Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Niche

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences

Synonyms

Ecological niche

Definition

The niche refers to the ecological role of an organism in, and its relationship to, its ecosystem.

Introduction

Organisms can exploit a variety of niches that in turn exert selection pressure on the population and hence explain adaptive genetic variation between members of the population. Recent discussions within evolutionary theory have invoked two quite distinct concepts of the niche. Niche construction theory (NCT) and developmental niche construction (DNC) are both theories designed to put the active organism back at the center of evolutionary theory, albeit with different conception of the niche at their center.

Theories of Niche Construction

NCT refers to the process by which an organism alters its own environment and hence influences its own and its species selection pressure. It suggests that rather than populations of organisms passively adapting to a changing environment, they actively construct their environment – their selective niche...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Griffiths, P. E. (2011). Our plastic nature. In S. Gissis & E. Jablonka (Eds.), Transformations of Lamarckism: From subtle fluids to molecular biology (pp. 319–330). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Hrdy, S. (2009). Mothers and others: The evolutionary origins of mutual understanding. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ingold, T. (2005). On the social relations of the hunter-gatherer band. In R. B. Lee & R. Daly (Eds.), The Cambridge encyclopedia of hunters and gatherers (pp. 399–410). New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Konner, M. (2005). Hunter-gatherer infancy and childhood: The !Kung and others. In B. Hewlett & M. Lamb (Eds.), Hunter-gatherer childhoods: Evolutionary, developmental and cultural perspectives (pp. 19–64). Transaction: New Brunswich, NJ.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laland, K. N., Odling-Smee, F. J., & Feldman, M. W. (2000). Niche construction, biological evolution and cultural change. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23, 131–157.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Narvaez, D., Gleason, T., Wang, L., Brooks, J., Burke Lefever, J., Cheng, Y., & the Center for the Prevention of Child Neglect. (2013a). The evolved development niche: Longitudinal effects of caregiving practices on early childhood psychosocial development. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 28, 759–773.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Narvaez, D., Panksepp, J., Schore, A., & Gleason, T. (Eds.). (2013b). Evolution, early experience and human development: From research to practice and policy. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Odling-Smee, F. J., Laland, K. N., & Feldman, M. W. (2003). Niche construction: The neglected process in evolution. Princeton: Princeton University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sterelny, K. (2003). Thought in a hostile world: The evolution of human cognition. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stotz, K. (2014). Extended evolutionary psychology: The importance of transgenerational developmental plasticity. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 908. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00908.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Stotz, K. (2017). Why developmental niche construction is not selective niche construction – And why it matters. Interface Focus, 7, 20160157 (Special Issue “New Trends in Evolutionary Biology”).

    Google Scholar 

  • Stotz, K., & Griffiths, P. E. (2017). A developmental systems account of human nature. In E. Hannon & T. Lewens (Eds.), Why we disagree about human nature. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trevathan, W. (2011). Human birth: An evolutionary perspective. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • West, M. J., & King, A. P. (1987). Settling nature and nurture into an ontogenetic niche. Developmental Psychobiology, 20(5), 549–562.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Karola Stotz

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA

    Darcia Narvaez

Authors
  1. Karola Stotz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Darcia Narvaez
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Karola Stotz .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Virgil Zeigler-Hill

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA

    Jon Sefcek

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Stotz, K., Narvaez, D. (2018). Niche. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1554-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1554-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation