leventhal, T., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2000). The neighborhoods they live in: the effects of
neighborhood residence on child and adolescent outcomes. Psychological Bulletin, 126(2), 309.