PSYC 3420 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Human Sexual Activity, Parental Investment, Parthenogenesis
16 May 2016
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Lecture 7: human sexuality and mating: recap, polygamy vs. monogamy. Humans are considered mildly polygynous : correlation between polygyny & sexual dimorphism & male-male competition. Humans less dimorphic than chimps; term is relative. Males compete with each other for access to fertile females. Highly polygynous species lead to greater male-male competition: sex differences in cost of reproduction. Costs more for females at level of both individual and sex cells. Female material contribution is much greater; costs about 670 calories every day to produce milk: reproductive potential. Number of offspring that can be produced by an individual; reproductive potential of females is lower than males: data on minimum parental investment. Females are literally and figuratively tied to their children throughout gestation and infancy. Women in other cultures breastfeed for up to 30 months, which is longer than. Western women tend to exaggerate length of time spent breastfeeding by 3. 7 months: reproductive career.
