Lecture 9

Question 1

What are the two types of sexual selection?

Answer 1

• intrasexual selection: one sex compete to win mating oppurtunities
• intersexual selection: traits of one sex preferred by opposite sex

Question 2

What is sexual selection characterized by?

Answer 2

• Affiliative behaviors
• Maintenance of close proximity
• Seperation anxiety
• Feelings of security and emotional union
• Controlled by two chemicals in nonhuman species (oxytocin & vasopressin)

Question 3

What do oxytocin and vasopressin do?

Answer 3

• Stimulates uterine contractions and lactation
• Strengthens social bonds in new lovers
• Oxytocin and falling in love are strongly correlated

Question 4

What is courtship attraction?

Answer 4

• mate choice associated with a specific brain system
• expressed differently in different species
• allows individuals to focus mating energy on specific potention mating partners

Question 5

How does courtship work in mammalian and avian species?

Answer 5

• Attraction is breif, lasting minutes, hours, days, or weeks
• In human: developed, forming psychological basis for different types of love

Question 6

What did Helen Fisher’s study reveal in 2005?

Answer 6

Two hypotheses about romantic neural mechanisms
1. romantic love involves subcortical dopaminergic pathways that mediate reward (involves the dopamine system)
2. romantic love involved goal-directed behavior neural pathways –> romantic love is goal-directed and leads to a range of emotions

Question 7

How has fMRI been used to study brain activity in love?

Answer 7

• functional magnetic reasonance imaging (fMRI)
• measures changes in blood flow that occur with brain activity
• Fisher used fMRI to test the two hypotheses

Question 8

How did Fisher and colleagues use an fMRI to test their two hypotheses?

Answer 8

• found men and women intensely in love
• then, put them through a process
  
  1. looked at picture of their loved one
  2. distration task
  3. looked a picture of someone they were neutral towards
  4. distraction task
• countback distraction task involved seeing a large number and mentally counting backwards
• 4 parts, repeated 6 times, 12 minutes in total

Question 9

What were the results of Fisher’s experiment?

Answer 9

• Beloved-specific activation occured in a couple areas, the ventral tegmental area - VTA (reward system)
• Dopaminergic reward pathways contributed to general arousal
• People in longer-term relationships showed more activity in the ventral pallidum area (associated with attachment behaviors) –> perhaps to enhance stability and motivate parenting

Question 10

What is the relationships between falling in love and the immune system and gene regulation?

Answer 10

• Murray (2019) - conducted genome profiling in a 2-year longitudinal study
• tests the impact of romantic love on human genome function in relation to the immune system
• analysis revealed selective alteration in immune cell gene regulation
• findings consistent with regulation of innate immune responses to viral infections
• basically love boosted people’s immune systems

Question 11

According to Buss (1988), what functionss does love serve among others?

Answer 11

• providing sexual access
• signaling sezual fidelity
• providing signals of parental investment
• displaying commitment

Question 12

What is the evidence that love is a psychological evolved solution?

Answer 12

According to Buss (2006):
- love exists in cultures with arranged marriage and polygyny
- people across cultures rate love as important in mate selection and romantic love was found in most of the cultures studied

Question 13

How can long-term mating be possible?

Answer 13

if partner chooses you for rational reasons, they may leave you for the same ones

love overrides this

human women conceal ovulation so sex was needed to be had throughout the menstraul cycle

also ensures long-term care of offspring (human babies are useless for a while?

Question 14

What are the two different types of marriage?

Answer 14

Monogamy
- pair bonding between one woman and one man

Polygamy
- three of more marriage partners
- polygyny: man with multiple women
- polyandry: woman with multiple men
- polygynandry: many males and females

Question 15

What is the Mosuo?

Answer 15

• Matrilineal society
• women take leading role in family, porperty and and lineage passes through them
• Exists in small ethnic groups in Yunnan and Sichean Chinese Provinces
• practice “walking marriage” –> women can choose and change sexual partners, couples dont cohabit or get married, men come and go if invited

Question 16

Is monogomy or polygamy more beneficial?

