ABSTRACT

The focus of the last four chapters was on reproductive success. Still, for you to be able to reproduce, and/or help your genetic relatives to do so, you need to survive, and in particular you need to be healthy and functional for an extensive period of time. That is, if your chances of survival are compromised, your reproductive success is also compromised. Consequently, your ratio will be sensitive to factors which have an effect on your capacity to survive and be healthy. Accordingly, this and the following three chapters will focus on applying the evolutionary perspective to derive insights that will promote success in this domain. It has to be said once more that although the survival and reproduction domains are conceptually distinct, they are interconnected. For instance, success in the survival domain can provide resources which can be further used to promote success in the reproduction domain.