Parental Investment - Psychological study of Relationships

Trivers (1972) defined parental investment as anything a parent does for their offspring to increase the chances of that offsprings survival. This is at the expence of being unable to invest in any other offspring at the same time. 

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  • Created by: Marg
  • Created on: 18-04-14 13:56

1. Why do Males Invest Less as Parents than Women?

  • Children prefer their mothers
  • Men are more selfish in sharing their resources than women
  • Males could never have been totally sure they haven't been cuckolded unlike women who are
  • Men are less competent with handling children as didn't carry the child prenatally but was biologically forced to be separate from them
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2. What is the Extent of Postnatal Male Investment?

  • Equal to female postnatal parental investment
  • Males provide resources for child post-natally
  • Men have an evolved drive for sexual variation and therefore are less likely to commit to postnatal investment
  • Great Extent

3. Why do Human Mothers Invest More Postnatally?

  • The human brain has evolved to triple its size over the last 2 thousand years
  • To increase both their own survival and the survival of their genes in the gene pool as their children will more likely reproduce if alive and therefore they breastfeed etc.
  • Childbirth is very dangerous (only with reccent modern technology women stand a really good chance of survival)
  • So male partners will provide food, security and shelter

4. What did psychologist Anderson (1999) discover?

  • 91 childless undergrads reported (no gender differences) they felt ready to become parents but measured their physiological responses males showed significantly increased heart-rate suggesting they're biologically less prepared than females
  • Using the a magazine survey completed by 2700 UK women estimated 14% of children in the UK are the result of extra-marital affairs and cuckoldry
  • Men would not discriminate against paying for their biological children and their step-children's collage education
  • Males are more jealous of physical adultery where as women are more jealous of emotional adultery and concludes that sexual jealousy has evolved over time as a way of preventing cuckoldry

5. What is the Extent of Prenatal Male Investment?

  • Males invest a lot into keeping his child safe and fed but still invest less than their female counterpart
  • The male doesn't invest as much as females, just a few moments of copulation
  • Men can have an unlimited number of offspring so invest a lot
  • Males don't invest prenatally at all as the woman alone carries the foetus in her womb
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