Answer 16

Monogamy
- Provides better benefits for society by reducing polygamous social problems
- men with multiple wives –> lots of unmarried men –> higher levels of rape, kidnap, murder, and robbery
- better child welfare with less child neglect, abuse, accidental death, homicide, and intra-household conflict
- monogamous marriage largely precedes democracy and female voting rights

Question 17

What is marriage legally?

Answer 17

• Long-term mating arrangement which involves economic, social, and reproductive cooperation between partners
• economic?
  
  • joing bank account (increases relationship quality)
• six-wave longitudinal experiment showe –> improves how partners feel about money organization, promotes financial goal alignment, and sustains communal norm adherence (not necessary to have reciprocity in everything)

Question 18

What is homogamy?

Answer 18

• people marry those like them: age, race, ethnicity, educational level, socioeconomic status, religion, physical attractiveness, and cognitive/personality traits

Question 19

What is exogamy?

Answer 19

People marry partners outside their familial or finship group
- even laws against marrying too close to you (first cousins or close family)
- marrying too close may be punished by law or ostracization

Question 20

What does marriage look like in collectivist cultures?

Answer 20

• individuals subordinate their individual goals for those of the group
• marriage maintains social order and binds family
• in some, duty to accept arranged marriage

Question 21

What does marriage look like in individualistic cultures?

Answer 21

• chosen by individuals based on personal compatibility and mutual attraction

Question 22

What did Chinese customary marriages look like vs modern marriages?

Answer 22

customary marriages:
- celebrated with traditional chinese customs
- concubine system: man with two or more wives (later outlawed in 1971, 128 years after it was first proposed by the Hong Kong Council of Women)

modern marriage:
- unmarried man and women (neither less than 16 y/o) go through open ceremony with at least two witnesses

Question 23

What were the traditional marriage roles and responsibilities?

Answer 23

Allocated by gender:
- Males: economics and decision making
- Females: domestic tasks, management of children and household
- Little expression of overt emotion
- Spouses rely on same-sex friends and relatives for emotional support

Question 24

What is an egalitarian marriage?

Answer 24

• equal-status or peer marriage, shared roles in aspects of married life
• social support and caregiving, affection and emotion, sexuality, financial resources, parenting skills, domestic labor
• people in these marriages usually have high levels of mutual respect and lower levels of anger and conflict
• true egalitarian –> difficult –> most people find some middle-ground

Question 25

What does modern marriage usually look like now for men vs women?

Answer 25

- division of household labor still pretty traditional - men handle "outside tasks" (e.g. car maintenance) and women handle "inside tasks" (e.g.) cooking - both believe division of labor is fair or at least satisfactory

Question 26

What are some measures of marital satisfaction?

Answer 26

Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale (KMS) - 3-item measure - Designed to asses marital satisfaction - 7-point scale from 1 (bad) to 7 (good)

Question 27

What are some research conclusions when studying marriage satisfaction?

Answer 27

- married couples report more happiness, loneliness, and stress than unmarried (including - both sexes equally happy at first, but level of happiness decreases with time - wives experience more rapid decline - however, traits and disposition may influence satisfaction over time

Question 28

What does cross-sectional correlation indicate about marital satisfaction change over time?

Answer 28

The U-shaped curve: marital satisfaction is highest in early marriage, declines in the middle years, and then rises again in the later years

Question 29

What does longitudinal correlation indicate about marital satisfaction change over time?

Answer 29

u-shaped curve is an illusion, satisfaction on average declines more or less linearly

Question 30

How have marriage trends changed over the years?

Answer 30

- marriage rates decreasing - age of first marriage also increasing - marriage in many countries getting longer - overall global marriage rates in majority of countries around the world (but some countries going in opposite direction) - egalitarian marriage on the rise - love marriage and freedom to choose spouse on the rise (increasing preference of refusing to enter marriage without love)

Question 31

How have divorce trends changed over the years?

