ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the systems in which an individual interacts that help shape social, emotional, and psychosocial development, as well as the development of talent. As such, “systemic thinking is concerned with the simultaneous investigation of many variables and their changes over time as well as self-organizations into states with radically different properties” on the assumption “that many aspects of reality can be better analyzed as interconnected elements or components that form a whole or an entirety that acts in a specific environment”. Bronfenbrenner suggested that development could not be understood adequately without being examined within the context of a series of nested systems with the individual at the center. The microsystem is composed of institutions and groups that most immediately and directly impact the individual’s development. For example, a child’s microsystems include the home, the classroom and school, the peer group, and any other groups to which the child belongs, like a sports team or a religious group.
