Social Ecological Models

Social Ecological models are developed to help explain how various aspects of society are influenced by environmental factors. For example, studies in various countries have not shown a correlation between income and personal satisfaction. One of the significant factors affecting personal satisfaction is the amount of time people have to work to produce the growth and the higher incomes. The traits of happy people are not related to the amount of money they have to buy more goods but are related to how they feel about themselves, their freedom, their outlook on life and how they are able to socialize with others. The social ecological model forces religion and spirituality to become less significant and the role of these elements in people's lives is something that must be considered when looking to solutions for a more content society. Proponents of growth would argue that the factors that produce happiness should be considered separately from the factors that produce the economic growth. A social ecological model is developed to illustrate such a contention. Social Ecological Models research papers have been written by psychology experts. We can produce a custom written project following your guidelines.
Social Ecological Models and Bronfenbrenner
The social ecological model was honed by Urie Bronfenbrenner in his ecological framework for human development. This social ecological model broke down the process of development into four sub-systems which he believed worked together to shape an individual's personality. When developing his model, he included aspects of many different disciplines.In his theory of ecological development, the four sub-systems are:
- The micro system
- The mesosystem
- The exosystem
- The macrosystem
Eventually he would add a fifth sub-system, chronosystem or the effects of time on development. Bronfenbrenner came up with his human ecology model to help explain the social situations and factors, which help to determine how someone is socialized within their culture and how the culture impacts the person. Each individual is unique and there are many traits, which will influence how a person interacts and many of these traits revolve around emotions. Some of these traits include:
- What gender someone is
- Their race or ethnicity
- Their interests and talents
- Their physical health
- Their personality
These systems all work together to impact the development of a personality. Each person continues to develop throughout their lifetimes and these systems will continue to change and therefore so will the person who is involved with the systems. Social ecology and their models are used world wide to help explain complex relationships between cultures, peoples, and the systems in which they have developed.