Human development is referred to as “the progressive mutual accommodation between an active growing human being and the changing properties of the immediate settings in which the developing person lives, as this process is affected by relations between these settings and by the larger context in which these settings are embedded” (Bronfenbrenner, 1979, p 21).
Critical features of this definition (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Berk, 2001)
- Developing person is not viewed as a tabula rasa i.e. blank slate as John Locke proposed. The developing person is a growing dynamic entity that progressively moves into and restructures the environment in which she/he resides.
- The environment also exerts its influence, requiring a process of mutual accommodation. Thus, the interaction between the person and the environment is characterized by reciprocity and bi-directionality.
- The environment is not restricted to a single immediate setting e.g. the family. Conceived as of a nested arrangement of concentric structures, each layer of the environment is contained within the next.
- Development as lifelong – no one phase is more important than another; not as deterministic as e.g. Freud’s psycho-sexual and Erickson’s epigenetic theories.
- Development at multi-directional – life is characterized by periods of growth and decline, and gains and losses.
- Development as plastic – human beings are open to change and to new experiences throughout the life-span.
- Development as embodied in multiple contexts: Age-graded influences (impact of chronological age on development e.g. normative expectations related to age); History-graded influences (cohort influences –g. South Africans experiencing apartheid and transition to democracy; contemporary technology-driven societies) and Non-normative influences – illness and sudden death, earthquakes, floods, involuntary childlessness.
