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Unit 1 Foundations and Trends in Family and Consumer Sciences
Integrative Element: Human
Ecosystems
Use of a human ecosystems perspective has
been evident in family and consumer sciences
from the early days of the field. Note the 1902
definition, which emphasizes the connections
between people and their environments. This
integrative element was examined in detail
in Chapter 2. No matter what your specializa-
tion, you are learning to use an ecosystems
perspective. For example, interior designers
create human-built environments to meet the
needs of the clients who will use them. When
a preschool teacher is concerned about a child’s
development, he must analyze how the child’s
family and school (human behavioral micro-
environments) can work together to support the
child. A nutrition researcher may examine how
a nutrient (from the natural environment) may
affect the progress of a disease in a patient. Can
you think of examples in your career field?
Integrative Element: Life Course
Development
In addition to the human ecosystems frame-
work, a life course development perspective is
another way to understand individuals and
families. A life course perspective looks at an
individual or a family over time. Three different
kinds of time influence human behavior: indi-
vidual time, generational time, and historical
time. Individual time is usually referred to as
chronological age. An individual’s age is a good
predictor of a person’s interests, privileges, and
roles played in society. For example, one must
attain a certain age to be allowed to drive a car
because a degree of maturity is required. We
don’t expect teenagers to be interested in retire-
ment planning or middle-age adults to watch
cartoons on Saturday morning. Adults in a fam-
ily are supposed to support and care for the chil-
dren (Price & McKenry, 2003).
People who were born during the same time
period tend to share certain characteristics because
they have been shaped by the same social and
economic conditions during their formative years.
Members of generation Y, born roughly between
1982 and 2003, grew up during the digital age and
are more likely than their grandparents to be com-
fortable in adapting to new electronic technologies
(Pendergast, 2009). Significant historical events also
have an impact on those who experience them. For
example, the traumatic events of September 9/11
affected Americans’ feelings of security (Price &
McKenry, 2003).
The life course development perspective also
includes the major concepts of stages, tasks, and
transitions. A stage is a period in a person’s or
family’s life. In everyday language, people speak
of the “teenage years” or the “empty nest” stage
of a family. You may have studied, or will likely
study, different individual and family devel-
opment theories with formal names for stages.
Examples include Erikson’s psychosocial theory
of human development and Duvall’s family life
cycle. At each stage, the individual or the fam-
ily needs to accomplish certain tasks for healthy
development. For example, infants in Erikson’s
first stage need to develop trust in their care-
givers. Young married couples in Duvall’s first
stage of the family life cycle need to learn to get
along with their spouse’s relatives. Events, such
as the birth of a child or the youngest child leav-
ing for college, propel people to the next stage.
The move from one stage to the next is called
a transition, and transitions tend to be stressful
(Benokraitis, 2012; Price & McKenry, 2003).
Using the life course development approach
helps professionals successfully meet the needs
of their clients, students, patients, or customers.
A dietitian, for example, would be aware that
understanding the developmental tasks of ado-
lescence is critical to planning a weight-loss pro-
gram for obese teenagers. An interior designer
can use knowledge of child development to
design a playroom appropriate for preschoolers.
A restaurant owner in a retirement community
may choose music from the 1960s to appeal to
his baby boomer customers. A financial coun-
selor would recognize that a couple with young
children may be more focused on planning for
their children’s college education than on their