Running head: THEORY APPLICATION PAPER

Human Development and Human Services: Theory Application Paper Simon Aspinall Western Washington University

Running head: THEORY APPLICATION PAPER

Abstract This academic paper is an exploration of the developmental niche theory created by Charles Super and Sara Harkness. By applying the theory to the documentary Babies this academic paper will discuss the efficacy of the theory as well as bring understanding to the framework of the theory itself. The paper takes into question how effective the theory is through analyzing one infant in the film and discussing whether or not different ideals explain what is being observed in the film. The paper will focus on the three subsets of the developmental niche: physical and social settings, customs and practices of care and psychology of the caretaker. The information provided about the developmental niche theory is through The Cambridge Handbook of Environment in Human Development by Linda Mayes and Michael Lewis. The infant that this theory will be applied to is a child from rural Mongolia, Bayarjargal. Bayarjargals behavior will be observed in the film and analyzed through the developmental niche theory. The conclusion will be based upon reflection of the theory in regards to how effective the developmental niche theory is in this context. Keywords: developmental niche, development, child rearing practices, observation, systems

Running head: THEORY APPLICATION PAPER

Evaluating the process of human life is a complicated topic that involves taking into account seemingly infinite angles, cultural practices and other mediums of life that impacts the developing mind and body of an infant. To successfully analyze and interpret the systems surrounding raising a child requires the application of scientific theories that allow a more concise summary of the behavior that is witnessed. One developmental theory that will be the focus of this paper is the developmental niche theory developed by Charles Super and Sara Harkness. Applying basic concepts and assumptions from theory to the documentary: Babies (2010) will showcase how the child from the film functions as an individual, as a member of a family and as a member of a greater community. The paper will focus on applying the developmental niche theory to Bayarjargal (who will be referred to as the shortened version Bayar), a child raised in rural Mongolia. Before analyzing the child can take place, it is important to explain what the premise of the developmental niche is. The developmental niche theory incorporates both cultural anthropology and developmental psychology towards analyzing a childs developmental behavior (Harkness & Super, 2012,). What this accomplishes is taking into account the cultural context of child rearing practices into individual families. This is achieved by analyzing three different components that the child is born into: physical and social settings, customs and practices of care, and the psychology of the caretaker. The three subsystems are separate but also function together in order to mediate a childs development and provide greater understanding. (Harkness & Super, 2012, p. 506) Each of these three components offers a different view of how the biopsychosocial environment formatted around a child takes on different developmental roles throughout the infants life. Harkness and Super (2012) speculated that the physical and social settings of a child are the most obvious facet of an infants life, stating: they can be observed by a visitor or participant in the childs daily routine (p. 507). Physical and social settings are analyzed first in this paper because it is evaluating what can be observed. According to Harkness and Super (2012) physical and social settings evaluate where, with whom, and in what activities the child is engaged. (p.506) The documentary Babies (2010) shows the observer the daily life of Bayar and gives answers to this evaluation process. After Bayar is brought home from the hospital we are shown the first act of verbal communication between Bayar and his mother. The observer is shown an interaction between Bayar and his mother, an interaction American society knows as baby talk. This is one of the of the few times we see Bayar interacting with his mother, who is shown working in later instances. As parents living in a rural part of Mongolia they are self-sustaining and have to work everyday, one scene depicts Bayars parents slaughtering an animal with him playing next to his parents (Babies, 2010). Living in a countryside effects Bayars development in many ways. According to Ember (1973), Whiting and Edwards (1988) spending time in the company of infants and being assigned responsibility for their care has been shown to promote prosocial behaviors (p.506). The way these relationships are framed through the documentary shows that there is a definitive space that is between the parent and child. There is little information given about Bayars father, because of that one cannot apply assumptions about his

