Week 3- Lust, love, attachment and marriage

Question 1

What drives mating behaviour

Answer 1

Sexual desire

Question 2

What is sexual desire

Answer 2

Involves both imagination and pleasurable physical sensations. An innate, motivational force shaped by environmental and relationship factors

Question 3

Why have sex?

Answer 3

Study of texan students found four underlying reasons
1- Emotional- a communication of love and commitment
2- Physical- Physical pleasure gained and physical attractiveness of potential partner
3- Pragmatic: Wish to attain some goal (pregnancy or venegeance)
4- Insecurity- Desire to boost one’s self esteem

Question 4

What are the influences on sexual desire?

Answer 4

Biologica (illness/drugs) l, motivational (previous sexual history) and cognitive (fear or preg)

Question 5

On average, how many times do men and women think about sex?

Answer 5

Men- 60 a week
Women- 15 a week
At the beginning of the relationship women are the gatekeepers- Men want sex sooner

Question 6

What is the impact on sexual desire over time for women and emotional support

Answer 6

Decrease in sexual desire over time associated with lack of confiding relationship and insufficient emotional support from partner.

Question 7

What are universal preferences for men and women in mates

Answer 7

Kindness, loyalty, emotional stability

Question 8

What are male specific preferences

Answer 8

Youth and physical attractiveness.

Question 9

What are female specific preferences

Answer 9

Status and resources

Question 10

Why do men and women differ in mating preferences

Answer 10

Sexual strategies theory- Women need to be highly selective about mating- few reproductive opportunities. Need to ensure potential mate has resources and willingness to commit
Men are less fussy- should be especially attracted to youth and health (fertile)

Question 11

What to men value in mating preferences?

Answer 11

Men value sexual experience in short-term but not long term mate. They are more included to casual and extra marital sex than woman.
Men have more sexual fantasies than women and with different content.

Question 12

What is serial monogamy

Answer 12

Trade in the old wives as male income increases

Question 13

What is computer dating as a function of male wealth?

Answer 13

computer dating- as men’s income rises, they request younger women

Question 14

Social power implication for women

Answer 14

As women increasingly control their own resources, their preferences should become more like men’s- e.g. cougar. However women still prefer to marry up

Question 15

Who has the most active sex lives

Answer 15

Gay men

Question 16

What do gay men and lesbians prefer?

Answer 16

gay men can pursue quantity of sex (as heterosexual men tend to prefer) while lesbians can pursue emotional connection (as heterosexual women tend to prefer)
Same-sex attracted individuals are still following evolved mating strategies

Question 17

What is the mating stategies linked with evolutionary psych

Answer 17

Better for most men to invest in one or two women and raise offspring successfully. However, men need to be able to guarantee they are biological fathers of their offspring.

Question 18

What are women’s reproductive interests

Answer 18

Women opt for good genes in the short term while in a committed long term mate ship.

Question 19

What is the evidence that women stray?

Answer 19

Timing of women’s affairs- more perfume, jewellry, dressing up
Long term partners are more attention to wives at ovulation

Question 20

Is there a preference for babies that look like their fathers?

Answer 20

Yes- men prefer babies that physically look like them.

Question 21

What is love?

Answer 21

A social relationship between people who many experience many different emotions towards one another at different times

Question 22

What is Sternberg’s triangular model of love?

Answer 22

Three major factors
1- intimacy (emotional closeness)
2- passion (sexual desire)
3- Commitment (the ‘cognitive’ aspect of love)

Question 23

What are the seven love types that the triangle produces?

Answer 23

Nonlove “refers simply to the absence of all three components of love.
Liking/friendship- One feels closeness, bondedness, and warmth toward the other, without feelings of intense passion or long-term commitment.”
“infatuation results from the experiencing of passionate arousal in the absence of intimacy and decision/commitment.
Empty love is characterized by commitment without intimacy or passion
Romantic love “derives from a combination of the intimate and passionate components of love without commitment
Companionate love is an intimate, non-passionate type of love that is stronger than friendship because of the element of long-term commitment.
Passion & commitment without intimacy = fatuous (foolish) love
Consummate love is the complete form of love,

Question 24

What is limerence?

Answer 24

Romantic love lights up the anterior cingulate in the brain – photo evidence (Zeki, 2000)
Hormones associated with love – PEA
Produces an amphetamine-like ‘high’ – some become addicted to this feeling

Question 25

What does the study on divorce rates demonstrate about limerance?

Answer 25

Helen Fisher’s work on divorce rates around the world (62 countries)
Commonly in the 4th year of marriage
Especially in marriages without children
But end of limerent phase not necessarily the end of a deep and enduring pairbond, especially if intimacy and attachment have developed

Question 26

Why do people fall in love?

Answer 26

It takes a long time to bring up human offspring – parents need to love children
And companionate love keeps parents together long enough to do it

Question 27

Babies need attachment to survive- how was this tested?

Answer 27

Harlow’s monkey experiments: testing the ‘cupboard love’ theory (1950s)
Baby monkeys craved contact comfort, not just milk
Overwhelmingly, the infant macaques preferred spending their time clinging to the cloth mother.[9] Even when only the wire mother could provide nourishment, the monkeys visited her only to feed.

Question 28

Describe the three biological systems of integration

Answer 28

Attachment- desire to bond from birth
Sexual- desire for sexual union- kicks in during adolescence
Caregiving- desire to nuture from childhood