Discuss Sex Differences in Parental Investment.

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Rosie Clarke Discuss sex differences in parental investment. 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. 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. Childbirth in humans occurs relatively early in development due to the large size of the human skull, meaning that human infants are born more immature than most other animals. 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 fertilisation in humans is internal, the female is always certain that she is the mother of her child. The male, on the other hand, must always have some degree of parental uncertainty. Males are under pressure to protect themselves from investing in a child who is not genetically their own, and threfore may be more reluctant to invest heavily in the child. The possibility of sexual infidelity posed different adaptive problems for males and females. A man whose mate was unfaithful risked investing in offspring who were not his own, while a women with an unfaithful mate risked the diversion of resources away from her & her children. Sexual jealousy, therefore, may have evolved as a solution to these problems. Men are more jealous of the sexual
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