...Parental investment is defined as “any investment made by the parent in an individual offspring that increases the offsprings chance of survival.” There are differences in how much each gender invests in their offspring, according to evolutionary theories. Female investment in a child is usually greater. This is because female’s can have limited offspring, whereas men can have potentially an unlimited offspring, as well as this, females also make a greater pre and post natal commitment. The female must carry and nourish the child for 9 months, and then continue breastfeeding and care for the baby once it is born, as the child cannot get this care from the male, the male’s investment is much less, as the male can “opt out” where the mother cannot. The investment made by mothers is also great, as human babies are more dependant and require more care, as they are born less developed than other species. A reason why male investment is less of that than females is because males are always at risk of cuckoldry – investing resources in another man’s child – where females are always certain the child is theirs. Therefore the males invest less in the child, to reduce the risk of cuckoldry and therefore reduce potential resource wasting. Additionally, the risk of cuckoldry means there is more concern from the males over the sexual fidelity of mates, so as their investment is well spent. Conversely, a women’s concern is more prominently over emotional fidelity, as they want to increase...
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...males and females do not invest equally. A males investment is far more little than a females as males tend to produce many gametes and can potentially have unlimited amount of offspring. On the other hand female gametes are of little number and more costly to produce, for example she cannot produce another offspring whilst she is still pregnant. As a result females are choosier concerning mates. Males compete for quantity of females whereas females compete for quality of males and their resources. As females invest a lot during both prenatal and post-natal pregnancy (feeding etc.) they aim to look for cues that men have resources for their offspring to survive (e.g. socio economic status). According to Buss (2003) females aim to choose mates who are able to provide resources, can physically protect her and the offspring and show good promise as a parent. Males, on the other hand, have short term preferences. They prefer short term relationships in order to produce as many offspring as possible. Men seem to be less choosy and show decreased attraction following sex, which many believe is an evolutionary trait to prevent them from staying too long with one woman. Men generally look for cues that suggest fertility, such as a low waist to weight ratio and youth. When males do invest parentally through resources, they are under pressure to protect themselves from the possibility of cuckoldry. Because males make a considerable investment in their children, they have greater concern...
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...Discuss the effect of evolution on sex differences in parental investment (24 marks) Psychologists suggest that the sex difference in human reproductive behaviour plays a large role into the success of reproduction which can be explained through the theory of parental investment. Parental investment is anything that increases the chance that the offspring will survive but at the same time inhibits the adult to invest in any other offspring alive or yet to be born. Human females make a greater biological investment than males because they produce far fewer egg cells than males produces sperm, and egg cells are far more costly to produce. Traditionally, men are viewed as they have interest to invest whereas women should, but they should be choosy about who they go with. Another reason why females have a greater initial investment is that females can only have a limited number of offspring, whereas a male can potentially have a much larger number of children. As a result of this inequity, females are choosier in who they mate with. As well as making a larger prenatal investment, human mothers must also make a larger postnatal investment. Human females are burdened by the extended period of childcare that results from this period of prolonged immaturity, which includes a longer period of breastfeeding. This is another reason why the investment of human females is particularly high. The greater investment of females may also be explained in terms of parental certainty. Because...
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...REVISION Eating behaviour * Attitudes to food and eating behaviour * Explanations for the success and failure of dieting * Neural mechanisms in eating behaviour Cognitive development * Paget’s theory of cognitive development * Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development * Applications of cognitive developments theories to education Relationships * The formation of romantic relationships * The maintenance of romantic relationships * The breakdown of relationships * Sexual selection * Sex differences in parental investment * The influence of childhood on adult relationships * The influence of culture on romantic relationships Discuss attitudes to food and/or eating behaviour (24 marks) Social learning theory emphasises the impact that observing people has on our attitudes and behaviour. As children's’ parents usually provide food for them, it seems obvious that parental attitudes to food will affect their children's attitudes to them. Children also learn what to eat by watching their parents. This can be explained by social learning theory. This occurs when children observe their parents eating. In this sense, the parents act as eating role models. Observing parents getting rewarded by enjoying eating certain foods, the children learn to imitate these food preferences as they expect to receive similar rewards by doing so. This theory would therefore argue that children should show similar preferences as...
