parental investment Flashcards
definition of parental investment
parental investment - any investment by a parent that increased the survival of their offspring at the expense of the parents ability to invent in any other offspring
how does this relate to to inter and intra sexual
inter sexual - highlight why women are choosier than men quality over quantity
intra sexual - men compete form the most fertile female
what is parental investment in males
males - low parental investment as they have low paternity confidence that they baby is full their they also have the ability to produce as many offspring as they want and therefore don’t need to invest heavily in 1 child - makes reproductive sense for a man to mate as many females as it increases their chance of their gene being passed on
what is parental investment in females
females have high parental investment as they have a lot of paternity confidence as they carry the baby for 9 months and are able to have maximum 12 pregnancies in their life time - so women invest heavily into the child to make sure that their genes pass on - it make reproductive sense for women to be more chooser and pick a mate that can protect and provide her her and her offspring so that she can pass on her genes
how is it consistent with anisogamy
anisogamy - difference between male and female sex cells ( games )
females : release 1 large egg each month
internal fertilisation and gestation : 1 chance each month to get pregnant
lactation : feeding offspring and suppressed ovulation for several years
males :
millions of sperm
could desert and fertile as many females
not involved
A03 - ( + ) - supporting evidence ( clark & Hatfield ( 1989 ) - questions sex
attractive confederate approached people of the opposite sex on a university campus and asked them 3 questions ‘ would you go out with me tonight ‘ ‘ would you go to my apartment tonight ‘ ‘ would you go to bed with me tonight ‘ out of the 96 students asked 75% of males said yes and no females said yes.
this shows that men are more choosier than men and that men when it comes to sex which could be to high parental investment and that men are more promiscuous than women . evolutionary theory suggests that those behaviours have evolved as men have low parental investment and low paternity confidence whilst women have high parental investment and high paternity confidence
A03 - ( - ) low population validity
the study only focuses on university student from 1 university and due to the young age and environment it could be expected that the student may be more used to the concept of causal sex and therefore their answer may not be representative of others opinions in society
results only provide limited evidence for sex differences relating to parental investment particularly as the low population validity cannot help us understand the universality of proximity in males and the lack of promiscuous in females
this weakens the validity of the theory as supporting evidence of parental investment
A03- ( - ) - Not relevant in todays society
75% of men said yes to having sex with a stranger whilst no women said yes but this might be a reflection of their true feelings. their answer may have been affected by social desirability and the fact that it was socially unacceptable in 1989 for women to say to having sex with a stranger
due to changes in social attitudes it is more socially acceptable for women to be sexually active and to talk about sex . access to contraception has also had an impact of sexual behaviour
this result in a lack of temporal validity and cultural and social climate has to be considered when using evidence to support an evolutionary theory
A03 - ( - ) - assumes that all relationships are motivated by the desire to reproduce
parental investment only caters to heterosexual relationships and assumes that all relation are sexual and motivated by the desire to reproduce but some people have decide not to have children or want children but can’t have any or want to adopt
thai weakness the assumption that all relationships are motivated by the desire to reproduce and our sexual behaviours are motivated by this
this suggest that evolutionary explanations cannot be applied to all relationships
therefore parental investment might not be a valid explanation for all relationships therefore
