concept

parental investment theory

Also known as: parental investment theory, parental investment

Facts (17)

Sources

Evolutionary psychology - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org Wikipedia 16 facts

claimRobert Trivers posited that differential parental investment led to the evolution of sexual dimorphisms in mate choice, intra- and inter-sexual reproductive competition, and courtship displays.

claimParental investment theory is a branch of life history theory.

claimRobert Trivers proposed that anisogamy leads to different levels of parental investment between the sexes, with females typically investing more, which in turn leads to the evolution of different reproductive strategies and sexual conflict.

claimParental investment is defined as any parental expenditure, such as time or energy, that benefits an offspring at a cost to the parent's ability to invest in other components of fitness.

claimEvolutionary psychology research has produced findings regarding human social behavior related to infanticide, intelligence, marriage patterns, promiscuity, perception of beauty, bride price, and parental investment.

claimThe r/K selection theory proposes that species prosper either by having many offspring or by having fewer offspring with higher investment, and humans follow the strategy of having fewer offspring but investing more in each one.

claimParental investment theory explains that parents invest in individual offspring based on the likelihood of those offspring being successful and improving the parents' inclusive fitness.

claimParental investment benefits offspring by improving their condition, growth, survival, and reproductive success, but these benefits come at the cost of the parent's future reproductive ability, such as increased risk of injury from predators, loss of mating opportunities, and increased time until the next reproduction.

claimIn mammals, including humans, females make a larger parental investment than males due to gestation, childbirth, and lactation.

claimRobert Trivers' 1972 theories on reciprocity and parental investment helped re-establish evolutionary thinking in psychology and social sciences.

claimEvolutionary psychologists have conducted studies on topics including infanticide, intelligence, marriage patterns, promiscuity, perception of beauty, bride price, and parental investment.

claimRobert Trivers published an influential paper in 1972 on sex differences, which is now known as parental investment theory.

claimParental investment theory is a branch of life history theory.

claimEvolutionary psychology posits that mothers may have an evolutionary incentive to wean offspring from breastfeeding earlier than the infant desires, as this allows the mother to invest resources in additional offspring.

claimBuss and Schmitt's 1993 sexual strategies theory proposed that humans have evolved sexually dimorphic adaptations related to sexual accessibility, fertility assessment, commitment seeking and avoidance, resource procurement, paternity certainty, mate value assessment, and parental investment.

quoteMartin Daly and Margo Wilson stated in their 1999 book, 'The Truth about Cinderella: A Darwinian View of Parental Love': 'Evolutionary thinking led to the discovery of the most important risk factor for child homicide – the presence of a stepparent. Parental efforts and investments are valuable resources, and selection favors those parental psyches that allocate effort effectively to promote fitness. The adaptive problems that challenge parental decision-making include accurately identifying one's offspring, allocating resources among them with sensitivity to their needs and abilities, and converting parental investment into fitness increments.... Stepchildren were seldom or never so valuable to one's expected fitness as one's own offspring would be, and those parental psyches that were easily parasitized by just any appealing youngster must always have incurred a selective disadvantage.'

Evolutionary Psychology | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy iep.utm.edu Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy 1 fact

claimEvolutionary psychology research covers diverse topics including language, morality, emotions, parental investment, homicide, social coercion, rape, psychopathologies, landscape preferences, spatial abilities, and pregnancy sickness.