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...Discuss how human mating strategies may have evolved and evaluate the impact of mate preference as an evolutionary mechanism Will Reddish Introduction Although humans have essentially transcended the idea that the entire reason for living is to survive, and pass on their genetic information, mating is clearly an incredibly important aspect of life. Initially it may seem like the mechanisms of choosing a mate are relatively simple, but many studies into this field conclude that the choice of a mate involves very complex strategies, where an individual’s attraction to another is based on a multitude of factors. There are however, a number of competing theories about what the strategies are. Both men and women must compete to attain a good quality...
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...Because of the lower level of minimum parental investment incurred by men, short-term mating will represent a larger component of men’s sexual strategies than women’s sexual strategies (Buss & Schmitt, 1993). An Evolutionary Perspective on Human Mating by Buss & Schmitt examines the background on evolutionary theory when it relates to the human mating strategies. The article expands on how both men and women have particular psychological mechanism that triggers which relationships, short term or long term will help them choose a partner for life, when it relates to mating relationships. The article discussed the effects on long-term relationships and how these types of relationships, compares to the short term, which are known to be called brief affairs, one stand, or temporary liaison time lengths. “Long temporal durations, however, mating relationships can last for a few months, a few days, a few hours, or even a few minutes” (Buss & Schmitt, 1993). The article described key hypotheses and predictions that give an outlined summary on theories that were empirically tested that identify sensitive problem in relations with sexual accessibility fertility, commitment seeking and avoidance, paternity certainty, male and females value, and parental investment. In comparison to the homosexual relationships when children were involved there is no stable paternity or parental investments. According to Sutton and Douglas one key difference between homosexuals and heterosexuals...
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...The differences between the genders’ approaches towards intimacy and interpersonal bonds is one that continues to be extensively studied in psychology. Gender has always provided us with a perspective through which we interpret the world, mainly love and sexuality. These two aforementioned features are intricately entwined and have heavily influenced much of extant research which attempts to explain the impact of love and sexuality on a sociobiological level and on the formation of gender expectations. This essay aims to investigate and explain how attitudes with respect to relationships are affected by gender. In order to achieve this, a compilation of studies that assess the correlation between interpersonal relationships and gender will be considered. Finally, the essay will discuss possible ideas for future development in this field. Although a fine line exists between love, lust and attraction, these three components are often misinterpreted for one another. The need to belong is an evolutionary human instinct, and one that characterises an individual’s chances of survival. It is essential to acknowledge the common attributes of the three preceding elements which determine relationship statuses, so a clearer understanding can be achieved when considering the dissimilarities in attitudes between the genders. Conventionally, love has always been thought to be undemanding and trivial whereas attraction, or borderline infatuation, is affiliated with connections on a deeper...
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...of people usually related by some means, not always necessarily by blood, in which conflict, misbehavior, maltreatment and neglecting create a hostile life for its members. To explain this idea better we will see the definition of family, the differences between a healthy and a dysfunctional family; their characteristics and behavioral patterns. Some examples will help us examine this issue better, taking us to discuss the different factors that contribute to the formation of such families, along with its consequences in today’s society. According to the Dictionary of Contemporary English, a family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, formed by a father, a mother and children (1). On the other hand, its etymology recognizes the Roman Empire to be the first one to define a Family. Ironically, the Romans defined it as a group of people linked, not necessarily by blood or affection (2). Instead the main link that united the ancient Roman families was labor. According to E. J. Graff in her context “What makes a Family?” She describes that the ancient families in Europe were primarily created at will, with the only purpose to improve work productivity and patriarchs would adopt grown ups into their families for a better investment. “Choice not Biology made a Family”(3) These families would consist of legitimate children, adopted adults, secretaries, other dependents and slaves of various ages. “The Romans rarely used it to mean family in the sense of kin” (4) writes...
