John Whiting's Developmental Niche Model

In the past research on human development concerning cultures other than the traditional westernized way of life was conducted predominately by anthropologists. Works such as John Whiting’s model of pyscho-cultural research provided psychologist with a basic framework to continue upon. The developmental niche model is one example. The theory was developed in the mid 1980s by Super and Harkness with the goal of understanding how variability in different culture’s effect how a child develops. The developmental niche model uses three different components in an attempt to achieve this.
The first component is physical and social settings of daily life. For example, the development of a child living in a small rural village may differ from someone living in a big urban city. The child living in the rural area may experience a different climate, different toys/reading material, and different nutritional status. Family structure is another element of the first component which changes not only from people living thousands of miles away but between people who are next door neighbors. Some families consist of one child and one parent, other consist of multiple parents, aunts,
The theme of a small rural village versus a big urban city will be continued in order to describe the second component. One aspect is sleeping patterns. A child living in a small rural village may engage in co-sleeping whereas the child living in the urban area may have their own bedroom. The dependence versus independence may also differ. A child with a single parent living in a big city may be encouraged to become more independent to increase the survival rate. In contrast a child living in the small village depends on others and others depend on them for survival. Learning also varies between cultures. In some cultures, the importance of hunting and obtaining water is more beneficial to a child than learning how to read and