Ruy Jornada Krebs
Center of Physical Education Sports and Physical Therapy, University of the State of Santa Catarina, Brazil
Citation
Jornada Krebs, R. (2009). Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Theory ofHuman Development and the process of development of sports talent. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 40(1), 108-135.
Abstract
Objective: The objective of this paper is to discuss the process of building the Bioecological Theory of Human Development, with emphasis on its four components: proximal processes, biopsychological characteristics of a developing person, the parameters of the ecological context, and the dimension of time. As a complementary objective this paper will propose a possible application of Bronfenbrenner’s theoretical structure to the field of sport. Development: The paper was divided into three parts. The first one was dedicated to analyzing the building process of the bioecological theory. The analysis included brief comments of some of Bronfenbrenner’s assumptions and definitions, as well as the components of his model: proximal processes, which are determined by the interactions between characteristics of the person, the context and the time; biopsychological characteristics of a developing person, which are identified as disposition, resources and demands; the parameters of the ecological context, characterized as microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem and macrosystem; the dimension of time, presented as microtime, mesotime and macrotime. The second part analyzed Bronfenbrenner’s effort to put theory into research designs. An original classification of research is commented: research on the discovery mode and research on the confirmatory mode. The third part discussed Bronfenbrenner’s theoretical structure applied in the field of sport. A theoretical model based on the Bioecological Theory of Human Development is discussed. The model proposes an analysis of the development of sport talents as a phenomenon of proximal processes and their interactions with personal attributes, ecological settings, and dimensions of time. Conclusion: After the publication ofMaking Human Beings Human, in 2005, the great legacy of Urie Bronfenbrenner, his Bioecological Theory of Human Development, was concluded. Back in the seventies it is possible to see his first attempt to build an interface between developmental research and public policy. The phenomenon discussed in this paper, development of sports talent, has variables representing all the four components of the bioecological model, and perhaps it is time to use Bronfenbrenner’s model to follow the process of developing future athletes.
Keywords: Bioecological model, Biopsychological attributes, Human ecology, Proximal processes, Sports talent