Buss Flashcards
What did Buss aim to do?
- see whether sex preferences are different for men and women and if these differences were the same throughout the world
- see who we chose is due to evolution
- interested in doing a cross-cultural study:whether a culture’s religion and location would affect mate preference
How can Buss’ study be placed into a social and historical context?
Increasing interest into evolutionary psychology & nature-nurture debate after Darwin. “How much mate preference is due to nature?” Survival of society depends on choosing suitable partners to produce healthy offspring
How can Buss’ study be put into an academic context?
Trivers - sexual preference is due to differing investments males and females make in their offspring. Females tend to be more choosy when choosing a partner. Men seek youth in women - this pattern is reflected in lonely hearts adverts.
What was Buss’ research method?
Cross-cultural questionnaire
How many pps were used?
10,047
How many countries were used?
33
How many pps were from Iran?
55
How many pps were from the USA?
1,500
What sampling method was used in Germany?
Volunteer
What sampling method was used in New Zealand?
Opportunist
What happened to the questions for people in Zulu?
They were read out
What was the mean sample size per country?
272
What was the mean age of all pps?
23
How many questionnaires were given out?
2
What were the 5 things the questionnaire looked at?
Age Ambition Chastity Financial Status Looks
In the first questionnaire how many questions were there?
18
How many critical questions were there in questionnaire 1?
4
What were the 2 irrelevant characteristics?
Dependable character
Sociability
What did each characteristic have to rated on?
4 point scale
0 being unimportant
3 being indispensable
What did the second questionnaire ask pps to do?
Rank 13 characteristics they look for in a mate
What were the 2 critical characteristics in questionnaire 2?
Financial prospects
Looks
How did Buss translate the questions into each language?
He got bilingual speakers
Did the native researchers know the hypothesis?
No
How did Buss address some ethical issues?
He changed the wording for the Nigerians to allow for more than 1 wife
What did Buss find in 36/37 cultures?
Females valued good financial prospects more highly than males (exception being Spain)
What did Buss find in all 37 cultures?
Males rated good looks more than females
What did Buss find in all 37 cultures about age?
Males and females preferred male to be older
What was the mean age for male marriage?
27.5
What was the mean age for female marriage?
25.4
There was some evidence to suggest males valued what more than females?
Chastity (no experience of intercourse) - not universal though
Which 2 cultures valued chastity generally?
China
Ireland
What was rated highly for males and females?
Kindness and Understanding
What did females rate more highly than males in 34/37 cultures?
Ambition - exception of Zulu
What did Buss conclude about sex differences?
Mate preference is strongly confirmed across all cultures
What did Buss conclude about evolutionary explanations?
There’s evidence
Did Buss conclude that males and females look for the same thing in a mate?
No - different things
What did Buss conclude about mate preferences relating to?
Reproductive capacities of different genders to ensure their genes survive
Was reliability a strength for Buss?
Yes - same 2 questionnaires were used, can be done again. Also people who gave out questionnaires didn’t know hypothesis
Was validity a strength for Buss?
No - pps could’ve lied and given answers they thought they should give e.g. men may have said they prefer young women when they were gay
Was sampling a strength for Buss?
Yes - 10,047 pps is large number - generalisations could be made. However no. of pps from some countries were very small and often biased. Also most pps were from urban areas - sample wasn’t representative
What data was produced?
Quantitative - comparisons could be made
No qualitative
In terms of ethics why was Buss’ study problematic?
Pps weren’t told main purpose of study so couldn’t give fully informed consent
Whose research does Buss support and how?
Trivers - similar findings were found e.g. women seeking high status and men seeking youth. It could be said that Buss improved on Trivers because a large number of ps were used and research was cross-cultural
Who supports Buss and how?
Waynforth and Dunbar - analysed 900 ads from 4 American newspapers and found: more men prefer younger women, more men prefer looks, more women used physically attractive to describe themselves, more men used financial status to describe themselves. Also Schmitt did an even larger cross-cultural study and found similar results
Whose research challenges Buss and how?
Thornhill - believes its not a women’s youth nor a man’s wealth which are important, but facial symmetry. He thinks men and women prefer partners who have balanced faces as this suggests strong genes. Thornhill found men and women rated facial symmetry of the opposite sex more attractive. This rejects Buss’ study because wealth, chastity and ambition aren’t measured. However could Thornhill’s be liited as Buss’ was cross-cultural and his wasn’t.
