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Monogamy

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

  • 83 Accesses

Synonyms

Exclusive pair mating; Pair bonding

Definition

A mating system in which a single male and female form a pair-bond to produce offspring together for a significant period of time (at least one breeding season).

General Considerations

The term “monogamy” has been used to describe a variety of mating systems (Reichard 2003), but typically refers to specific affiliation with one mate, biparental care, and extra-pair aggression (territoriality and mate-guarding). Monogamy is rare in insects, fish, amphibians, and reptiles, but most avian species form monogamous pair-bonds. It is important to distinguish social monogamy, involving social affiliation in the context of pair-bonding, from genetic monogamy, with parentage confined to the socially bonded pair (Reichard 2003). Genetic monogamy is rare compared even to social monogamy (Reichard 2003). The advent of accurate genetic testing methods revealed that many species assumed to be genetically monogamous due to close pair-bonding,...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA

    Kyle Summers

Authors
  1. Kyle Summers
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Correspondence to Kyle Summers .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  2. Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, USA

    Russell Jackson

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Summers, K. (2017). Monogamy. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2718-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2718-1

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