Microsystem

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A microsystem is a self-contained subsystem located within a larger system. It generally constitutes the smallest unit of analysis in systems theory.

Ecological systems theory

Urie Bronfenbrenner uses the term in his ecological systems theory where it constitutes the most immediate environment which envelops an individual. Thus in a child’s development it consists of parents, guardians, other family members, and close friends who constitute the immediate home circle. [1]

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Developmental psychology Scientific study of psychological changes in humans over the course of their lives

Developmental psychology is the scientific study of how and why human beings change over the course of their life. Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to include adolescence, adult development, aging, and the entire lifespan. Developmental psychologists aim to explain how thinking, feeling, and behaviors change throughout life. This field examines change across three major dimensions: physical development, cognitive development, and social emotional development. Within these three dimensions are a broad range of topics including motor skills, executive functions, moral understanding, language acquisition, social change, personality, emotional development, self-concept, and identity formation.

A nuclear family, elementary family or conjugal family is a family group consisting of two parents and their children. It is in contrast to a single-parent family, the larger extended family, or a family with more than two parents. Nuclear families typically center on a married couple which may have any number of children. There are differences in definition among observers. Some definitions allow only biological children that are full-blood siblings and consider adopted or half and step siblings a part of the immediate family, but others allow for a stepparent and any mix of dependent children including stepchildren and adopted children. Some sociologists and anthropologists consider the nuclear family as the most basic form of social organization.

Attachment theory Psychological ethological theory about human relationships

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Ecological psychology is the scientific study of perception-action from a non-functionalism approach. Ecological psychology is a school of psychology, which follows much of the writings of Roger Barker and James J. Gibson. Those in the field of Ecological Psychology reject the mainstream explanations of perception laid out by cognitive psychology. The ecological psychology can be broken into a few sub categories, perception, action, and dynamical systems. As a clarification, many in this field would reject the separation of perception and action, stating that perception and action are inseparable.

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Psychosexual development

In Freudian psychology, psychosexual development is a central element of the psychoanalytic sexual drive theory. Freud believed that personality developed through a series of childhood stages in which pleasure seeking energies from the id became focused on certain erogenous areas. An erogenous zone is characterized as an area of the body that is particularly sensitive to stimulation. The five psychosexual stages are the oral, the anal, the phallic, the latent, and the genital. The erogenous zone associated with each stage serves as a source of pleasure. Being unsatisfied at any particular stage can result in fixation. On the other hand, being satisfied can result in a healthy personality. Sigmund Freud proposed that if the child experienced frustration at any of the psychosexual developmental stages, they would experience anxiety that would persist into adulthood as a neurosis, a functional mental disorder.

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Urie Bronfenbrenner was a Russian-born American psychologist who is most known for his ecological systems theory. His work with the United States government helped in the formation of the Head start program in 1965. Bronfenbrenner's ability research was key in changing the perspective of developmental psychology by calling attention to the large number of environmental and societal influences on child development.

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Child development

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Socio-ecological models were developed to further the understanding of the dynamic interrelations among various personal and environmental factors. Socioecological models were introduced to urban studies by sociologists associated with the Chicago School after the First World War as a reaction to the narrow scope of most research conducted by developmental psychologists. These models bridge the gap between behavioral theories that focus on small settings and anthropological theories.

David McClelland

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Michael Lewis is University Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry, and director of the Institute for the Study of Child Development at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. He is also professor of psychology, education, and biomedical engineering and serves on the Executive Committee of the Cognitive Science Center at Rutgers. He is also founding director of the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Autism Center. He received his PhD in 1962 from the University of Pennsylvania in both clinical and experimental psychology.

Gender essentialism is a concept used to examine the attribution of fixed, intrinsic, innate qualities to women and men. In this theory, there are certain universal, innate, biologically- or psychologically-based features of gender that are at the root of observed differences in the behavior of men and women. In Western civilization, it is suggested in writings going back to ancient Greece. With the advent of Christianity, the earlier Greek model was expressed in theological discussions as the doctrine that there are two distinct sexes, male and female created by God, and that individuals are immutably one or the other. This view remained essentially unchanged until the middle of the 19th century. This changed the locus of the origin of the essential differences, in Sandra Bem's words, "from God's grand creation [to] its scientific equivalent: evolution's grand creation," but the belief in an immutable origin had not changed.

Developmental science is an interdisciplinary scientific field that synthesizes perspectives from biology, psychology, and sociology in order to understand behavioral and psychological aspects of human development. The field of developmental science "...is not limited to simply describing deviant behavior at a specific age, but rather examines the dynamic interplay of biopsychosocial risk and protective conditions in the course of development over an individual’s lifespan." It is based on theories previously developed by such psychologists as Jean Piaget, Heinz Werner, and Lev Vygotsky, as well as on dynamic systems theory. In recent years, the field has undergone a paradigm shift away from reductionism to one based on complex, interacting systems, with an increasing emphasis on change over time.

Richard M. Lerner is professor of Human Development at Tufts University, occupying the Bergstrom Chair in Applied Developmental Science. Also at Tufts, he directs the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development.

The bioecological model of development is a theoretical model of gene–environment interactions in human development. This model, first proposed by Urie Bronfenbrenner and Stephen J. Ceci, in 1994, is an extension of Bronfenbrenner's original theoretical model of human development, called ecological systems theory. Bronfenbrenner developed the bioecological model after recognizing that the individual was overlooked in other theories of human development, which were largely focused on the context of development.

Child displacement is the complete removal or separation of children from their parents and immediate family or settings in which they have initially been reared. Displaced children includes varying categories of children who experience separation from their families and social settings due to several varied reasons. These populations include children separated from their parents, refugees, children sent to boarding schools, internally displaced persons or IDPs, and asylum seekers. Thus child displacement refers to a broad range of factors due to which children are removed from their parents and social setting. This include persecution, war, armed conflict and disruption and separation for varied reasons.

Relationship science is an interdisciplinary field dedicated to the scientific study of interpersonal relationship processes. Due to its interdisciplinary nature, relationship science is made-up of researchers of various professional backgrounds within psychology and outside of psychology, but most researchers who identify with the field are psychologists by training. Additionally, the field's emphasis has historically been close and intimate relationships, which includes predominantly dating & married couples, parent-child relationships, and friendships & social networks, but some also study less salient social relationships such as colleagues and acquaintances.

References

  1. Ashiabi, Godwin S.; O’Neal, Keri K. (19 June 2015). "Child Social Development in Context: An Examination of Some Propositions in Bronfenbrenner's Bioecological Theory". SAGE Open. 5 (2): 215824401559084. doi: 10.1177/2158244015590840 .