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• Urie Bronfenbrenner


  An American Psychologist who formulated the Ecological Systems Theory to explain how social environments affect children's environment
• Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory


  • Presents child development within the context of relationship systems that comprise the child's environment
  • Children typically find themselves entangled in various ecosystems, from the most intimate home ecological system to the larger school system, and then to the most expansive system which includes society and culture
• Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Theory


  • Microsystem
  • Mesosystem
  • Exosystem
  • Macrosystem
  • Chronosystem
• Microsystem


  The layer nearest the child, the things that have direct contact with the child in their immediate environment
• Mesosystem


  The layer that serves as the connection between the structures of the child's microsystem
• Exosystem


  The layer that refers to the biggest social system in which the child does not function directly
• Macrosystem


  The layer that is found in the outermost part in the child's environment, including the cultural values, customs, and laws
• Chronosystem


  The layer that involves "patterns of stability and change" in the child's life
• Prenatal development starts with fertilization, in the germinal stage of embryonic development, and continues in fetal development until birth
• Stages of Pre-natal Development

  • Germinal Period (First 2 weeks after conception)
  • Embryonic Period (2-8 weeks after conception)
  • Fetal period (2 months to 7 months after conception)
• Germinal Period (First 2 weeks after conception)

  1. Creation of the zygote

  2. Continued cell division

  3. Attachment of the zygote to the uterine wall
• Embryonic Period (2-8 weeks after conception)

  1. Cell differentiation intensifies

  2. Life-support systems for the embryo develop

  3. Organs appear
• Fetal period (2 months to 7 months after conception)

  1. Growth and development continue dramatically

  2. Fetus becomes active, moves arms and legs, opens and closes mouth, moves head

  3. Face, forehead, eyelids, nose, chin can now be distinguished

  4. Upper arms, lower arms, hands, and lower limbs develop

  5. Genitals can now be identified as male or female

  6. Fetus grows longer and gains substantial weight
• Teratology


  The field that investigates the causes of congenital (birth) defects
• Clusters of Hazards to Pre-natal Development


  • Prescription and nonprescription drugs
  • Psychoactive drugs
  • Environmental hazards
  • Other maternal factors
  • Paternal factors
• Human life begins at conception