Abstract:

From the traditional psychological perspectives of human development, it was generally taken for granted that individual biological development was a fixed routine, rarely had experiences in childhood been taken into consideration systematically. However, life history theory, as a branch of evolutionary biology, focusing on how organisms allocate time, energy as well as resources to various activities over their life cycle, pointed out that childhood experiences could influence individual’s somatic development and then reproductive strategy. Such an understanding implied an interaction, especially with a developmental perspective, between body and mind. Thus, the timing of sexual maturation (i.e., puberty) was a core variable distinguishing other theories of human development from life history theory.

Key words: life history theory, evolution, trade-offs, sexual maturation, childhood experience