In this article, a proximate conception of parental investment for humans is developed. Parenting investment is introduced as a part of life histories, specifying the optimization of reproductive success in terms of inclusive fitness. Contextual, parental, and children's characteristics that influence investment decisions are specified. We can distinguish between four systems of parenting: primary care, body stimulation, body contact, and face-to-face interaction, which prompt different socialization experiences with different psychological consequences. Parental behaviors within these different systems may vary in terms of the expression of warmth and contingency. Parenting is described here as an intergenerational transmission mechanism of psychological characteristics as well as reproductive styles.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Ainsworth, M.D.S. , Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
2.
Alexander, R. D. (1988). Über die Interessen der Menschen und die Evolution von Lebensläufen [About the interests of humans and the evolution of life histories]. In H. Meier (Ed.), Die Herausforderung der Evolutionsbiologie (pp. 129-171). München, Germany: Piper.
3.
Alexander, R. D. (1990). Epigenetic rules and Darwinian algorithms—The adaptive study of learning and development. Ethology and Sociobiology, 11, 241-303.
4.
Barr, R. G. , Konner, M., Bakeman, R., & Adamson, L. (1991). Crying in!Kung San infants: A test of the cultural specificity hypothesis. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 33, 601-610.
5.
Belsky, J. (1997). Attachment, mating, and parenting: An evolutionary interpretation. Human Nature, 8, 361-381.
6.
Belsky, J. , Steinberg, L., & Draper, P. (1991). Further reflections on an evolutionary theory of socialization. Child Development, 62, 682-685.
7.
Birg, H. (1996). Die Weltbevölkerung: Dynamik und Gefahren [World populations: Dynamics and dangers]. München, Germany: Beck.
8.
Bischof, N. (1996). Das Kraftfeld der Mythen: Signale aus der Zeit, in der wir die Welt erschaffen haben [The power field of myths: Signals from a time when we created the world]. München, Germany: Piper.
9.
Boer, F. (1992). Sibling relationships in middle childhood. Leiden, the Netherlands: DSWO University of Leiden Press.
10.
Bonner, J. T. (1965). Size and cycle. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
11.
Borgerhoff Mulder, M. (1990). Kipsigis women's preference for wealthy men: Evidence for female choice in mammals?Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 27, 255-264.
12.
Boyd, R. , & Richerson, P. J. (1985). Culture and evolutionary process. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
13.
Changeux, J.-P. (1985). Neuronal man. New York: Pantheon.
14.
Chasiotis, A. (1998). Zur intergenerationellen Bedeutung des Kindheitskontextes für die somatische, psychologische und reproduktive Individualentwicklung [The intergenerational significance of the childhood context for the somatic, psychological, and reproductive development of individuals]. Untersuchung zur evolutionären Entwicklungspsychologie der Lebensspanne [Studies of an evolutionary life span psychology]. Inaugural-dissertation, University of Osnabrueck.
15.
Chasiotis, A. (in press). Kindheit und Lebenslauf: Untersuchungen zur evolutionären Psychologie der Lebensspanne. Bern, Switzerland: Huber.
16.
Chasiotis, A. , Scheffer, D., Restemeier, R., & Keller, H. (1998). Intergenerational context discontinuity affects the onset of puberty: A comparison of parent-child dyads in West and East Germany. Human Nature, 9, 321-339.
17.
Chisholm, J. S. (1996). The evolutionary ecology of attachment organization. Human Nature, 7, 1-37.
18.
Clutton-Brock, T. H. (1991). The evolution of parental care. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
19.
Cole, M. (1992). Culture in development. In M. H. Bornstein & M. E. Lamb (Eds.), Developmental psychology: An advanced textbook (3rd ed., pp. 731-789). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
20.
Daly, M. , & Wilson, M. (1984). A sociobiological analysis of human infanticide. In G. Hausfater & S. B. Hrdy (Eds.), Infanticide: Comparative and evolutionary perspectives (pp. 487-502). New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
21.
