Section B: Relationships Flashcards
What is sexual selection?
It explains why some characteristics that might appear disadvantageous actually are an advantage in human reproductive behaviour, these are attractive to potential mates cause they provide an advantage for reproductive rights.
Define Anisogamy.
Refers to the differences between male and female sex cells (gametes).
How are male gametes?
Small, tiny mobile, continuous production and take very little energy to make.
How are female gametes?
Large, static, limited in number, take lots of energy to make.
Mate selection.
No shortage of fertile males but fertile women are a rare ‘resource’.
Females are more choosy - they need to make sure they get the right mate.
What are partner preferences?
There are 2 types of sexual selection (mating strategies): intra-sexual selection and inter-sexual selection.
What is Inter-sexual selection?
Between the sexes - strategies male and females use to select one another.
What is Intra-sexual selection?
Within each sex - strategies used by men to be the one that is selected.
Which mating strategy is preferred by women, why?
Inter-sexual selection - quality rather than quantity because they have limited time so they need to make sure they get the right one.
What is a female’s optimum mating strategy?
To select a genetically fit partner who is able and willing to provide resources.
Which psychologist developed the Sexy Son Hypothesis and the Runaway Process?
Fisher (1930)
What does the Runaway Process suggest?
It’s the female’s preference for a fit male that determines which feature is passed on to the offspring.
E.g. height
Explain the Sexy Son Hypothesis.
A female mates with a mate that has a desirable characteristic, and this ‘sexy’ trait is inherited by her son. This increases the likelihood that successive generations of females will mate with her offspring.
Which mating strategy is preferred by males, why?
Intra-sexual selection - quantity over quality, refers to the competition between males to be able to mate with a female.
Give and example of a behavioural and psychological consequence of intra-sexual selection.
For males to acquire fertile females and protect them from competing males, they may benefit from behaving aggressively and perhaps even thinking in a certain way.
What is the male’s optimum reproductive strategy?
To mate as many fertile females as possible, because of the continuous production, there’s no limit.
According to the sexual selection theory, how are the mates females look for?
Older males with wealth and resources.
According to the sexual selection theory, how are the mates males look for?
They look for youth and physical attractiveness, signs of good health, sign of fertility and reproductive role.
Evaluation of sexual selection theory.
Limitation
This theory ignores cultural differences. Partner preferences are influenced by rapidly changing social norms of sexual behaviour. Women’s greater role in workplace means they are no longer dependant on men and, therefore may no longer have a resource-orientated mate preference.
Evaluation of sexual selection theory.
Research support - Buss (1989)
He carried out a survey of over 10,000 adults in 33 countries, asking questions on the attributes a person preferred in their partner. He found that females placed greater value on resource-related characteristics and males valued reproductive capacity.
Evaluation of sexual selection theory.
Research support for inter-sexual selection - Clark and Hatfield (1989)
Male and female psychology students were sent out across a university campus, they approached other students asking if they would go to bed with them. No female student agreed, whereas 75% of males did.
This suggests females re choosier than males when it comes to selecting sexual partners.
Evaluation of sexual selection theory.
Research support - Singh (1993,2000)
What matters in male preference is not that female size as such but the ratio of waist to hip sizes. As long as the ratio is about 0.7 up to a point, this will be attractive to a male.
(it signifies that the women is fertile but nor currently pregnant)
Evaluation of sexual selection theory.
Research support - Waynforth and Dunbar (1995)
They studied lonely hearts advertisements in American newspapers. They found that women more than men tended to offer physical attractiveness and indicators of youth, men tended to offer resources.
Which 3 factors affect attraction?
- Self-disclosure
- Physical attractiveness
- Filter theory
What is self-disclosure?
Revealing personal information about yourself, it can strengthen a romantic bond when used appropriately.
Who proposed the Social penetration theory?
Altman and Taylor.
Explain the Social penetration theory
It states that by gradually revealing emotions and experiences and listening to their reciprocal sharing (self-disclosure), people gain a greater understanding of each other and display trust.
According to Altman and Taylor, which 2 elements does self-disclosure have?
Breadth and Depth, as both of these increase, romantic partners become more committed.
Explain the breadth and dept of self-disclosure.
Initially, we disclose a lot of information about ourselves, usually superficial.
As it develops, we disclose more information, self-disclosure becomes deeper.
Eventually, we reveal intimate high risk information.
What did Reiss and Shaver proposed?
Reciprocity of self-disclosure; both people should have some disclosure, this results in a successful romantic relationship.
Evaluation of the Social penetration theory.
Evidence to support - Sprecher and Hendrick (2004)
They studied heterosexual dating couples and found strong correlations between several measures of satisfaction and self-disclosure. Men and women who used self-disclosure were more satisfied and committed to their romantic relationships. This increases the validity.
Evaluation of the Social penetration theory.
Cultural bias - Tang et al. (2013)
He found that individualist cultures (i.e. USA) self-disclose significantly more sexual thoughts and feelings than those in collectivist culture (e.g. China)
Evaluation of the Social penetration theory.
Much of self-disclosure research is corretional.
With correlation we can’t establish cause and effect, only relationship.
Physical attractiveness - what is sexual selection?
Attributes and behaviours that increase reproductive success are passed on.
What did Shackelford and Larsen (1997) found?
That people with symmetrical faces are rated more attractive, because it suggests better genetic features. People are attracted to faces with neotenous (baby-face) features.
Explain the Halo effect.
One distinguishing feature (physical attractiveness) tends to have a disproportionate influence on our judgements of a person’s other attributes, e.g. their personality.
Explain Dion’s study on the Halo Effect.
He asked participants to rate photographs of three strangers for a number of different categories including personality traits such as overall happiness and career success.
When these results were compared to the physical attraction rating of each participant (from a rating of 100 students), the photographs which were rated the most physically attractive were also rated higher on the other positive traits.
What did Walster et al (1966) proposed?
The matching hypothesis, he said it’s possible that our assessment of our own attractiveness may play a role in the choice of romantic partners.
Explain The Matching Hypothesis.
It suggests that people choose a romantic partner who are roughly of a similar physical attraction to each other.
To do this we have to make a realistic judgement about our own ‘value’ to a potential partner.
Evaluation of physical attractiveness.
Research support for the Halo Effect - Palmer and Peterson (2012)
They found that physically attractive people were rated as more politically knowledgeable and competent than unattractive people.
Evaluation of physical attractiveness.
Individual differences - e.g. Towhey (1979)
Some people just don’t attach any importance to physical attractiveness.
He asked male and female participants to rate how much they would like a target individual based on their photograph + some biographical information, he found that participants that scored highly on the scale were more influenced by thee physical attractiveness of the target when making judgement about their likeability.
Evaluation of physical attractiveness.
Physical attractiveness consistent across cultures - Cunningham et al (1995)
He found that female features of large eyes, prominent cheekbones, small nose and high eyebrows were rated as highly effective y white, Hispanic and Asian males. This adds support because it can be generalised across different cultures
Evaluation of physical attractiveness.
Research support for matching hypothesis - Feingold (1988)
He carried out a meta-analysis of 17 studies and found a significant correlation in ratings of attractiveness between romantic partners, proving support for that couples have a similar physical attractiveness. High ecological validity.
Evaluation of physical attractiveness.
Evidence to contradict the matching hypothesis - Taylor et al (2011)
He studied the activity logs of popular dating sites. Online dater sought meeting with partners who were more physically attractive than them. They didn’t consider their own level of attractiveness.
