Webinars, Videos, podcasts & Articles
Learning more about yourself may start with increasing your awareness of your individual characteristics but it does not end there. Using Urie Bronfenbrenner's ecological metaphor, there are actually four more levels of analysis that we encourage you to study and understand. Your micro-system, mesosystem, exosystem, and macro-system. As a human being, you are functioning within the context of smaller systems interdependently functioning within the larger systems. So it's incredibly important to understand yourself in context with the world around you.
individual health
Learn more about yourself as an individual. Your core beliefs, personal values, thoughts, assumptions, emotions, and behaviors - and how all of those aspects don't just stagnantly "define" you but actively impact you and your well-being. You are your own agent of change and you have a choice in how you wish to live your life.
The tricky part is first increasing your self-awareness. Then, examine if your choices are based on what’s truly meaningful to you or what you have been taught to prioritize.
Get connected to webinars, videos, articles, podcasts, and experts dedicated to enhancing every aspect of your individual health:
Family, friends, coworkers, lovers ...oh my!
The first level of our ecological system is our microsystem, the system of people who have direct contact with us. This includes our family, friends, associates, co-workers, classmates, significant others, etc. As social beings, we have a bidirectional relationship with others. Our behaviors and reactions impact our relationships with others and others have an impact on us, including affecting our individual health and well-being.
So if you're looking for help, advice, education, or just somewhere to connect, this is your spot!
workplace, institutions, & organizations
The mesosystem (work, school, and community organizations) connects individuals and micro-systems to the larger society. When different aspects of our micro-system work well together, our development is positively impacted. When these different settings clash it can negatively impact our health and well-being. Think, work-life balance, parent-teacher conferences, or how a police officer can affect community relations. These intersections can waver from healthy and helpful to unproductive and damaging.
Learn more about how our settings mediate between our personal lives and our greater society.
You'll be surprised by the body of research demonstrating the direct impact meso-system interactions have on us as individuals.
mass media
Environmental settings that are indirect but still have a profound influence on us are represented by the exosystem. The exosystem is described as settings in which individuals do not participate, but may have an indirect influence. However, as writers, actors, directors, producers, journalists, editors, media executives, and actual members of the media, many of you do have an active and direct impact on this significant aspect of our shared exosystem.
Discover scientific outcomes from the latest media and technology research, praise positive media accomplishments, and gain a better understanding of how you can support and improve media messaging:
Cultural & Social Norms
Our most extensive ecological system includes our cultural environment, our macro-system. Every system is interconnected, functions interdependently, and is part of this larger cultural context. This level of analysis is typically condensed specifically to the culture in which an individual lives. But as technology connects us, the "culture" we live in grows.
As human beings, we have multiple cultural identities. Increase your understanding of our diverse and multicultural connections locally, domestically, and around our world.
You might find that there are a lot more similarities than expected.
