Urie Bronfenbrenner, a co-founder of the national Head Start
program and widely regarded as one of the world's leading scholars in
developmental psychology, child-rearing and human ecology – the
interdisciplinary domain he created –died at his home in Ithaca, N.Y.,
September 25 at the age of 88.
At his death, Bronfenbrenner was the Jacob Gould Sherman Professor Emeritus of
Human Development and of Psychology at Cornell University, where he spent most
of his professional career.
In 1979 Bronfenbrenner developed his groundbreaking concept on the ecology of
human development. That theoretical model transformed the way many social and
behavioral scientists approached the study of human beings and their
environments. It led to new directions in basic research and to applications in
the design of programs and policies affecting the well-being of children and
families both in the United States and abroad.
Bronfenbrenner’s theory, and his ability to translate it into operational
research models and effective social policies, in 1965 spurred the creation of
Head Start, the federal child development program for low-income children and
their families. His research also furthered the goals of Cornell’s Life Course
Institute, which was renamed the Bronfenbrenner Life Course Institute in 1993
and is currently directed by Daniel Lichter.
He spent many of his later years warning that the process that makes human
beings human is breaking down as disruptive trends in American society produce
ever more chaos in the lives of America’s children. “The hectic pace of modern
life poses a threat to our children second only to poverty and unemployment, “
he said. “We are depriving millions of children – and thereby our country – of
their birthright…virtues, such as honesty, responsibility, integrity and
compassion.”
The gravity of the crisis, he warned, threatens the competence and character of
the next generation of adults – those destined to be the first leaders of the
21st century. “The signs of this breakdown are all around us in the ever
growing rates of alienation, apathy, rebellion, delinquency and violence among
American youth," he said. Yet, Bronfenbrenner added: “It is still possible
to avoid that fate. We now know what it takes to enable families to work the
magic that only they can perform. The question is, are we willing to make the
sacrifices and the investment necessary to enable them to do so?"
Bronfenbrenner also was well-known for his cross-cultural studies on families
and their support systems and on human development and the status of children.
He was the author, co-author or editor of over 300 articles and chapters and 14
books, most notably Two Worlds of Childhood: U.S. and U.S.S.R., The State of
Americans, and The Ecology of Human Development. His writings were widely
translated, and his students and colleagues number among today’s most
internationally influential developmental psychologists.
Researchers say that before Bronfenbrenner, child psychologists studied the
child, sociologists examined the family, anthropologists the society,
economists the economic framework of the times and political scientists the
structure. As the result of Bronfenbrenner’s groundbreaking concept of the
ecology of human development, these environments – from the family to economic
and political structures – were viewed as part of the life course, embracing
both childhood and adulthood.
Bronfenbrenner’s “bioecological” approach to human development shattered
barriers among the social sciences and forged bridges among the disciplines
that have allowed findings to emerge about which key elements in the larger
social structure and across societies are vital for developing the potential of
human nature. The theory has helped tease out what is needed for the
understanding of what makes human beings human.
Stephen Ceci, professor of human development in the College of
Human Ecology at Cornell who worked closely with Bronfenbrenner’s for almost 25
years, said of Bronfenbrenner: ”When I first came to Cornell as a junior
faculty member, I was pretty full of myself. I remember thinking that I was
going to teach this old codger some new tricks and some new science. Little did
I realize that once I began working with Urie the tables would be turned on me.
I quickly apprehended that I was dealing with a true master, someone peerless.
I doubt I taught Urie much, but I can attest to the fact that he taught me a
great deal, including to think in ways that were new and exciting. Some of my
best work was done at his instigation. My bioecological theory was a direct
result of his enormous influence on my thinking.”, Ceci said. This year I
received the James McKeen Catell Award from the American Psychological Society,
the same award that Urie received many years earlier. At the award ceremony in
Los Angeles, I commented that the award was the direct result of the good luck
I had early in my career when I began collaborating with Urie. It is no
exaggeration to say that he was the most important intellectual and personal mentor
in my life. We will all miss him deeply.
“Urie was the quintessential person for spurring psychologists to look up and
realize that interpersonal relationships, even the smallest level of the child
and the parent-child relationship, did not exist in a social vacuum but were
embedded in the larger social structures of community, society, economics and
politics, while encouraging sociologists to look down to see what people were
doing,” said Melvin L. Kohn, a professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University
who studied under Bronfenbrenner some 40 years ago.
From the very beginning of his scholarly work, Bronfenbrenner pursued three
mutually reinforcing themes: 1) developing theory and corresponding research
designs at the frontiers of developmental science; 2) laying out the
implications and applications of developmental theory and research for policy
and practice; and 3) communicating – through articles, lectures and discussions
– the findings of developmental research to undergraduate students, the general
public and to decision-makers, both in the private and public sector.
His widely-published contributions won him honors and awards both at home and
abroad. He held many honorary doctoral degrees, several of them from
prestigious European universities. The most recent American award (1996), now
given annually in his name, is for "Lifetime Contribution to Developmental
Psychology in the service of Science and Society" from the American
Psychological Association, known as “The Bronfenbrenner Award”.
Born in Moscow, Russia, in 1917, he came to the United States at the age of 6.
After graduating from high school in Haverstraw, N.Y., he received a bachelor’s
degree from Cornell in 1938, completing a double major in psychology and music.
He went on to graduate work in developmental psychology, completing an M.A. at
Harvard followed by a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1942. The day
after receiving his doctorate he was inducted into the Army where he served as
a psychologist in a variety of assignments in the Air Corps and the Office of
Strategic Services. After completing officer training he served in the U.S.
Army Medical Corps. Following demobilization, and a two-year stint as an
assistant professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, he joined the
Cornell faculty in 1948 where he remained for the rest of his professional
life.
In addition to his wife, Liese, he is survived by six children and nine
grandchildren, including Kate, who is a professor of Industrial and Labor
Relations at Cornell.
(Source: http://www.srcd.org/announcement.html, retrieved 10-20-05).