Relationships Flashcards
What is evolution?
Adaption of a species to improve their survival chance in a certain environment
What is natural selection?
Any behaviour or characteristics that improve survival and give the individual an adaptive advantage are selected (chosen to reproduce) so that the gene of that trail will remain
What is sexual selection?
The physical characteristics that we look for when selecting a partner, broken down into intra and inter sexual selection
What is intra-sexual selection?
Where one sex (usually the males) compete against each other for the right to mate with a willing partner.
What is inter-sexual selection?
Where one sex (usually females) chooses a partner from the available pool, based on the one with the most desirable characteristics.
The evolutionary approach in explaining differences in partner preference between men and women?
Evolutionary approach from Charles Darwin - natural selection and sexual selection
Studies to show a relationship between sexual selection and human reproductive behaviour
Cunningham (1986) - men looked for younger looking features in females, whereas females looked for features that indicate maturity like small eyes, thin lips and a square jawline
Buss (1989) - over 33 countries using 13 factors that men and women had to rank in importance. He found that women value financial prospects to be more important than men did. He also found that men in all cultures regarded attractiveness to be more important than women. In addition he found that men preferred younger partners and women preferred older partners.
Clarke and Hatfield (1989) - found that men and women
The evolutionary approach in explaining differences in partner preference between men and women?
Evolutionary approach from Charles Darwin - natural selection and sexual selection
Studies to show a relationship between sexual selection and human reproductive behaviour
Cunningham (1986) - men looked for younger looking features in females, whereas females looked for features that indicate maturity like small eyes, thin lips and a square jawline
Buss (1989) - over 33 countries using 13 factors that men and women had to rank in importance. He found that women value financial prospects to be more important than men did. He also found that men in all cultures regarded attractiveness to be more important than women. In addition he found that men preferred younger partners and women preferred older partners.
Clarke and Hatfield (1989) - found that 75% of males would participate in casual sex whereas 100% of women said they wouldn’t. Supports that females are choosier.
According to the evolutionary theory …
All behaviour is a result of our need to reproduce and pass on our genes.
Sexual selection allows us to choose the best genes for our offspring to inherit
What did Cunningham find out about attraction?
He found that men look for youthful looking features in females, and females look for features that indicate maturity in men, e.g. small eyes, thin lips, square jawline etc.
What did Clarke and Hatfield find out about casual sex?
They found that when men and women asked the opposite sexual if they would have sex with them 75% of men said yes and 100% of females said no.
This supports the claim that women are choosier than males.
