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CHAPTER 7: PROBLEMS OF PARENTING
Chapter Summary
From an evolutionary perspective, offspring are the vehicles for parents’ genes. Selection should favor
parental adaptations that function to ensure the survival and reproduction of offspring. Mechanisms of
parental care have been documented in many nonhuman species. One of the most interesting puzzles is
why mothers tend to provide more parental care than fathers. Two hypotheses have been advanced to
explain this: (1) the paternity uncertainty hypothesis—males invest less than females because there is a
lower probability that they have contributed genes to their putative offspring; and (2) the mating
opportunity cost hypothesis—the costs to males of providing parental care are higher than for females
because such investment by males curtails additional mating opportunities. Current evidence supports
both the paternity uncertainty and mating opportunity cost hypotheses.
Evolved mechanisms of parental care are predicted to be sensitive to at least three contexts: (1) the
genetic relatedness of offspring, (2) the ability of the offspring to convert parental care into fitness, and
(3) alternative uses of the resources that might be available. Abundant empirical evidence supports the
hypothesis that genetic relatedness to offspring affects human parental care. Stepparents generally have
fewer positive parental feelings than genetic parents. Interactions between stepparents and stepchildren
tend to be more conflict-ridden. Newborn babies are said to resemble the putative father more than the
Evolved parental mechanisms are also predicted to be sensitive to the ability of the offspring to convert
parental care into reproductive success. Three lines of research support this theoretical expectation. First,
children born with congenital problems such as spina bifida or Down syndrome are commonly
institutionalized or given up for adoption; if they are cared for and not given up for adoption, they are far
more likely to be physically abused by their parents. Second, a study of twins found that mothers tend to
invest more in the healthy infants than in their less healthy twins. Third, young infants are at greater risk
of abuse and homicide than are older children.
The evolutionary theory of parent–offspring conflict suggests that the “interests” of parents and children
will not coincide perfectly because they are genetically related by only 50 percent. The theory predicts
that each child will generally desire a larger portion of parental resources than the parents want to give.
This theory yields some empirical predictions: (1) mother–offspring conflict will sometimes occur in
utero, such as over
whether the fetus is spontaneously aborted; (2) parents tend to value their children more than their
children value them as both get older; (3) mother–child conflict should intensify with the introduction of a
younger sibling, and become especially intense with the introduction of a half-sibling; and (4) parents and
their offspring will get into conflicts over mate choice and mating strategies. Empirical evidence on
preeclampsia supports the first prediction—it appears that fetuses secrete large amounts of human
chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) into the mother’s bloodstream, which prevents the mother from
Suggested Readings
Apicella, C. L., & Marlow, F. W. (2007). Men’s reproductive investment decisions. Human Nature, 18,
22–34.
Apostolou, M. (2009). Parent-offspring conflict over mating: The case of short-term mating strategies.
Personality and Individual Differences, 47, 895–899.
Bjorklund, D.F., & Jordan, A.C. (2013). Human parenting from an evolutionary perspective.
In W.B. Wilcox & K.K. Kline (Eds.), Gender and parenthood: Biological and social scientific
perspectives (pp. 61–90). New York: Columbia University Press.
Bjorklund, D. F., & Pellegrini, A. D. (2002). The origins of human nature. American Psychological
Association: Washington, D.C.
Brase, G.L., & Brase, S.L. (2012). Emotional regulation of fertility decision making: What is the nature
and structure of “baby fever”?. Emotion, 12,1141-1154.
Multiple Choice Questions
(a) men were overcome with jealousy over having to share their wives
(b) women were jealous of their husbands’ involvement with other women
(c) women demanded to raise their own children
(d) children demanded to be with their parents
(a) would not move their newly hatched chicks’ broken egg shells
(b) would not live in crèches of thousands or millions of bats
(c) would feed their own young just as often as the offspring of their peers
(d) would feed their own young at greater rates than their competitor’s young
3. Tinbergen experimented with nesting birds and found that their laborious efforts in removing broken
(a) make the nest less attractive to predators that might prey on their young chicks
(b) keep the nest free of germs and disease that might fester on the broken shells
(c) protect the young chicks from injury on the sharp edges of the broken shells
(d) make the nest more comfortable for the parents to perch on for prolonged periods of time
(a) that a male suspects that a child is not his own
(b) that there is always some probability that another male has fertilized the female’s egg(s)
(c) the existence of female strategy to secure paternal investment from multiple males
(d) the uncertainty of fathering offspring in the future
(a) more profitable
(b) more difficult
(c) less profitable
(d) less difficult
(a) the costs associated with greater parental investment are greater for the physically larger sex
(b) because males have uncertainty in their genetic relatedness to offspring, they should seek
additional mating opportunities
(c) the costs of missed reproductive opportunities as a result of investment in offspring are greater
for females than for males
(d) the costs of missed mating opportunities as a result of investment in offspring are greater for
