Abstract

Psychological Inquiry Copyright © 2000 by 2000, Vol. 11, No. 2, 84–123 Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. COMMENTARIES Attachment, Caregiving, and Parental Investment David C. Geary Department of Psychology University of Missouri at Columbia Bell and Richard’s position is very similar to Mac- gent on current conditions; for instance, if food is too Donald’s (1992) argument that attachment involves at scarce to ensure the survival or normal development of least two independent systems. The first is a fear-based offspring, then parents will often abandon these off- system that is essentially the same as that originally de- spring (Clutton-Brock, 1991). Stated somewhat differ- scribed by Bowlby (1969), and the second is a ently, from an evolutionary perspective, parental warmth-based system that is very similar to the investment is expected to be expressed contingent on caregiving system described by Bell and Richard. Both social (e.g., population density) and ecological (e.g., systems of attachment, as related to the parent–child availability of food) factors and on parental condition relationship, can be understood in terms of parental in- (e.g., health, social status). When parents invest in off- vestment (Trivers, 1972, 1974), as is described in the spring, some aspects of this investment are obligate, first