Leaving Your Environment Behind In the world we live in, reality in the eyes of an individual will always be based on the things and people that surround that person. In Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory of human development there are four main concepts to support his theory: microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem and macrosystem. The basic idea behind this theory is that the environment will always influence an individual's reality. On the other hand there are those who support the idea that a person's biological influences are the key factors that will influence how an individual accelerates in life. In the theory of cognitive development Piaget supports the idea that we as humans have different stages in which we reach a higher cognitive capacity based on our biological abilities. While both of these theories have significant reasons behind them, I believe that from a teacher's perspective a child's social interactions with the outside world have the greatest effect when it comes to development and their motivation and will to succeed in life. The idea that people learn based on their surroundings is an idea well supported by theorist Bronfenbrenner. In his theory he discusses his four different environmental systems. According to an article on enotes.com the five systems are Microsystem, Mesosystem, Exosystem and Macrosystem. The first environmental system is Microsystem and this idea “refers to an individual's surrounding environment” (notes). This idea is best described when thinking about people and areas that are mostly associated with a certain individual. The second idea is the Mesosystem and this concept of Bronfenbrenner's theory is based on connections between concepts. An example of this idea would be… middle of paper… the body wants someone to succeed. Even though many of them might have great potential like my friend, they almost never think that they can succeed in a society like ours. This concept is what Bronfenbrenner called the Macrosystem. To this day the person in the story remains my best friend and I completely understand the reality he had to face. Even though theorists like Piaget say that someone's biological influences have the greatest impact on a person's life, an individual's environment will always show a greater impact on their life. In this example we saw how a boy with great potential did not perform as well as he should have due to the reality in which he was surrounded. I am left with the idea that, because of the world we live in, there will always be many who will not "succeed" in life because of the way the environment affects their beliefs.