Das Gupta, M. (1987). Selective discrimination against female children in rural Punjab. Indian Population and Development Review, 13, 77-100.
22.
De Vries, M. W. (1987). Cry babies, culture and catastrophe: Infant temperament among the Masai. In N. Scheper-Hughes (Ed.), Child survival: Anthropological approaches to the treatment and maltreatment of children. Boston: Reidel.
23.
Draper, P. , & Harpending, H. (1988). A sociobiological perspective on human reproductive strategies. In K. B. MacDonald (Ed.), Sociobiological perspectives on human development (pp. 340-372). New York: Springer.
24.
Dunbar, R. (1996). Grooming, gossip and the evolution of language. London: Faber & Faber.
25.
Field, T. M. (1998). Touch therapy effects on development. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 22, 779-797.
26.
Field, T. M. , Scafidi, T., & Schanberg, S. (1987). Massage of preterm newborns to improve growth and development. Pediatric Nursing, 13, 385-387.
27.
Fisher, H. (1992). The anatomy of love. New York: Norton.
28.
Greenfield, P. M. (1994). Independence and interdependence as developmental scripts: Implications for theory, research, and practice. In P. M. Greenfield & R. R. Cocking (Eds.), Cross-cultural roots of minority child development (pp. 1-40). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
29.
Hammer, J. (1997). Bindung, Sexualität und Partnerwahl: Eine Studie zur Interaktion zweier Verhaltenssysteme und ihres Einflusses auf die Entstehung sekundärer Vertrautheir [Attachment, sexuality, and mate preference: A study about the interaction of two behavioral systems and their influence on the emergence of secondary familiarity]. Unpublished master's thesis, University of Osnabrueck, Germany.
30.
Hardy, J. B. , Astone, N. M., Brooks-Gunn, J., Shapiro, S., & Miller, T. L. (1998). Like mother, like child: Intergenerational patterns of age at first birth and associations with childhood and adolescent characteristics and adult outcomes in the second generation. Developmental Psychology, 34, 1220-1232.
31.
Hewlett, B. S. (1991). Intimate fathers: The nature and context of Aka Pygmy paternal infant care. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
32.
Hewlett, B. S. , Lamb, M. E., Shannon, D., Leyendecker, B., & Schölmerich, A. (1998). Culture and early infancy among central African foragers and farmers. Developmental Psychology, 34, 653-661.
33.
Hitchcock, J. T. , & Minturn, L. (1963). The Rajput of Khalapur, India. In B. B. Whiting (Ed.), Six cultures. Studies of child rearing (pp. 203-362). New York: John Wiley.
34.
Hrdy, S. B. (1987). Sex biased parental investment among primates and other mammals: A critical evaluation of the Trivers-Willard Hypothesis. In R. J. Gelles & J. B. Lancaster (Eds.), Child abuse and neglect—Biosocial dimensions (pp. 97-147). New York: Aldine.
35.
Keller, H. (1996). Evolutionary approaches. In J. W. Berry, Y. H. Poortinga, & J. Pandey (Eds.), Handbook of cross-cultural psychology, Volume 1: Theory and method (2nd ed., pp. 215-255). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
36.
Keller, H. (1998a, July 20-23). Different socialization pathways to adolescence. Paper presented at the 4th Africa Region International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development Conference (ISSBD), Windhoek/Namibia.
37.
Keller, H. (1998b, November 5-8). The role of development for understanding the biological basis of cultural learning. Paper presented at the symposium, Theories of Individual Development: Demarcating and Integrating Metaperspectives, Wittenberg, Germany.
38.
Keller, H. (in press). Sozial-emotionale Grundlagen des Spracherwerbs [Social-emotional underpinnings of language acquisition]. In H. Grimm (Ed.), Enzyklopädie der Psychologie, Band 3: Sprachentwicklung. Göttingen, Germany: Hogrefe.
39.
Keller, H. , & Eckensberger, L. H. (1998). Kultur und Entwicklung [Culture and development]. In H. Keller (Ed.), Lehrbuch Entwicklungspsychologie (pp. 57-96). Bern, Switzerland: Huber Verlag.
