evolutionary flashcards
What is parental investment theory? Who came up with the theory ?
- Trivers (1972)
- states there is a sex difference in mating strategies because females are the sex that physiologically has to invest more
- females choose their mate, and males compete because females have to invest more
- for example, womens have a limited amount of eggs and time to reproduce compare to mens sperm
- a mating error ( choosing a low quality mate) is more detrimental to women because they have limited resources and more time invest e.g pregnancy and location.
- ## both long term and short term strategies can be successful for reproduction
what is sexual strategies theory? who was it by?
- Buss & Schmitt (1993)
-based off sexual selection theory- we have different mating strategies based on the culture, social context, personal mating value, parental influence - theory states there is not one universal mating system, different strategies are associated with different mate preference and different mating psychology
- there are different adaptive problems that come with both long term and short term strategies, e.g avoiding investiment, good genetics, faithfulness
- as parental investment theory states, women are risking more if they choice a poor mate and there they tend to want a long term thing and men want short term
- men are less choosy, want more causal sex, want to have sex with multiple strangers, can deceive a women saying they want a long term but don’t
-both men and women want long-term eventually as child rearing is easier with biparental care
what is Strategic pluralism theory? by who?
- Gangestad & Simpson (2000)
-both sexes use both long and short term mating strategies in different environmental context and situation
-selection pressure means there is a mix mating strategies for certain conditions - men tend to use short term strategies
- all about the when and the context
- a man might want to have lots of causal sex and invest no time or effect, but that man is very unattractive, that man maybe more success using a long -term strategy to try and reproduce
- there can be environmental influences as well, for example is a women is rich, she say not need a man to help raise a child and she to have causal sex
- for very rich countries, short term stategies are common because single parents are more common, then it decreases with low economics because 2 parents are needing for child rearing, then it increases again in the worst economical countries because the babies survival rate is so low
what is error management theory? by who?
- Haelton & Buss (2000)
-there are two types of errors we can make, type 1, thinking something is there when it isn’t, or type 2, thinking nothing is there when there isn’t - both errors are not equal, both come with different levels of cost but type 2 has the biggest cost
- men would rather make a type 1 error and think a women is interested in them, instead of making a type 2 error and think they are not when they are. this is because it means they have missed an opportunity to potential reproduce.
what evolutionary miss match theory? who is it by?
- Li et al (2017)
- millions of years ago our brain changed massive very rapidly, they got a lot bigger, and then they stoned grow, this was around the Stone Age
- this theory state we have a stone age brain in a modern environment with modern stimuli
- millions of years ago the standard human environment did not change for a long time and human psychology was based off these environmental stimli
- major change happened rapidly ( e.g industrial revolution) and are psychology is not set up for
Link parental investment to mate preference to attractiveness
-Facial attractiveness – we are born with a relatively symmetrical face, if our faces become less symmetrical it signals are harder development trajectory, our background, potentially less healthy or worse immune system. An attractive face (average and symmetrical) signals development stability, health and fertility. We want to mate with attractive people because it increases our chance of having healthy offspring. ( critism- we have a cognitive dispostion of prototypcial stuff, e.g averageness)
- women like masculine features, its the handcap principle which states only the fittest of a species can have an ornament ( physical element the oppsite sex find attractive), can redcues are survial. A lot of testorone is needed for masucline facial features, but Testosterone is an immunosuppressant, there only the fittest (healthiness) men can risk producin so much to loook mscline. e.g strong jaw, but this requires a lot of testerone, and having this much testerone can be harmful to the immune system, indicates high levels of fitness
-Physical features- waist-to –hip ratio across time and culture has found to be attractive in women, this is because it can signal fertility. Back in day If a woman has lost her hip-waist ratio it could signal to men that she is pregnant and therefore not someone to choose to try and to reproduce with! Women find shoulder-to- waist ratio attractive in men, this could be because it shows a good upper body strength, this could signally fitness, good genes, and means he could protect her and her offspring. Back in the day it also meant he could go out and ger resources for the family. ( example of miss-match, we not longer need a big strong man to survive)
mate preference and sexual strategies theory
- sexual strategy theory would argue that we have different mate preferences depending wether we want something long term or short term.
age - long term strategies, a man wants someone younger and a women wants an older man. short-term strategies age matters less.
inteligence- does not matter in a short term stategies, however very important for a long term relationship
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explain age mate preference
Age- Men tend to go for younger women because women have a short fertile period of life compared to men, therefore dating a young woman increases the time period where she is fertile and therefore the man’s chance of reproducing with her. Women usual go for old men because it’s given them more time to develop a strong social status - parental investment theory – a women want a high-quality man due to the amount she is investing in mating with him
explain intelligence mate preference
Age- Men tend to go for younger women because women have a short fertile period of life compared to men, therefore dating a young woman increases the time period where she is fertile and therefore the man’s chance of reproducing with her. Women usual go for old men because it’s given them more time to develop a strong social status (Why do we want this) - parental investment theory – a women want a high-quality man due to the amount she is investing in mating with him
explain social status mate preference
Social status- more opportunity that most people, increases resources. Smith et al 2003 – did research on an Island at the end of the Great Barrier Reef in a culture that are turtle hunters. He found that hunter leaders who had the highest social status also had the highest number of offspring. Hunters themselves had the second highest social status and sat in the middle with the number offspring. Men who were not hungers, therefore lower status then the hunters had the least number of offspring.
explain sexual history mate preference
Sexual history- we want to mate with people that have some sexual experiences because it will likely improve our experience, however not too many people because we want to protect ourselves for STD and someone who isn’t faithful (sexual strategy theory would say people looking for a short-term partner wouldn’t care about being faithful)
explain kindness mate preference
Kindness – what counts as being kind has a massive variation, and therefore the Aspect of kindness scale was created to split these down further. Top three, loyal, honest, loving. All aspects we want in a partner who will share child rearing responsibilities.
mate preference function
Sexual history- we want someone that likes sex as much as we do, having a mismatch of sex preferences can causes conflict. If we want to have sex and pass on our genes but our partner doesn’t want to have sex this can be frustrating. There is also an element of protection, we don’t want someone with a massive sexual history because it puts us at risk of STD.
