ARNEEZA CHE ARSHAD, 300266901

Developmental theories

Bronfrenbrenner provides a model to explain social development. His keen interest in the social and human development offers a further understanding of Vygotskys ideas on cultural context (Bird and Drewery, 2004). He highlighted the influence of society and culture on the development of children and how they influence their development. He proposed the model that consists of five types of interlinking social systems that surround the individual child. There are microsytem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem and chronosystem. In this essay I will discuss how this model is applied to my own social development. During my early childhood development, I grow up in a very big happy family consisting of my parents, five sisters and a brother. My grandmother also lives with me because my grandfather had passed away when I was 3 years old. It is always fun and exciting for me to have many siblings although we used to fight with each other over silly things. Sometimes, that makes us really close and never feel apart. Having many siblings teaches me to be more tolerant and caring for each other. The interactions with my family members who are the people involved in the childs immediate environment refer to the microsystem in Bronfrenbrenners model (Bird and Drewery, 2004). This small group of people influence my development as every day I interact with them. Besides family, at school, I make friends with many people from different background. I must say that I spend most of my time at school when I was 13 to 17 years old as I was studying in boarding school. I learn how to respect people and accept others opinion in many aspects. Living together as a community for many years provide me with a good communication skill and other values such as cooperation and responsibility. I can see the connection between these two groups of people when the situation of what I learn at home automatically will be practiced in school and vice versa. For example, I used to be a tolerant person at home which indirectly makes me the same person with the same value at school. This value enables me to mix with my friends easily as I know how to be tolerant at any

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particular time. There was one time when I was on duty as a school prefect that my partner cannot take part because she was sick. It was a big group project and I had to do all her work including mine. If I was not being tolerant, I could just leave her part but the connection that occurs in the microsystem would not allow me to do so. This system of connections that links microsystem together is called mesosystem (Bird and Drewery, 2004). Other than that, the moral values that help me in my social development eventually are being emphasised in my neighbourhood. When there is a wedding ceremony or any community projects in my housing area, I will go and lend a hand there. The message about tolerance and helping others are achieved here when I get myself involved in the society. Besides that, public media such as television plays important roles during my childhood development. The example of these larger social systems agrees the exosystem proposed in Bronfrenbrenners model (Bird and Drewery, 2004) Lastly, macrosystem refers to large cultural patterns which include social class and the political system of the country (Bird and Drewery, 2004). I live in moderate social class and practice religion as a way of life. My religion provides me a better understanding to be a better person in life. Referring to the political system of my country, Malaysia, is a democratic and peaceful country. The law created is for the human right. From the model, one influence that mostly contributes to my identity development is microsystem. My family members are the major factors which influence my personality and behaviour. They are the persons who I first meet and communicate when I was a young girl. I would rather say that I am a polite person and I learn the value from my family. For example, my mother teaches me to always say thank you when somebody gives me something since I was a child so when I grow up, the value is still there in me as I had practiced it for a long time.

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I have five sisters and a younger brother. Whenever I am with them, I would be talkative and active as there are so many things we can do together for example travelling, shopping and sometimes arguing. We spend quality time together. As I become an adult, I end up being talkative and active person because of them. Besides that, I am the type of person who love to be surrounded by many people and do not like to be alone. This identity is closely related to my family because I have grown up in a big family and had never been alone. I am the youngest daughter in my family. I always get attention from my parents and sisters. When I want to make a decision on my own, sometimes I cannot simply do that which I find quite difficult for me because before this, I usually asked their opinion and only after that I can make any decision. I am the type of person who does not have self-confidence in decision-making. Being the youngest also trained me to be a hardworking person because my sisters keep asking me to do many things such as tidying up the house, washing dishes and laundry even though sometimes I refused to do so. To conclude, microsystem is the influence from the model which affects most of my identity and social development.