40.
Keller, H. , Lohaus, A., Voelker, S., Cappenberg, M., & Chasiotis, A. (in press). Temporal contingency as an independent component of parenting behavior. Child Development.
41.
Keller, H. , & Zach, U. (1999). Sex and sibling position as determinants of maternal differential care. Unpublished manuscript, Osnabrueck, Germany: Osnabrueck University.
42.
Lancaster, J. B. , & Lancaster, C. S. (1987). The watershed: change in parental investment and family formation in the course of human evolution. In J. B. Lancaster, J. Altman, A. S. Rossi, & L. R. Sherrod (Eds.), Parenting across the lifespan: Biosocial dimensions (pp. 187-205). New York: de Gruyter.
43.
Landers, C. (1989). A psychobiological study of infant development in South India. In J. K. Nugent, B. M. Lester, & T. B. Brazelton (Eds.), The cultural context of infancy (pp. 169-207). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
44.
LeVine, R. A. (1990). Infant environments in psychoanalysis: A cross-cultural view. In J. W. Stigler, R. A. Shweder, & G. Herdt (Eds.), Cultural psychology: Essays on comparative human development (pp. 454-474). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
45.
MacDonald, K. B. (1992). Warmth as a developmental construct: An evolutionary analysis. Child Development, 63, 753-773.
46.
MacDonald, K. B. (1998). Evolution, culture, and the five-factor model. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 29, 119-149.
47.
Mann, J. (1992). Nurturance or negligence: maternal psychology and behavioral preference among preterm twins. In J. H. Barkow, L. Cosmides, & J. Tooby (Eds.), The adapted mind: Evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture (pp. 367-390). New York: Oxford University Press.
48.
Mayr, E. (1982). The growth of biological thought: Diversity, evolution, and inheritance. Cambridge, MA: Belknap.
49.
Minturn, L. , & Lambert, W. W. (1964). Mothers of six cultures: Antecedents of child rearing. New York: John Wiley.
50.
Morelli, G. A. , & Tronick, E. Z. (1991). Parenting and child developments in the Efe foragers and Lese farmers of Zaire. In M. H. Bornstein (Ed.), Cultural approaches to parenting (pp. 91-114). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
51.
Nsamenang, A. B. , & Lamb, M. E. (1991). Attitudes and beliefs regarding childbirth and perinatal care among the Nso of Northwest Cameroon. Unpublished manuscript.
52.
Ochs, E. , & Schieffelin, B. (1984). Language acquisition and socialization: Three developmental stories and their implications. In R. Shweder & R. LeVine (Eds.), Culture theory: Essays on mind, self and emotion (pp. 276-322). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
53.
Paul, A. , & Voland, E. (1997). Die soziobiologische Perspektive: Eltern-Kind-Beziehungen im evolutionären Kontext [The sociobiological perspective: Parent-child relationships in an evolutionary context]. In H. Keller (Ed.), Handbuch der Kleinkindforschung (pp. 121-147). Bern, Switzerland: Huber.
54.
Rabinovich, E. P. (1998, August 3-7). Comparative study of sleeping arrangements and breastfeeding in Brazilian children. Paper presented at the XIVth Congress IACCP, Bellingham.
55.
Raeff, C. , Greenfield, P. M., & Quiroz, B. (in press). Developing interpersonal relationships in the cultural contexts of individualism and collectivism. In S. Harkness, C. Raeff, & C. R. Super (Eds.), The social construction of the child: New directions in child development. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
56.
Rochat, P. (1997). Early development of the ecological self. In C. Dent-Read & P. Zukow-Goldring (Eds.), Evolving explanations of development: Ecological approaches to organism-environment systems (pp. 91-121). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
57.
Saraswathi, T. S. (1994). Women in poverty context: Balancing economic and child care needs. In R. Borooah, K. Cloud, S. Seshadri, T. S. Saraswathi, J. T. Peterson, & A. Verma (Eds.), Capturing complexity: An interdisciplinary look at women, households and development (pp. 162-178). New Dehli, India: Sage.