males than for females
7. When the sex ratio is high (a surplus of men), men are ___________ their children than when there is a
(a) less social towards
(b) more investing in
(c) less investing in
(d) more social towards
(a) reduce their parental effort
(b) increase their parental effort
(c) reduce their mating effort
(d) experience greater paternity uncertainty
9. Evolved mechanisms of parental care should be sensitive to all of the following EXCEPT __________.
(b) ability of the offspring to convert parental care into fitness
(c) likelihood that offspring are full siblings
(d)gGenetic relatedness of parent to offspring
10. Flinn found that stepfathers’ interactions with stepchildren were __________ and _________ than
(a) less violent; less aggressive
(b) more placid; less aggressive
(c) less frequent; more aggressive
(d) more frequent; more aggressive
11. Which of the following sources of information is most relevant for men’s assessments of their
(a) information about his sexual fidelity to his partner during the period that she conceived
(b) the child’s resemblance to siblings
(c) information about a partner’s sexual fidelity during the period that she conceived
(d) the child’s resemblance to the mother
12. A woman’s successful promotion of a man’s belief that he is the father of her offspring should _____
(a) decrease
(b) increase
(c) detract from
(d) mediate
13. Daly and Wilson found that mother’s remarks about a baby’s resemblance to the father were
(a) one-third
(b) one-half
(c) two times
(d) four times
15. The _________ showed a particular bias for asserting a resemblance between the father and the baby.
(b) father’s friends
(c) mother’s kin
(d) mother’s friends
16. When viewing infant faces that had been morphed together with their own face, _____ indicated
(a) women; lower maternal certainty
(b) women; interest in meeting the child’s father
(c) men; interest in meeting the child’s mother
(d) men; they would be least resentful paying child support to that child
17. fMRI studies have revealed that ______’s brains show increased activation of the brain regions linked
(a) men; inhibiting negative responses
(b) men; reward centers
(c) women; inhibiting negative responses
(d) women; reward centers
(a) invest less in their children
(b) invest more in their children
(c) spend more time away from home
(d) experience greater paternity uncertainty
19. Burch and Gallup found that men who rated their children as _____________inflicted
(a) looking like them; more physical injuries on their partners
(b) looking like them; more severe physical injuries on their partners
(c) not looking like them; more severe physical injuries on their partners
(d) not looking like them; fewer physical injuries on their partners
20. Anderson, Kaplan, and Lancaster found that genetic offspring were ___________ than stepchildren to
(a) 2 times less likely
(b) 2 times more likely
(c) 5.5 times less likely
(d) 5.5 times more likely
21. Daly and Wilson found that children living with one genetic parent and one stepparent were about ___
(a) five
(b) ten
(c) twenty
(d) forty
22. The risk of being murdered by a genetic parent or stepparent ____________ with the age of the child.
(b) does not change
(c) decreases
(d) increases
(a) whichever parent engages in most of the caretaking will also be the one more likely to engage
in extra-pair mating
(b) women’s psychological mechanisms for caretaking remain dormant until the birth of their first
child
(c) men have adaptations that increase the chances of their children’s survival
(d) women have adaptations that increase the chances of their children’s survival
24. Which hypothesis predicts that women will be better than men at decoding all facial expressions of
(a) fitness threat hypothesis
(b) attachment promotion hypothesis
(c) tend-and-befriend hypothesis
(d) alloparenting hypothesis
25. Which hypothesis states that women possess adaptations which allow them to protect children from
(a) fitness threat hypothesis
(b) attachment promotion hypothesis
(c) tend-and-befriend hypothesis
(d) alloparenting hypothesis
26. Under ___________ parents should invest more in an ill child than in a healthy child, because
(a) some conditions; the same unit of investment benefits the ill child more than the healthy child
(b) all conditions; the same unit of investment benefits the ill child more than the healthy child
(c) most conditions; the same unit of investment benefits the ill child more than the healthy child
(d) some conditions; the same unit of investment does not benefit the ill child more than the
healthy child
27. Daly and Wilson (1988, 1995) identified two factors in parental investment which include whether the
(a) age
(b) sex
(c) birth order
(d) beauty
28. In one twin study, by eight months after giving birth, every single mother had directed more positive
(a) the first-born twin
(b) the last-born twin
(c) the twin with more health problems
(d) the healthier twin
(a) in polyandrous mating systems, parents will bias investment toward daughters in better
conditions
(b) parents will invest more in sons when the parents are in good condition
(c) in polyandrous mating systems, parents will bias investment toward sons in poor conditions
(d) parents will invest more in sons when the parents are in poor conditions
(a) Older; younger
(b) Younger; older
(c) Married; single
(d) Married; younger
(a) they have the highest rates of paternity certainty
(b) they have the highest rates of paternity uncertainty
(c) they hold their children significantly less than Aka mothers
(d) fathers resent their time spent holding because they claim that they would rather be hunting