Running head: THEORY APPLICATION PAPER

occupation or affect in the family. The observer is shown, however, that his mom is constantly working on the land surrounding them. Without any supervision from a secondary caregiver (such as grandparents or family friends) Bayar is learning how to function in an environment with less parental interaction than children from other cultures. When Bayar is attempting to stand he holds the wall to support him instead of holding his parents. The behavior of his parents is representative of a larger culture that influences how people operate in parent-child relationships. This can be evaluated through exploring the second subset of the developmental niche model: customs and practices. Observing customs and practices of care is the second subset of the developmental niche, and is highly influential towards the other subsets. If one can understand what is considered customary in a given culture then it becomes easier to move past filtering behavior through comparing it to ones own culture. Having limited knowledge of customs and practices often leads to viewing different culturally accepted behaviors as controversial. One custom that stood out to me was when Bayar was being lightly spanked for spilling a bowl of water on the floor. The manner in which Bayar was spanked seemed quite natural in the family unit Bayar belonged to. There was no discomfort shown by Bayars mother, which showed how customary this practice is. The integration of spanking into a larger practice has made the action commonplace, and thusly not abnormal. (Harkness and Super, 2012, p.507). According to Harkness and Super the three subsets of the developmental niche are corollaries (p. 508) , meaning that they operate both separately in their own regards and impact one another as well. It is important to take into account that parents who are constantly working manual labor to support for their family may not have the same amount of time to spend with children that parents from western cultures have. Bayars parents live in a setting where work is a necessary part of home life therefore his parents format their interactions with their children differently in a home setting. Their settings are indicative of culture that guides the customs and practices they choose to take as parents. The psychology behind Bayars parents is a majorly important aspect that will have lifelong impact on Bayar as he develops throughout life. Psychology of the caretaker is the hardest subset to observe, simply because it is not something you can determine through just observation. By simply observing the documentary Babies there is not much the observer can gather due to the fact that the footage is most of the baby. There is however a change in the behavior of the parents as the movie progresses: the mother takes on more and more work as her infant is not completely dependent on her. At the beginning of the documentary the mother is shown talking to Bayar, rocking him to sleep and bathing him. As the documentary continues we hardly see either of the parents. This shows how this particular cultures values dependence amongst infants. As soon as Bayar could crawl on his own he was shown playing either with other infants or the animals surrounding him. This demonstrates how culture plays a large role in determining what parents do with the time they are given. This subset is where the developmental niche begins to run into problems. Examining the psychology of a caretaker involves more personal in depth analysis and in some instances of examining larger cultural context this information may not be readily available at

Running head: THEORY APPLICATION PAPER

which point assumptions start to be made. Psychology of the caretaker seems to be a blurred segment that falls in between individual psychology of parents and the psychology of caregivers in a larger cultural context. While this subset is mildly confusing the theory of the development niche is successful. Success in the developmental niche can be found in its ability to take into account the effects of culture on mediums of child development, as well as the state of adult caregiver development. This theory also gives a good amount of credit to what is normalized in different cultures. Implementing the developmental niche allows for people from different cultural backgrounds to gain a better understanding of what is considered the norm for raising children. Culture creates pathways for people to follow throughout their whole lives and the developmental niche takes into account what makes cultural prevalent to every individual whom is living in a complex system that was created before their birth. What is seen as different child raising behavior in other cultures usually creates a mindset that the behavior is abnormal or inferior to how an individual would raise their child. The developmental niche takes on a more global view of the behavior witnessed and assesses it through a fundamental cultural view.

Reference List Chabat, A. (Producer), & Balms T. (Director). (2010) Babies [Motion picture]. France: Focus Features Ember, C. R. (1973). Feminine task assignment and the social behavior of boys. Ethos, 1 (4), 424-439 Harkness, S., & Super, C. (2012) The Cultural Organization of Childrens Environment. The Cambridge Handbook of Environment in Human Development, 24, 506-501 Whiting, B. B., & Edwards, C. P. (1988). Children of different worlds: the formation of social behavior. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.