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...of people usually related by some means, not always necessarily by blood, in which conflict, misbehavior, maltreatment and neglecting create a hostile life for its members. To explain this idea better we will see the definition of family, the differences between a healthy and a dysfunctional family; their characteristics and behavioral patterns. Some examples will help us examine this issue better, taking us to discuss the different factors that contribute to the formation of such families, along with its consequences in today’s society. According to the Dictionary of Contemporary English, a family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, formed by a father, a mother and children (1). On the other hand, its etymology recognizes the Roman Empire to be the first one to define a Family. Ironically, the Romans defined it as a group of people linked, not necessarily by blood or affection (2). Instead the main link that united the ancient Roman families was labor. According to E. J. Graff in her context “What makes a Family?” She describes that the ancient families in Europe were primarily created at will, with the only purpose to improve work productivity and patriarchs would adopt grown ups into their families for a better investment. “Choice not Biology made a Family”(3) These families would consist of legitimate children, adopted adults, secretaries, other dependents and slaves of various ages. “The Romans rarely used it to mean family in the sense of kin” (4) writes...
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...the psychology Welcome & Introduction If your reading this your studying for AQA A Psychology Psya3 and the Relationship topic is one of the ones you have chosen. Its a wise move I think as its one of the easier ones to learn. I generally advise picking something you can relate to because you have some grounding for it as opposed to learning whole new concepts or ways of thinking on subject matter thats completely foreign. It tends to save you time in getting your head around things. A bit about me - My name is Sajan Devshi and I self-taught myself AQA A A Level Psychology between 2011-2012 achieving an A* grade and 100% in both Psya3 & Psya4. You can check out my certificate on my website at http://www.loopa.co.uk as well as get my other model answers too for the other topics in Psya3 and Psya4. But enough about me - you can learn about me in more depth on my website - lets get on with the show and onto the the overview of this topic, structuring and the model answers themselves too. S ECTION 1 Memorising Your Model Answers This is going to be pretty much your hardest task and with the help of this book hopefully it becomes more manageable. People have various ways they memorise things and it is entirely up to you. Memorising Essays U SING A CRONYMS + P RACTICE The method of memorising the essays is the same across all my model essay answers. I employ the concept of “chunking” alongside the use of “acronyms”. Combined this helped me memorise ...
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..."Why is Sex Fun? is the best book on the subject I've read. This lively exploration of our sexual heritage offers fascinating reading for anyone curious about why lovers do what they do." -Diane Ackerman, author of A Natural History of the Senses "I am so jealous of Jared Diamond, for he writes with such an elegant simplicity! Here, he takes a loot at the endlessly fascinating topic of human sexuality His convincing arguments should persuade xm that there are very special reasons why we evolved to use sex for recreation as well as for procreatim whereas most other mammals are denied that pleasure.... It is a great little book, by one of the worlds foremost biological philosophers." -ROGER Shohl Professor of Physiology Monash University Australia "Once again Jared Diamond provides us with answers to questions we may never have stopped to ask, but wish we had. In this long essay Diamond explains that recreational sex, while not unique to humans, is a rare behavior in the animal world. Above all, we learn, sexual activity divorced fron procreation is not only part of what it is to be human, but the very crux of our evolutionary success." -Bettyaxn Kevles. author of Naked to the Bonn Medical Imaging in the Twentieth Centnty The Science Masters Series is a global publishing vonture consisting of original science books written by leading scientists and published by a worldwide team of twenty-six publishers assembled by John Brockman. The series was conceived by Anthony Cheetham of Orion...
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...CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the Study The responsibility of training a child always lies in the hand of the parents. This is congruent with the common assertion sociologist that education can be an instrument of cultural change which is being taught from home is relevant in this discuss. It is not out of place to imagine that parental socio–economic background can have possible effects on the academic achievement of children in school. Whatsoever affect the development environment of children would possibly affect their education or disposition to it. Parental status is one of such variables. When a woman's nutritional status improves, so too does the nutrition of her young children (Lisa et al, 2003). Rothestein has asserted as follows: "Parents of different occupation classes often have different styles of child rearing, different ways of disciplining their children and different ways of reacting to their children education needs. These differences do not express themselves consistently as expected in the case of every family; rather they influence the average tendencies of families for different occupational classes." (Rothestein, 2004). Socioeconomic status can be defined as a person’s overall social position to which attainments in both the social and economic domain contribute. (Ainley et al., 1995). When used in studies of secondary school students school achievement, it refers to the SES of the parents or family. Socio-economic status is determined...
