Urie Bronfenbrenner
Urie Bronfenbrenner was a prominent developmental psychologist, best known for his pioneering work in the ecology of human development and for co-founding the Head Start program aimed at supporting children from low-income families. Born on April 29, 1917, in Moscow, Russia, he immigrated to the United States at the age of six and pursued extensive education in psychology, earning degrees from Cornell University, Harvard University, and the University of Michigan. Throughout his career, primarily spent at Cornell University, Bronfenbrenner developed a bioecological theory that emphasized the importance of social contexts, such as family, school, and community, in understanding human behavior and development.
His seminal work, "The Ecology of Human Development" (1979), introduced a model that views development as an interaction between individuals and their environments, incorporating multiple systems and historical contexts. Bronfenbrenner’s contributions were recognized through various awards, including the first Urie Bronfenbrenner Award for Lifetime Contribution to Developmental Psychology in 1996. His later work, "Making Human Beings Human" (2005), explored the practical applications of his theories for societal benefit. Bronfenbrenner passed away on September 25, 2005, leaving a lasting legacy in the field of developmental psychology.
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Subject Terms
Urie Bronfenbrenner
- Born: April 29, 1917
- Birthplace: Moscow, Russia
- Died: September 25, 2005
- Place of death: Ithaca, New York
- TYPE OF PSYCHOLOGY: Developmental psychology
Bronfenbrenner introduced the concept of an ecology of human development and cofounded the Head Start program for children from low-income families.
Life
Urie Bronfenbrenner came to the United States at the age of six. He completed an undergraduate degree in psychology at Cornell University, a master’s degree at Harvard University, and a PhD at the University of Michigan in 1942. After World War II, he accepted a faculty position with Cornell University, where he spent most of his professional career. At the time of his death, he was the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of Human Development and of Psychology at Cornell University.
Bronfenbrenner was chair of the White House Conference on Children in 1970. In 1996, he was the first recipient of the American Psychological Association’s new award named in his honor, the Urie Bronfenbrenner Award for Lifetime Contribution to Developmental Psychology in the Service of Science and Society. The award recognizes individuals whose lifetime careers contributed to the science of developmental psychology and its application to benefit society.
Bronfenbrenner introduced his views regarding ecological psychology in The Ecology of Human Development (1979), advocating the study of the behavior of children in their natural life space of family, school, peer group, and community. His model was an ecology of human development, but he later renamed it a bioecological theory, presenting behavior as the interaction of person and environment. His theory was that development is a process of social initiation. He identified four systems in his model, characterized by roles, norms, and expected behaviors. He later added a fifth system, the historical context, outlined in The Ecology of Developmental Process (1998), which resulted in his complex process-person-context-time model (PPCT).
His culminating work, Making Human Beings Human (2005), described possible applications of the bioecological model to programs and policies. His groundbreaking ecology of human development called attention to the fact that humans do not develop in isolation, but in relation to family, community, and society. Bronfenbrenner died on September 27, 2005, at the age of eighty-eight.
Bibliography
Bergen, Doris. Human Development: Traditional and Contemporary Theories. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2008.
Brendtro, Larry K. “The Vision of Urie Bronfenbrenner: Adults Who Are Crazy About Kids.” Reclaiming Children and Youth: The Journal of Strength-Based Interventions 15.3 (2006): 162–66.
Fox, Margalit. "Urie Bronfenbrenner, 88, an Authority on Child Development, Dies." The New York Times, 27 Sept. 2005, www.nytimes.com/2005/09/27/nyregion/urie-bronfenbrenner-88-an-authority-on-child-development-dies.html. Accessed 11 Sept. 2024.
Rosa, Edinete Maria, and Jonathan Tudge. "Urie Bronfenbrenner's Theory of Human Development: Its Evolution from Ecology to Bioecology." Journal of Family Theory & Review 5.4 (2013): 243–58.
Thelen, E., and L. B. Smith. A Dynamic Systems Approach to the Development of Cognition and Action. Boston: MIT P, 1994.
Tregaskis, Sharon. "Into The Woods." Human Ecology 43.1 (2015): 12–18.