Before Bronfenbrenner, child psychologists studied children, sociologists focused on families, anthropologists considered culture, economists the economic framework of the times and so on. Bronfenbrenner'sgroundbreaking concept of the ecology of human development, however, viewed these environments -- from the family to current society and the times -- as nested settings in which a person
develops over time throughout the life course. Since 1979, when Bronfenbrenner published his ecological theory, he has transformed how many social and behavioral scientists approach the study of human beings and their environments.