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...Orphans in Africa: Poverty and School Enrollment 483 ORPHANS IN AFRICA: PARENTAL DEATH, POVERTY, AND SCHOOL ENROLLMENT* ANNE CASE, CHRISTINA PAXSON, AND JOSEPH ABLEIDINGER We examine the impact of orphanhood on children’s school enrollment in 10 sub-Saharan African countries. Although poorer children in Africa are less likely to attend school, the lower enrollment of orphans is not accounted for solely by their poverty. We find that orphans are less likely to be enrolled than are nonorphans with whom they live. Consistent with Hamilton’s rule, the theory that the closeness of biological ties governs altruistic behavior, outcomes for orphans depend on the relatedness of orphans to their household heads. The lower enrollment of orphans is largely explained by the greater tendency of orphans to live with distant relatives or unrelated caregivers. I n a follow-up to the 2001 noted that nearlyGeneral Assembly Specialare suffering HIV/ United Nations Session on AIDS, UNAIDS researchers 40% of the countries that from a generalized AIDS epidemic lack a national policy to support children “orphaned or made vulnerable by AIDS” (Joint United Nations Programme 2003:12). This is an important issue in sub-Saharan Africa, where the death of prime-aged adults from HIV/AIDS has led to pronounced concentrations of orphans. Recent Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) have indicated that in Uganda, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, nearly 15% of all children under age 15 have lost...
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...G R O W I N G U P I N A U S T R A L I A Parents’ involvement in their children’s education DONNA BERTHELSEN and SUE WALKER n this paper, the nature of parental involvement in children’s education in the early years of school is investigated, as well as the relationship between parental involvement and children’s learning competence. The analyses use Wave 2 data from Growing Up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) for children in the kindergarten cohort, who were recruited at age 4 into the study. At the time of the Wave 2 data collection in 2006, these children were in Year 1 and 2 at school. Research findings on parental involvement are first briefly reviewed, and then the analyses using the LSAC data are discussed. I Questions considered include: What expectations do parents have for their child’s education? How responsive do parents believe that schools and teachers are to their needs? What contact do parents have with their children’s school and teachers in the early years of school? Does parental involvement predict children’s learning competence? Engaging families in the education of their children at home and at school is increasingly viewed as an important means to support better learning outcomes for children. When schools and families work together, children have higher achievement in school and stay in school longer (Henderson & 34 Family Matters 2008 No. 79 Australian Institute of Family Studies Mapp, 2002; Jeynes, 2005; Pomerantz...
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...The flexibility of labour markets and the elite-orientated education of liberal market economies in the UK and the US result in higher degrees of inequality compared to coordinated market economies. Discuss. Student ID: 0956592 Word count (excluding references): 2492 This paper will discuss and analyze whether the flexibility of labour markets and the elite orientated education in liberal market economies, found in the UK and the US are the only reasons for higher degrees of inequality, compared to coordinated market economies. In order to understand the labour markets of liberal market economies and coordinated market economies, they must be defined in terms of their differences, which can affect the flexibility of their labour markets. Furthermore, it is important to note that there are numerous inequalities which may emerge in this analysis. Namely, gender inequality, class inequality, and wage inequality as well as some other perspectives will be examined. The aim of this paper is recognize which inequalities are more prominent in either liberal market economies or coordinated market economies, in relation to the flexibility of relevant labour market. Drawing on the work of Polanyi (1994), Esteves-Abe et al. (2001) suggest that market failures in economies can be avoided depending on the type and the extent of the social protection offered from national institutions. Liberal market economies, such as the US and UK, have an institutional framework which accents...
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