Urie Bronfenbrenner

Urie Bronfenbrenner (April 29, 1917 – September 25, 2005) was a Russian-born American psychologist best known for using a contextual framework to better understand human development.^[1] This framework, broadly referred to as 'ecological systems theory', was formalized in an article published in American Psychologist,^[2] articulated in a series of propositions and hypotheses in his most cited book, The Ecology of Human Development^[3] and further developed in The Bioecological Model of Human Development ^[4] and later writings. He argued that natural experiments and applied developmental interventions provide valuable scientific opportunities.^[2] These beliefs were exemplified in his involvement in developing the US Head Start program in 1965.^[5] Bronfenbrenner's writings about the limitations of understanding child development solely from experimental laboratory research and the potential for using contextual variability to provide insight into developmental processes ^[3] was important in changing the focus of developmental psychology.^[5]