Good looks – being attractive signal fertility and health. We don’t want to mate with someone who will lead us to a genetic dead end, we must mate with someone attractive with will make our offspring attractive and therefore let them find a mate.
Intelligences- having an intelligent partner means they can bring in resources for the family and this increases the level of protection
Kindness- increases the compatibility we have with our partner and increases the co-operation, doing things together (parental investment theory would say increases equal rearing of child)
Social status- protection, security and resources
sex differences in mate preference
-The preferences we have for what we want in a partner change depending on whether we want a short-term or a long-term partner. Sex differences are often over exaggerated because there are different, but they are small (Buss 1990). We see the biggest sex differences when the sexes are using different sexual strategies.
-Kindness- both sexes rate kindness high on the preference list, however when you look deeper into what exactly they want, men tend to wat someone who will fit well with them and his life. On the other hand, women tend to want someone to be more protective of them.
Women difference between long-term and short term – Muggleton & Finchers (2017) Short- term – we tend to want more strong genetics attributes e.g., attractive, sexy voice, funny, Long-term- we choose more material attributes e.g., good income, good social status (thinking what will benefit us if we settle down with this person and have children)
what is mating strategy plasticity
within lifetime change. we can use both short term and long term strategies, we either active one or the other, and depending which one is activated the profile and mate preferences changes. someone can be open to both strategies but the level of activation in one can be stronger than the other.
- strategic pluralism and plasticity looks at why people choose or change strategies
what was the snog marriage avoid task
- Thomas (2018)
- people looked at photos of others and say would you consider this person for a long term thing, short term thing or nothing.
- most said nothing, then short term, then long term
- people for different photos choice different strategies showing there is a co-activation of strategies
- they then did a baby cue, resource cue and a danger cue ( biparental care)
- men unchanged with baby cue, women increases long term choice ( biparental care)
- resource cue, both sexes increase short-term ( lots of resources means biparental is less needed).
- danger cue, men choice more long term and women choice more short and long term ( increases protection , them and family)
what is the mate preference priority model
- yes we want everything in a partner, but when we are given a budget about the traits are partner can have we choose the one that will help reproduction e.g. what is a neccessity. if we have a large budget when we add luxuries.
- Thomas (2020) kindness being a necessity for both sexes. Attractiveness necessarily for both sexes but males 3 times more. Women put a stable income higher than men. Creativity was a luxury.
- does it really reflect how we make decisions about mates? kindness was rated the highest but social media puts a massive influence on looks, but is that because that is what we see first ( miss-match, online dating shows you a picture first- modern world dating)
(effecting mate choice) what is impression management ?
- deception, putting your best foot forward. for example wearing fake designer clothes to sign wealth which is inauthentic. basically Lying to people. Plastic surgery! Could be culture miss-match, plastic surgery and cosmetic are very modern.
(effecting mating choice) what is perception biases?
For example you see an average height guy next to lots of small guys, he seemed to be taller. The cheerleader effect, people seem more attractive when they are next to others compared to being alone.
(effecting mating choice ) what is culture influence?
Thomas (2020) budget mate preference study. Both western and eastern men rate physical attractiveness and kindness as a necessity. Financial prospects is rated more as a luxury for western men compared to eastern men. but small difference
- traits around reproduction have little cross culture variation, however traits that don’t, do vary
- women find attractiveness, kindness and financial prospect a necessity across culture.
- for both sexes religious and chastity varied
-there is varation for men about attitudes towards having children. For Western cultures we have a lot more choose about whether we want children or not because we have contraception (mismatch). In Eastern cultures its the norm that if you are in a relationship you will have children. Therefore if a man wants children, its more for them to find a women that wants kids too, because its more likey in Western cultures to choose not to.
What is mating choice copying effect?
- if we find someone attractive but we see that person is desired by others, it makes us act differently.
- when a male sees a female alone or with other females there desire for them doesn’t change.
- when a male sees a female with other males their desire for them decreases, this could be due to competition or they don’t know if they are in a relationship status
- women are the opposite, if they see a man with loads of women they think this means the man has value and she should desire him.
- a gay man seeing a man with lots of women decreases desirable because they might questions there sexual orientation
but for gay women, if they are with other women that’s a good thing
what is the Kalick-hamiltion model ??
- people date other people at random
- we assess the person attractiveness and if they pass our criteria we offer them a commitment
- if the feeling are reciprocated you starting a relationship, but if they are declined you start the dating process again
- if you are rejected you reduce the levels of your criteria, but if you people keep offering you commitment and you reject them, you increase your levels of criteria
what is aspiration threshold model ?
- we start with a threshold we have people must meet to date but the threshold starts off very uniformed
- you go on random dates, if someone exceeds your aspiration level you offer a small level of commitment
- you carry on dating others on the side and if anyone exceeds your current match in traits you switch them
- there is time limit on switching, if no one better comes along in a certain amount of time, you temporary partner becomes permanent
-during the data process we adjust our threshold depending on how many offers we are getting
