"Parental investment, in evolutionary biology and evolutionary psychology, is any parental expenditure (e.g. time, energy, resources) that benefits offspring."
Any investment of time, energy, or resources that benefits an individual's offspring at the expense of the parent's own ability to invest in additional offspring.
Sexual selection: This theory explains how individuals choose a mate based on their physical and behavioral characteristics, which in turn can influence parental investment.
Reproductive strategies: This refers to the different ways organisms may maximize their reproductive success. Some organisms invest heavily in a small number of offspring, while others produce many offspring with lower investment in each.
Parent-offspring conflict: This theory explores the conflicts that can arise between parents and their offspring over allocation of resources such as food, attention, and protection.
Mate selection: This topic explores the factors that influence mate selection, including physical attractiveness, social status, and resources.
Sex differences in parental investment: This area of study focuses on the differences between males and females in the amount of effort they put into raising offspring.
Trivers' parental investment theory: This theory explains how parents allocate limited resources to their offspring based on their potential for reproductive success.
Parental care: This topic explores the different types of parental care exhibited by various species, including feeding, grooming, and protection.
Life history theory: This theory explains how an organism's life history (i.e. rate of growth, reproduction, and aging) affects its reproductive success and parental investment.
Parental conflict: This area of study examines conflicts that can arise between parents over the allocation of resources to their offspring.
Life cycle strategies: This topic explores how organisms adjust their parental investment depending on their life stage (e.g. infancy, juvenile, adult).
Direct investment: This includes any investment of resources by parents that directly support the survival and growth of their offspring, such as providing food, shelter, and protection.
Indirect investment: This includes investment of resources that indirectly benefit offspring, such as investing in social networks and relationships that can provide offspring with resources and protection.
Protection: This includes measures parents take to protect their offspring from danger, such as defending them from predators or keeping them away from hazardous environments.
Nourishment: This includes the provision of food and other nutrients necessary for the growth and development of offspring.
Education: This includes teaching offspring useful skills and imparting knowledge that can help them succeed in their lives.
Emotional support: This includes providing comfort and emotional support to offspring, including affection, reassurance, and guidance.
Medical care: This includes providing medical care to offspring when they are sick or injured.
Genetic investment: This includes the genetic traits that parents pass on to their offspring.
Mate choice: This includes the preferences and strategies that parents use to select mates that are likely to produce offspring with desirable traits and characteristics.
Parent-offspring conflict: This includes conflicts between parents and offspring over resources, mate choice, or other factors that affect their reproductive success.
"Parental investment may be performed by both males and females (biparental care), females alone (exclusive maternal care) or males alone (exclusive paternal care)."
"Care can be provided at any stage of the offspring's life, from prenatal (e.g. egg guarding and incubation in birds, and placental nourishment in mammals) to postnatal (e.g. food provisioning and protection of offspring)."
"Parental investment theory, a term coined by Robert Trivers in 1972..."
"Parental investment theory predicts that the sex that invests more in its offspring will be more selective when choosing a mate, and the less-investing sex will have intra-sexual competition for access to mates."
"This theory has been influential in explaining sex differences in sexual selection and mate preferences, throughout the animal kingdom and in humans."
"males alone (exclusive paternal care)."
"females alone (exclusive maternal care)."
"e.g. egg guarding and incubation in birds..."
"e.g. placental nourishment in mammals."
"e.g. food provisioning and protection of offspring."
"Parental investment may be performed by both males and females (biparental care)..."
"Parental investment, in evolutionary biology and evolutionary psychology..."
"...any parental expenditure (e.g. time, energy, resources) that benefits offspring."
"Parental investment theory predicts that the sex that invests more in its offspring will be more selective when choosing a mate..."
"...coined by Robert Trivers in 1972..."
"This theory has been influential in explaining sex differences in sexual selection..."
"...throughout the animal kingdom and in humans."
"Parental investment may be performed by both males and females (biparental care), females alone (exclusive maternal care) or males alone (exclusive paternal care)."
"...parental expenditure (e.g. time, energy, resources) that benefits offspring."