G - Evolutionary Flashcards
What is the Division of Labour?
Role division may have evolved because women would have spent more of their adult life pregnant or producing milk or both, if a women spent time hunting, this would reduce the groups reproductive success
Women would contribute by growing vegetables, milling grain, making clothes etc. to enhance reproductive success (adaptive advantages)
Men would hunt
What is Mate choice?
Men look for physically attractive partners and select women who are more fertile (smooth skin, glossy hair, red lips = youthfulness)
Women look for wealthy and powerful men
What is Cognitive Style?
Women: empathising (caring for children)
Men: systematising (hunting)
What did Clark and Hatfield find?
None of the women agreed to have sex with a stranger, 75% of men agreed - importance of parental investment, women = picky
How did Buss further support Clark and Hatfield?
Men became more distressed at the image of partner being sexually unfaithful (risk of cuckoldry), women became more distressed at partner being in love with someone else
What did Buss find?
Men valued physical attractiveness more than women, also preferred a partner younger than themselves, women valued financial capacity and success - shows different genders seek different attributes
What did Dunbar find that goes against Buss?
Heterosexual women were 3x more likely to seek resources and status than lesbians, gay men offered resources about half as often as heterosexual men - this theory doesn’t show gender differences for everyone - modern women tend to be more financial independent so may look for resources less and seek out emotional characteristics more - theory is outdated
What did Anderson find?
Men = more aggressive towards other men than women -shows men compete for reproductive success
How did Luxen further support Anderson?
Men showed more dominant behaviour (head shaking) whereas women showed more affiliation (frequently laughing) - men and women show different behaviours based on evolutionary past, dominance = beneficial for hunting
What is Baron-Cohen’s E-S theory?
Genders are a result of selecting pressures, men = systemise with greater precision = evolutionary advantage, women = empathising = can understand how people think/feel
What is a weakness of Baron-Cohen’s E-S theory?
Research on family violence suggests males and females are roughly equal in their tendency to participate in child abuse - females aren’t always empathetic
