Lecture 14 - Genes II

Question 1

What does Parental Investment (PI) refer to?

Answer 1

Trivers (1872) argued that a driving force behind sexual selection is the degree of parental investment each sex devotes of their offspring.

“any investment by the parents in an indv. offspring that increases the offspring’s chances of surviving (and hence reproducing) at the cost of the parents ability to invest other offspring”

Question 2

Explain the ‘Female mating strategy’?

Answer 2

Females invest more.
Females have much to lose if they mate with the wrong male, they are this selective about who they mate with.

Females compete with other females for the right to choose the most desirable (alpha) males.

They gain little from multiple matings and seek quality not quantity.

Almost every reproductively capable female will be able to find a mate of some source (if they lower their standards).

Question 3

Explain the ‘Male productive strategy’

Answer 3

Males are less choosey and they have little to lose and everything to gain if they have as many mating opportunities as possible.

Males should seek more quantity.

Also want a superior females that are less likely to produce more.

If presented with a sexual opportunity, they will take it.

Therefore male productive success is very variable, a small number of males will achieve many matings, while many males will never mate.

Question 4

Females have evolved mechanisms to enable them to detect men that will transfer resources to their offspring (resources, good health, parental investment)

Answer 4

there are sometimes referred to as ‘good genes’

Question 5

Females have evolved mechanisms to enable them to detect men that will transfer resources to their offspring (resources, good health, parental investment)

Answer 5

there are sometimes referred to as ‘good genes’

Question 6

Buss (1989)

Answer 6

Looked at long term mating strategies involving 10047 participants from 33 counties:

Males prefer young, physically attractive and chaste mates

Females ….. missed it. slide 24

Question 7

if evolutionary theory offers nothing more than what a 16 year old can tell us, is there any virtue in in it?

Answer 7

Women’s ovulatory cycles depended on this thoery

Question 8

Study that shows women evolved features in sussing out a mate? Gangestad and Thornhill (1998)

Answer 8

stinky shirt - girls smell it.
women smelt shirts and then guesses symmetry of the man.

when no ovulating - no preference to symmetric men

but when ovulating - women prefer symmetric men.

symmetry almost always equals attractiveness

Question 9

What is ‘Genetic Essentialism’?

Answer 9

Cognitive Biases

• where genetic attributions are seen as immutable and determined.
• specific aetiology - reduction of causes/explanations
• homogeneity and discreteness (groups, all women are the same, all white ppl the same etc.) - therefore higher discreteness - if women more alike, they are more dif than men
• naturalness (and naturalistic fallacy)

Question 10

Rothbart and Taylor (1992)

Answer 10

we should view social groups like artefacts as they are constructs - yet we treat it like they have an underlying essence

Question 11

Keller (2005) Genetic determinism scale

Answer 11

BGD - 
priming geograpy of gnenes
ingroup essay>>control
outgroup essay << control
polish immigrants compared to ppl in control. thinking about genes as geographical element creates that homogenity thing and xasserbates the dichotomy

Question 12

Keller (2005) Genetic determinsm scale

Answer 12

BGD - 
priming geograpy of gnenes
ingroup essay>>control
outgroup essay << control
polish immigrants compared to ppl in control. thinking about genes as geographical element creates that homogenity thing and escerbates the dichotomy

Question 13

Benbow & Stanley (1980) - Women and math

Answer 13

Are their genes really holding them back?