Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory is an an excellent model for analyzing cultural influences on adolescence. However, practice is needed to identify examples of the different systems specified by the theory accurately. Which of the following accurately represents a system paired with a specific claim or finding from studies of culture's influence on adolescence? Circle the letter of the best answer and explain why it is the best answer and why each other answer is not as good.

1. Chronosystem: According to Margaret Mead, adolescents in Samoa did not experience as much "storm and stress" as did their American counterparts during the 1920s.

2. Macrosystem: Ethnic minority students learn in schools that are predominantly white and middle class in orientation.

3. Exosystem: Students who have mothers who graduated from college spend more time reading than students whose mothers did not graduate from college.

4. Mesosystem: Erratic discipline is one of the factors that mediate the effects of poverty on delinquent behavior.

5. Mesosystem: America is a nation of blended cultures.

ANSWER KEY

1. This is not the best answer. Margaret Mead was comparing to cultures in order to test ideas about the universality of the adolescent experience. Thus she was examining macrosystems.

2. This is not the best answer. This finding describes a situation in which minority individuals in one microsystem, the school, are influenced by decisions taken by individuals influenced by settings in which the minority individual does not participate (e.g, the microsystems of the majority white culture). Thus this is an exosystem rather than a macrosystem.

3. This is not the best answer. This fact appears best described as a chronosystem, because mothers' attendance or nonattendance at college ocurred well before adolescents became involved in reading. If the information concerned mothers' attending college during their children's adolescence, it would be an exosystem (with respect to the adolescents).

4. This is the best answer. The statement describes a feature of one microsystem associated with the behavior of individuals who inhabit that microsystem in other microsystems of their lives (i.e., the places in which they are delinquent).

5. This is not the best answer. The statement characterizes the nature of American culture overall, and hence it refers to a macrosystem.