Human development is an extremely complicated process. It involves numerous systems and components. It is affected by a variety of internal and external factors. Uri Bronfenbrenner’s theory explains how human development occurs. The key premise of Bronfenbrenner’s theory is that “to understand human development, one must consider the entire ecological system in which growth occurs” (Bronfenbrenner, 1994, p. 37). According to the selected theory, this ecological system includes five different ecological environments or contexts: microsystems, mesosystems, exosystems, macrosystems, and chronosystems (Bronfenbrenner, 1994).

Microsystems are the starting point in the analysis of human development. These are the immediate environments, in which individuals grow and develop. Some of the most common examples include families and classrooms (Bronfenbrenner, 1994). Neighbors can also be regarded as a microsystem. I should say that neighborhood has had considerable impacts on my personality. I lived in the same neighborhood for years, and I knew everything and everyone in this microsystem. We were expected to follow certain patterns of behavior and support each other within our community. Failure to follow the prescribed norms and routines inevitably led to isolation.

However, the ecological environment in which individuals grow is not limited to microsystems. Next are mesosystems in which, according to Bronfenbrenner (1994), several microsystems come together to form a complex relationship. For instance, the extent to which a child is successful in a school setting has direct influences on his or her interactions with family members. In my life, academic underachievement was always a source of numerous conflicts with parents. My parents monitored my progresses and judged me for my academic failures. I often felt awkward in my relationships with friends and peers, because of what I thought to be unnecessary control on the side of my parents. This is an example of how family environments, classroom settings, and friendships interact.

Beyond mesosystems, there are exosystems. These include the links and relationships among the setting, in which the person develops, and another setting that does not involve that person directly. Bronfenbrenner (1994) names several examples, including the relationship between parents and their children’s peers, or the relationship between the child’s family and parents’ workplace issues. My exosystem comprised the parents of some of my friends and neighbors, those whom I did not see or with whom I did not maintain any direct relationships. Even though everyone in our neighborhood knew each other, some parents intentionally avoided dealing with their children’s friends and peers. Nevertheless, I always felt that something was wrong, when my friends refused to go for a walk or play with me. I knew they had difficulties managing their relationships with parents, and those difficulties had direct impacts on me.

Here, a note should be made about the macrosystem, in which I was growing. It used to have profound effects on my day-to-day life. On the one hand, I was entitled to follow the cultural patterns prescribed by our neighborhood. On the other hand, the lower socioeconomic status of our family limited me in my everyday choices. Yet, it is due to our limited financial opportunities that I learned to be a hard worker early in life. Our macrosystem further influenced the microsystem, mesosystem, and exosystem within my developmental ecology. For instance, my socioeconomic status predetermined the nature of my friendly relationships with peers. Also, it influenced the relationship between my family and classroom settings. I often felt that I was poorer than my classmates, and my parents monitored my progress to ensure that I was well-educated to pursue higher goals in life. As for the exosystem, our neighbors often helped my parents in daily affairs. We provided similar assistance to other neighbors and community members. My decision to leave home and start my career in a different location was a major transition in my life, making up the final point of my developmental ecology – the chronosystem.