32. Aka men of higher status devote___________ effort holding their infants than do men of lower status.
(b) more than five times the
(c) less than half of the
(d) five times less
33. When viewing pictures of babies, _________________; when viewing pictures of babies with their
(a) women’s eyes dilated less than men’s; women’s eyes dilated less than men’s
(b) women’s eyes dilated more than men’s; women’s eyes dilated more than men’s
(c) women’s eyes dilated less than men’s; women’s eyes dilated more than men’s
(d) women’s eyes dilated more than men’s; women’s eyes dilated less than men’s
34. Men __________ with a woman’s child before they are married than after, suggesting that men
(a) interact more; attract the woman
(b) interact less; reduce his fitness costs
(c) interact more; win the child’s affections
(d) interact less; increase his fitness
(a) Hamilton
(b) Daly
(c) Haig
(d) Trivers
(a) genetic conflicts between parent and child only when siblings are present
(b) the greater importance of conflicts between parent and child in early childhood
(c) conflict between parents and child due to their sharing fewer genes with each other than they
do with themselves
(d) parental benefits of conflicts between siblings
(a) may be strategies for extracting investment from parents
(b) occur among adolescents with the highest mate value to extract extra investment from their
mates
(c) may be used as a means for adolescents to leave a romantic relationship without hard feelings
(d) represent ways in which an adolescent can exert control over his or her body
(a) selection will favor adaptations in parents to manipulate children to accept greater levels of
investment than they are willing to accept
(b) selection will favor adaptations in children to manipulate parents toward children’s optimum
level of investment
(c) parents will wean children later than children prefer
(d) parents will encourage competition between siblings as a means of sizing up where the
parents’ investment is best allocated
(a) extract higher levels of nutrition from the mother
(b) cause preeclampsia in the mother
(c) both (a) and (b)
(d) neither (a) nor (b)
40. As parents age, parents _____________ to children precisely when the children___________ to the
(a) are less and less valuable; are more and more valuable
(b) are more important; are less important
(c) are more and more valuable; are less and less valuable
(d) are less important; are less important
41. Which of the following is true of how parents feel about their children based on their facial similarity?
(a) Mothers and fathers feel equally emotionally close to all their children, regardless of resemblance.
(b) The more offspring resemble them, the more mothers and fathers feel emotionally close to them.
(c) Mothers feel more emotionally close to offspring who resemble them while fathers feel equally
close to all their offspring regardless of resemblance.
(d) Fathers feel more emotionally close to offspring who resemble them while mothers feel equally
close to all their offspring regardless of resemblance.
42. Which of the following supports the hypothesis that men’s mating and parenting efforts are traded off
(a) Men’s self-perceived mate value is positively correlated with flirting behavior and negatively
correlated with attention paid to offspring.
(b) Women prefer, as long-term mates, men who are more paternal.
(c) Men who are married with children report lower energy levels than single men.
(d) Children feel more emotionally close to men who are lower in mate value.
43. According to parent-offspring conflict theory, which of the following conditions should produce the
(a) presence of a younger sibling
(b) presence of a younger half-sibling
(c) presence of a stepfather
(d) father is of lower socioeconomic status
44. Parents and offspring differ in the relative importance of certain mate traits. Parent-offspring conflict
(a) parents and offspring do not share 100 percent of their genes
(b) parents have more experience than offspring with mate choice
(c) children have evolved to always conflict with their parents until reaching adulthood
(d) parents desire grand-offspring, but the offspring are not as motivated to reproduce
45. Young women tend to pursue more of a short-term mating strategy than their parents report preferring
for their daughters. According to an evolutionary perspective, why do parents and daughters disagree
(a) Parents do not obtain the same degree of benefit from the “good genes” daughters can obtain
through short-term mating.
(b) Parents are more interested in preserving family reputation.
(c) Young women can obtain certain benefits from short-term mating that do not equally benefit their
parents, such as resources.
(d) all of the above
46. Offspring tend to prefer ____________ in their mates more than parents who prefer ____________
(a) exciting personality; physical attractiveness
(b) good family background; religiosity
(c) physical attractiveness; good family background
(d) religiosity; exciting personality
47. Perilloux and colleagues examined the phenomenon of daughter guarding from an evolutionary
(a) parents guard sons and daughters equally in social and mating contexts but guard daughters more
from physical injury
(b) parents guard sons and daughters equally against physical injury but guard daughters more in
social and mating contexts
(c) parents allow daughters to physically aggress against their brothers, but will not allow sons to
physically aggress against their sisters
(d) parents report more fear of their daughters than their sons
