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?

  • Men are less competent with handling children as didn't carry the child prenatally but was biologically forced to be separate from them
  • Children prefer their mothers
  • Males could never have been totally sure they haven't been cuckolded unlike women who are
  • Men are more selfish in sharing their resources than women
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Other questions in this quiz

2. What is the Extent of Postnatal Male Investment?

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

3. What did the psychologist Buss (1995) discover? (AO2)

  • 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
  • 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
  • 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

4. Why do Human Mothers Invest More Prenatally?

  • In order to appear more attractive to males
  • Gametes are more costly and less numerous than male sperm so can only have a limited amount of offspring
  • Women are biologically less able to hunt and so raise children instead
  • human infants are born relatively immature compared to other animals so they would not survive if left to their own devices

5. What did psychologist Anderson (1999) discover?

  • 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
  • 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
  • Men would not discriminate against paying for their biological children and their step-children's collage education
  • 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

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