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Ecological systems theory, also called development in context or human ecology theory, specifies four types of nested environmental systems, with bi-directional influences within and between the systems.

Urie Bronfenbrenner was generally regarded as one of the world's leading scholars in the field of developmental psychology.[citation needed] His ecological systems theory holds that development reflects the influence of several environmental systems, and it identifies five environmental systems that an individual interacts with.
Microsystem: Refers to the institutions and groups that most immediately and directly impact the child's development including: family, school, religious institutions, neighborhood, and peers.



Mesosystem: Refers to relations between microsystems or connections between contexts. Examples are the relation of family experiences to school experiences, school experiences to church experiences, and family experiences to peer experiences. For example, children whose parents have rejected them may have difficulty developing positive relations with teachers.

Exosystem: Involves links between a social setting in which the individual does not have an active role and the individual's immediate context. For example, a husband's or child's experience at home may be influenced by a mother's experiences at work. The mother might receive a promotion that requires more travel, which might increase conflict with the husband and change patterns of interaction with the child.

Macrosystem: Describes the culture in which individuals live. Cultural contexts include developing and industrialized countries, socioeconomic status, poverty, and ethnicity. A child, his or her parent, his or her school, and his or her parent's workplace are all part of a large cultural context. Members of a cultural group share a common identity, heritage, and values. The macrosystem evolves over time, because each successive generation may change the macrosystem, leading to their development in a unique macrosystem. [1]

Chronosystem: The patterning of environmental events and transitions over the life course, as well as sociohistorical circumstances. For example, divorces are one transition. Researchers have found that the negative effects of divorce on children often peak in the first year after the divorce. By two years after the divorce, family interaction is less chaotic and more stable. As an example of sociohistorical circumstances, consider how the opportunities for women to pursue a career have increased during the last thirty years[2]."

The person's own biology may be considered part of the microsystem; thus the theory has recently sometimes been called "Bio-Ecological Systems Theory."
Per this theoretical construction, each system contains roles, norms and rules which may shape psychological development. For example, an inner-city family faces many challenges which an affluent family in a gated community does not, and vice versa. The inner-city family is more likely to experience environmental hardships, like crime and squalor. On the other hand the sheltered family is more likely to lack the nurturing support of extended family.[3]

Since its publication in 1979, Bronfenbrenner's major statement of this theory, The Ecology of Human Development [4] has had widespread influence on the way psychologists and others approach the study of human beings and their environments. As a result of his groundbreaking work in "human ecology", these environments — from the family to economic and political structures — have come to be viewed as part of the life course from childhood through adulthood.

Bronfenbrenner has identified Soviet developmental psychologist Lev Vygotsky and German-born psychologist Kurt Lewin as important influences on his theory.
Bronfenbrenner's work provides one of the foundational elements of the ecological counseling perspective, as espoused by Robert K. Conyne, Ellen Cook, and the University of Cincinnati Counseling Program.

There are many different theories related to human development. The ecological theory emphasizes environmental factors as playing the major role to development. [2].

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pyrate999 said:
Lack of theory.

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dustinthewind13 said:
I guess I like death anxiety theory more than the one I posted, but I just wanted to post something that as little people as possible know about.

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pyrate999 said:
It's tough to answer, I used to think about philosophy often, but everything I thought about either drove me insane or made me depressed and unattached. Even still, I have learned a thing or two, but I wouldn't considered it learned, more like given up questioning things that don't need questioning.

Instead, I've started to think more about music, comedy and shows/movies with entertaining story lines.



Just waiting for the end of me now.

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Positive illusions are unrealistically favorable attitudes that people have towards themselves. Positive illusions are a form of self-deception or self-enhancement that feel good, maintain self-esteem or stave off discomfort at least in the short term. There are three broad kinds: inflated assessment of one's own abilities, unrealistic optimism about the future and an illusion of control.[1]

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Unrealistically positive views of the self:

    When asked to indicate how accurately positive and negative personality adjectives describe the self, normal subjects judged positive traits to be overwhelmingly more characteristic of self than negative attributes (Alicke, 1985; Brown, 1986).


    Individuals rate themselves as containing more positive qualities than others, and less negative qualities than others.


    positive personality information is efficiently processed and easily recalled, whereas negative personality information is poorly processed and difficult to recall (Kuiper & Derry, 1982; Kuiper & MacDonald, 1982; Kuiper, Olinger, MacDonald, & Shaw, 1985)


    Most individuals show poorer recall for information related to failure than to success (Silverman,1964) and tend to recall their task performance as more positive than it actually was (Crary, 1966).


    individuals are more likely to attribute positive than negative outcomes to the self(see Bradley, 1978; Miller & Ross, 1975; Ross & Fletcher, 1985; Zuckerman, 1979, for reviews) Conversely, individuals give others less credit for success and more blame for failure than they ascribe to themselves(Forsyth & Schlenker, 1977; Green & Gross, 1979, Mirels, 1980; Schlenker & Miller, 1977; Taylor & Koivumaki, 1976).


    Lewinsohn, Mischel, Chaplin, and Barton (1980) had observers watch college-student subjects complete a group-interaction task. Observers then rated each subject along a number of personality dimensions (e.g., friendly, warm, and assertive). Subjects also rated themselves on each attribute. The resuits showed that self-ratings were significantly more positive than the observers' ratings.

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Exaggerated perceptions of personal control
Most of the evidence for this comes from experimental adaptations of gambling formats.

    When manipulations suggestive of skill, such as competition, choice, familiarity, and involvement, are introduced into chance situations, people behave as if the situations were determined by skill and, thus, were ones over which they could exert some control (see also Goffman, 1967). For example, people infer that they have greater control if they personally throw dice than if someone else does it for them (Fleming & Darley, 1986; Langer, 1975).


    When individuals predict an outcome due to chance, they often overestimate their role in the outcome.

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unrealistic optimism
I'm running out of time so this one will be brief

    Individuals rate the liklihood that their future will contain positive events as higher than the liklihood that their peers will contain positive events. The converse is true for negative events: Higher for peers, lower for self.


    Individuals overestimate their performance on future tasks. The more personally important the task, the greater the overestimation.


    75% of American newlyweds believe their marriage will endure till death. However, the rate of divorce in America is greater than 50%...

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