Answer 31

- increase in divorce rate (adults aged 35 - 39 who are seperated has gone from 2% in 1970s to 4% in 2000s) - the US has consistently higher divorce rates than most countries - many countries divorce rates increased between 1970s - 1990s and then declined - notable differences between countries

Question 32

What are some stats above divorce in the US?

Answer 32

- average marriage length ending in divorce: 7 - 8 years - almost half of all new marriages end in divorce - over half of second marriages end in divorce - risk of divorce greatest in first couple years - divorced women more likely to live in poverty than men

Question 33

What are some factors associated with divorce?

Answer 33

- greater social acceptance of divorce - more liberal divorce laws - fewer children - greater family income - more opportunities for women

Question 34

What is transformation of marriage?

Answer 34

- refers to postmodern efforts to denaturalize marriage and redefine nature of marriage contract - in favor of gay marriage --> best example of this (most gay people prefer long-term monogamous relationship over other ones)

Question 35

How has the acceptance of same-sex marriage shifted?

Answer 35

- same sex marriage legal in many places now - denmark was the first in 1989 to establish "registered partnerships" (almost marriages - netherlands was the first country to establish same-sex marriage by law (in 2000) - by 2019, legal in 30 countries - although many countries lack national data, lgbt american survey report same-sex cohabitation declining and same-sex marriage inclining

Question 36

What is cohabitation?

Answer 36

- Resembes marriage --> monogamous union, coordinate acitvities (economic, social, and sexual) - Also unlike marriage --> not legally formal

Question 37

How might people view cohabitation?

Answer 37

- precursor to marriage: important stepping-stone, maybe only after engagement - replacement for marriage: when not possible - phase or stage: of commitment in dating - trial: a trial marriage

Question 38

What are some reasons for cohabitation?

Answer 38

* “Anti-marriage” sentiments * Avoidance of divorce * Fear of commitment * Test of compatibility * Expectation of a future relationship * Independence

Question 39

What has been the global relationship of trends between marriage and cohabitation?

Answer 39

- marriage: declining - cohabitation: increasing example: in the US, 5.5 million households are cohabiting couples and is 10x more common than 30 years ago - more even distribution of roles and responsbility in cohabitation, younger group enter more into it

Question 40

Does cohabitation lead to happier marriage?

Answer 40

- many cohabiters expect to marry their partner, and 40% do - scholars suggest it allows couples to test compatibility, iron out differences, and strengthen their commitment before formalization - BUT existing research does not support this - results from a research study of dating cohab, engagement cohab, and non-cohab showed: - dating cohab had lower marital satisfaction, less dedication, more negative communication, greater likelyhood of divorce the cohabition effect: basically, dont cohabit early or relationship gets to be at greater risk for poor marital outcomes

Question 41

Is cohabition more beneficial than marriage?

Answer 41

- cohabiters seem to experience more benefits than married counterparts (especially in division of household labor) - both homo and het cohabitors have more egalitarian attitudes towards division of labor postives - share expenses - learn about each other - avoid responsibilities of partner's debt negatives: - no legal entangements - easy to leave marriage - lower levels of happiness, sexual enjoyment, and well-being

Question 42

How does one create a healthy relationship?

Answer 42

- romantic competence - healthy relationship functioning - well-being in emerging adults model of healthy relationship functioning - romantic competence (RC) by Davila et al. 2017 --> analyzes skills necessary for healthy relationship functioning --> could be taught to young people

Question 43

What are the factors involved in romantic competence (RC) and where do they come from?

Answer 43

based on: cognitive theories of interpersonal problem solving, attachment theory, and theories of emotion regulation factors: 1. insight (ability to use critical thinking and think about the other person and learn and grow from past experience) 2. mutuality (considering needs of self and other to maximize outcome) 3. emotional regulation (ability to regulate motions and self in response to experiences) creates a rubric on which to judge/interview people by based on high or low levels of the factors

Question 44

What are the key findings for romantic competence (RC) in studies?

Answer 44

- RC associated with healthy romantic functioning in emerging adults - associated with - greater security - healthier decision making for both sexes - fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety in both men and women - RC construct is skill-based --> learn it for a healthy relationship