58.
Schaffer, W. (1983). The application of optimal control theory to the general life history problem. American Naturalist, 121, 418-431.
59.
Schiefenhövel, W. (1993). Adaptiv oder pathogen? Kulturelle Einflüsse auf die Streßphysiologie [Adaptive or pathogenic? Cultural influences on stress physiology]. In E. Voland (Ed.), Evolution und Anpassung: Warum die Vergangenheit die Gegenwart erklärt. Stuttgart, Germany: Hirzel.
60.
Sulloway, F. (1996). Born to rebel: Birth order, family dynamics, and creative lives. New York: Pantheon.
61.
Super, C. M. (1976). Environmental effects on motor development: A case of African infant precocity. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 18, 561-567.
62.
Tarabulsy, G. M. , Tessier, R., & Kappas, A. (1996). Contingency detection and the contingent organization of behavior in interactions: Implications for socioemotional development in infancy. Psychological Bulletin, 120, 25-41.
63.
Tooby, J. , & Cosmides, L. (1990a). On the universality of human nature and the uniqueness of the individual: The role of genetics and adaptation. Journal of Personality, 58, 17-67.
64.
Tooby, J. , & Cosmides, L. (1990b). The past explains the present: Emotional adaptations and the structure of ancestral environments. Ethology and Sociobiology, 11, 375-424.
65.
Tooby, J. , & Cosmides, L. (1992). The psychological foundations of culture. In J. H. Barkow, L. Cosmides, & J. Tooby (Eds.), The adapted mind: Evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture (pp. 19-136). New York: Oxford University Press.
66.
Trivers, R. L. (1972). Parental investment and sexual selection. In B. Campbell (Ed.), Sexual selection and the descent of man 1871-1971 (pp. 135-179). Chicago: Aldine.
67.
Trivers, R. L. (1974). Parent-offspring conflict. American Zoologist, 14, 249-264.
68.
Trivers, R. L. (1985). Social evolution. Menlo Park, CA: Benjamin/Cummings.
69.
Trivers, R. L. , & Willard, D. (1973). Natural selection of parental ability to vary the sex ratio of off-spring. Science, 179, 90-92.
70.
Van den Boom, D. C. (1997). Sensitivity and attachment: Next steps for developmentalists. Child Development, 68, 592-594.
71.
Voelker, S. , Keller, H., Lohaus, A., Cappenberg, M., & Chasiotis, A. (in press). Maternal interactive behavior in early infancy and later attachment. International Journal of Behavioral Development.
72.
Voelker, S. , Yovsi, R. D., & Keller, H. (1998, July 1-4). Maternal interactional quality as assessed by non-trained raters from different cultural backgrounds. Poster presented at the 15th biennial ISSBD meetings, Bern, Switzerland.
73.
Voland, E. (1990). Differential reproductive success within the Krummhörn population (Germany, 18th and 19th centuries). Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology, 26, 65-72.
74.
Voland, E. (1993). Grundriß der Soziobiologie [Foundation of sociobiology]. Stuttgart, Germany: Fischer.
75.
Walsh Escarce, M. E. (1989). A cross-cultural study of Nepalese neonatal behavior. In J. K. Nugent, B. M. Lester, & T. B. Brazelton (Eds.), The cultural context of infancy (pp. 65-86). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
76.
White, R. W. (1959). Motivation reconsidered: The concept of competence. Psychological Review, 66, 297-333.
77.
Wilson, D. S. (1994). Adaptive genetic variation and human evolutionary psychology. Ethology and Sociobiology, 15, 219-235.
78.
Yovsi, R. D. (1999). An investigation of breastfeeding and mother-infant interactions in the face of cultural taboos and belief systems: The case of Nso and Fulani mothers and their infants of 3-5 months of age in Mbvem, sub-division of the North-west province of Cameroon. Unpublished manuscript, Osnabrueck University, Germany.
