Parental investment or 'Parental-care' basically means the time and energy parents allocate to producing and treating their offspring. In ecology and in animal behaviour a major question is why and how much should a parent invest in its offspring. Another question relating to parental investment is which of the parents should be the one taking care of the offspring.
Robert Trivers' theory of parental investment predicts that the sex making the largest investment in lactation, nurturing and protecting offspring will be more discriminating in mating and that the sex that invests less in offspring will compete for access to the higher investing sex.
See also
- Bateman's principle
- Inclusive fitness
- Kin selection
- Life-history theory
- Parent-offspring conflict
- Reciprocal altruism
- Sexual selection
Also, applications to the study of human behavior:
- Dual inheritance theory
- Evolutionary psychology
- Human behavioral ecology
- List of publications on evolution and human behavior
References
- Bateman, A. J. 1948. Intra-sexual selection in Drosophila. Heredity 2: 349-368.
- Trivers, R.L. (1972). Parental investment and sexual selection. In B. Campbell (Ed.), Sexual selection and the descent of man, 1871-1971 (pp. 136-179). Chicago, IL: Aldine. ISBN 0-43-562157-2
Further reading
- Anderson, K.G., Kaplan, H., and Lancaster, J.B. (2001). Men's Financial Expenditures on Genetic Children and Stepchildren from Current and Former Relationships. Population Studies Center Research Report. Full text
- Borgerhoff Mulder, M. (2000). Optimizing offspring: The quality-quantity tradeoff in agropastoral Kipsigis. Evolution and Human Behavior 21(6):390-410. Full text (Click on "Publications" and then title)
- Geary, D. C. (2006). Coevolution of paternal investment and cuckoldry in humans. In T. K. Shackelford & S. Platek (Eds.), Female infidelity and paternal uncertainty (pp. 14-34). New York: Cambridge University Press. Full text
- Geary, D. C. (2005). Evolution of paternal investment. In D. M. Buss (Ed.), The evolutionary psychology handbook (pp. 483-505). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Full text
- Hagen, E. H., Barrett, H. C. and Price, M. E. (in press). Do human parents face a quantity-quality tradeoff? Evidence from a Shuar community. American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Full text
- Holden, C.J., Sear, R. & Mace, R. (2003) Matriliny as daughter-biased investment. Evolution and Human Behavior, 24, 99-112. Full text
- Kaplan, H. & Lancaster, J. B. (2003). An Evolutionary and Ecological Analysis of Human Fertility, Mating Patterns and Parental Investment. In K.W. Wachter and R.A. Bulatao (Eds.) Offspring: Fertility Behavior in Biodemographic Perspective. National Research Council: Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, pp 170-223. Full text
- Marlowe, F. (2000). Paternal investment and the human mating system. Behavioural Processes, 51, 45-61 . Full text
- Quinlan, R., (2003). Father-Absence, Parental Care & Female Reproductive Development. Evolution and Human Behavior. 24(6): 376-390. Full text
- Quinlan, R.J., Quinlan, M.B., and Flinn, M.V. (2003). Parental investment & age at weaning in a Caribbean village. Evolution and Human Behavior 24, 1, 1-17. Full text