Operationalizing Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Process-Person-Context-Time Model

Abstract

Urie Bronfenbrenner spent much of his academic life designing and then refining what came to be known as the bioecological theory of human development. During this process, he came to a working operationalization of his theory – what he termed the process-person-context-time (PPCT) model. However, for all of the effort that he put into refining the theory, he provided very little information on how to apply the theory, or even the PPCT model, in research. In this paper we therefore suggest a way in which the theory can be operationalized more effectively, laying out the steps that we think should be followed. Specifically, these include (a) deciding on the developmental outcome of interest; (b) operationalizing the proximal processes most relevant to the outcome of interest; (c) operationalizing relevant person, context, and time factors, such that at least two contexts are included, in both contexts can be found persons who vary in their characteristics of interest, and data are gathered over time. Finally, and most importantly, the researcher must take seriously the fact that these interacting variables operate synergistically rather than independently. In this paper, our aim is to explain the importance of these four aspects and provide examples to help researchers who wish to use bioecological theory as its author intended.