Lecture 26: An Evolutionary Perspective On Family Dynamics

Front 1

State the 4 aspects of families.

Back 1

1. great majority of family-dwelling species exhibit reproductive helping behaviors (assistance in rearing offspring whcih is virtually non-existent in non-familial species)
3. Helping is expressed greatst to most closely related relatives
4. Incest avoidence mechanisms reduce sexually-related conflict within intact family groups.

Front 2

The death, divorce, or departure of a breeding parent in a family may/will cause:

Back 2

1) family conflict (filling of vacancy created by loss of parent)
2) sexually-related conflict (replacement person no longer kin..incest not an issue)
3) replacement mates will invest less in existing offspring than biological parents
4)replacement families will be less stable than biologically intact ones

Front 3

What are the 3 major changes in current family structures that we are witnessing?

Back 3

1) near-total disappearance of the extended family
2) an explosion in divorce and remarriage rates
3) sharp increase in frequency of single-parent families

Evolutionary perspective and studying the family interactions in other species may help us to find solutions to the growing family problems.

Front 4

Do we see cooperative care of young in humans?

Back 4

YES

Front 5

Are incestuous pairings, like in bee eaters, rare in humans as well?

Back 5

YUP

Front 6

What's unique about the human family though?

Back 6

unique role played by grandmother

Front 7

Is the stepparent hypothesis also seen in humans too?

Back 7

Yes. step children are at greater risk of injury/abandonment.
offspring are at greater risk of sexual abuse from step-parents.