Discuss sex differences in parental investment

Trivers suggests that maternal investment differs beca enjoyment of the sex differences that exist between priapics and females. From the come out of the closetset of parenthood, females cast a vaster biological investment then males. Notably, females reproductive system is much than precious as they produce in truth few eggs whilst males produce a large number ofcom/exercise-43/ sperm. This suggests that the biological aspect of conceiving a child is untold more costly for females wherefore their greater parental investment. As a result of this, females withstand to be untold chooser in their selection of a male as they do non want to waste their eggs.It is not on the dot a larger prenatal investment that females make but it is also much larger postnatal investment. Due to the immaturity of human babies at produce compared to other mammals, there is an extended period of childcare featuring breastfeeding. Males are unavailing to breastfeed as thus the females role is much more dominant and explains why they have high levels of investment at this stage and why she whitethorn seek a man with correct genes and commitment to the relationship. This acceptedises Busss cross cultural findings that women value visible resources in potential partners, whereas males, who make less parental investment, have sixfold matings with young females.This greater investment of females deal be further explained by parental certainty. Females paternity can be certain as the pregnancy is happening internally. However, males cannot be as certain that the child is theirs. For this reason, it is suggested that males protect themselves from the rick of cuckoldry by being averse(p) to invest heavily in offspring.Sexual infidelity is not just a risk for males investing in offspring that is not genetically theirs but it is also a risk for females. This is because if a male carries out sexual infidelity, they bear a child with another woman and the male will invest in that offspring, diverting his resources away from the original relationship. This explains why males are more jealous of the sexual mo and females are more jealous in the shift of emotional focus. Buss et al support the differences in jealously between males and females, as he found that males showed more distress for the sexual element whereas females showed more distress for the emotional element.As a result of sex differences in parental investment, some women may choose to use cuckoldry as a method of obtaining more resources from multiplex men and thus decrease own personal investment. However, this method carries great risk for the female as this could lead to aban take onment or keeping strategies much(prenominal) as violence.Parental investment theory suggests that men dont want to father children that arent theirs as they will use up all their resources. Anderson found that this wasnt the case. They found that fathers and stepfathers did not dissever between children who were biological and those who were their partners children.Parental investment models have been critiqued for lacking relevance to real life and modern society because in a flash females and males both work hard to attend to children and do house chores. It is a shared responsibility and investment. This means this idea is outdated.The theory also supports sexual urge stereotyping as males are seen to be evolutionally programmed to be promiscuous. Not all males act in this manner, especially in extreme religious groups where sec is not practised before marriage.Trivers theory also tells us little virtually homosexual relationships which are not reproductive. It assumed we are all a product of our genes in pursuit of fostering these, which is a de destinationinist viewpoint.The theory is also very nature and evolutionary based. Trivers theory assumes sexual attractive feature is all about babies and ignores it can be for fun rather than reproduction, highlighted by the wide us e of contraception. Not all mating is long term and women do also engage in short term relationships such as one night stands and affairs. Therefore, his theory is oversimplified, animalistic, and deterministic and suffers from evolutionary reductionism.In conclusion, a physiological approach can better explained to show the antithetic parental investments. Geher et al found that males showed a greater AMS arousal when presented with scenarios that showed the real costs of parenting. This is a consistent with the theory of parental investment as males are found to be less prepared than females for dealing with parental issues.