Warmth as a Developmental Construct: An Evolutionary Analysis

MacDonald, Kevin

doi:10.2307/1131231

Cited by 283 publications

(202 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…Later sexual maturation should enable girls to acquire additional social-competitive competencies (e.g., more education) and thus greater ability to eventually invest in their children. The associated traits may also include competencies that support high cooperation with a spouse and thus high paternal investment in their children (MacDonald, 1992).…”

Section: Competitivenessmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…If other proximate mechanisms were not operating, such as pairbonding (Miller & Fishkin, 1997), then once physical signs of pregnancy were evident men could easily abandon women. Concealed ovulation and the period of extended sexual activity may, in fact, be one mechanism that fosters pairbonding and later paternal investment (MacDonald, 1992). …”

Section: Women's Reproductive Strategiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evolution of Paternal Investment

Geary

2015

The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology

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Male parental investment is unusual in mammals, occurring in less than 5% of species, including humans. The chapter reviews the cost–benefit trade‐offs that likely contributed to the evolution and maintenance of human paternal investment and the proximate mechanisms that influence individual differences in the expression of this investment. The latter include biological (e.g., hormones), social (e.g., quality of the marital relationship), and wider cultural (e.g., rules for polygynous marriages) mechanisms.

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Section: Competitivenessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Women's Reproductive Strategiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of Paternal Investment

Geary

2015

The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology

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“…The combination of concealed ovulation and nonreproductive sexuality is rare or perhaps unique in primates (Alexander, 1990;Geary, 2000;MacDonald, 1992). To be sure, a lack of estrous swelling at and around the time of ovulation also occurs in some other primates (e.g., gibbons, Hylobatidae, and marmosets, Callitrichidae), but this is not the same as concealing ovulation, which can be signaled in other ways (e.g., through pheromones).…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The flux and complexity of social relationships necessarily mean that only the skeletal structure of the supporting social competencies can be inherently prespecified. The fleshing out of these competencies results from an epigenetic process and a resulting adaptation of social and resource-acquisition (e.g., through hunting) strategies to the ecology of the local community (Flinn, 1997;Geary, 1998;Geary & Bjorklund, 2000;Gottlieb, 1992;MacDonald, 1992). In other words, an increasing complexity of hominid social dynamics would require a coevolving increase in brain size and cognitive competency (e.g., theory of mind) as well as a longer developmental period that would enable the acquisition of sociocompetitive or other (e.g., hunting) competencies appropriate to local conditions.…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Niche seeking and social strategies, in turn, are expected to coalesce around the foci of the social deep structure, such as the formation of female -female social networks as related to their evolutionary function -social support and alloparenting (Geary, 2001; S. E. Taylor et al, 2000). Although individual differences in these characteristics are moderately heritable, they are also influenced by ecological variance and thus potentially related to parenting strategies, as discussed next (Bouchard et al, 1990;Caspi, Taylor, Moffitt, & Plomin, 2000;MacDonald, 1992;Reiss, 1995;Rowe, Jacobson, & Van den Oord, 1999).…”

Section: Table 4 Concepts and Definitions Of Social Competency And Somentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evolution of Human Parental Behavior and the Human Family

Geary¹,

Flinn²

2001

Parenting

103

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SYNOPSISObjective. To develop an evolutionary model that integrates human parenting and family formation with ideas about the evolved functions of distinctive human characteristics, such as concealed ovulation and sophisticated sociocognitive competencies. Design. Theoretical and empirical research across scientific disciplines is reviewed. The emphasis is on ecological and social conditions that covary, across species, with parenting, family formation, and potentially coevolving characteristics, such as a long developmental period. Results. For humans, social competition through coalition formation emerges as the key selective pressure that readily explains the coevolution of a constellation of characteristics that covary with parenting and family formation, including a lengthy developmental period, reduced sexual dimorphism, concealed ovulation, menopause, complex kinship networks, large brains, and sophisticated sociocognitive competencies. Individual and cross-cultural variations in patterns of parenting dynamics and family formation are viewed as adaptive phenotypic responses to different ecological and historical conditions. Conclusions. Human parenting and family formation are features of a coevolving suite of distinctive human characteristics, the evolutionary function of which is to facilitate the formation of kin-based coalitions for competition with other coalitions for resource control. In this view, a central function of human parenting and the human family is to provide a context for the development of sociocompetitive competencies appropriate to the local ecology.

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Psychobiological Aspects of Infant Crying

et al. 1996

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This study addresses the relationship between the amount of infant crying and maternal responsiveness to the infant's facial communicative cues during distress and non-distress situations. From an evolutionary perspective, the interpretation of infant crying as a communicative signal is preferred over its distanceregulating function. This view implies a relation between the amount of infant crying and parameters describing interactional regulation. Maternal responsiveness is operationalized by (a) the contingent reactions in a latency time span which define the intuitive character of parental behaviours (200-800ms) and by (b) an event-based coding system of maternal inappropriate behaviour. Infant states (crying, fussing, sleeping and waking hours) were assessed by means of diaries kept by the mothers. In two samples (N=lO, N=13, respectively), married, middle-class mothers were videotaped in free play situations with their healthy, firstborn children in their family homes. Results show that there is a strong intersituational consistency of maternal behaviour, but context-sensitive components of maternal behaviour could also be 1 found. The contingency of maternal reactions during the free play situation can be regarded as a predictor of the duration of the infant's crying measured by a maternal diary. The whole pattern of the results confirms the regulatory function of infant crying in the context of early caregiver-child interactions.

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Warmth as a Developmental Construct: An Evolutionary Analysis

Cited by 283 publications

References 62 publications

Evolution of Paternal Investment

Evolution of Paternal Investment

Evolution of Human Parental Behavior and the Human Family

Psychobiological Aspects of Infant Crying

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