Important Concepts

hostile forces of nature

- events that impede survival

adaptations
- Inherited solutions to the survival and reproductive problems posed by the hostile forces of nature - Mechanisms that result from a long and repeated process of natural selection

Important Concepts
Natural Selection
(or Survival Selection)

- Darwins theory - favorable adaptations to features of the environment allow some members of a species to reproduce more successfully than others.

Important Concepts

Sexual Selection
- Evolution of characteristics because of their mating benefits rather than their survival benefits

Important Concepts
Two forms:
1. Intrasexual Competition the characteristics that lead to success in contests of this kind evolve because the winners are able to mate more often and hence, pass on more genes. 2. Intersexual Selection members of one sex choose a mate based on their preferences for particular qualities of a mate.

Human nature
- primary product of evolutionary process - psychological mechanism that are successful in helping humans survive and reproduce tend to out-replicate those who are less successful

Helping and altruism

- Helping others is a direct function of the recipients ability to enhance the chances of survival of the helpers - Life-or-death helping decreases as the kin member gets older; reverse is true in trivial helping situations; different results observed in famine conditions

Need to belong
- involve establishing cooperative relations with other members of the group and negotiating hierarchies - Positive effect of achieving status: better protection, more food, more desirable mates

Need to belong
- testable predictions: events that elicit social anxiety. Groups can be expected to shun those who inflict costs on others within the group.

Need to belong
- need to belong may be a central motive (Baumeister & Leary, 1995) - Groups functions:
- Share food, information, other resources - Protection from external threat or defense against rival groups - Groups usually contain kin which provide opportunities to receive altruism and to invest in genetic relatives

Need to belong
- Support for Baumeister and Leary (1995)
- External threat has been shown to increase group cohesion; - The opportunity to acquire resources seem to be a powerful context for triggering group cohesion

Sex differences
- Evolutionary psychology predicts that males and females will be the same or similar in all domains in which the sexes have faced the same or similar adaptive problems

Sex differences
- Evolutionary -predicted sex differences sexes will differ in precisely those domains where women and men have faced different sorts of adaptive problems

Sex differences : mate selection

- Women who bear the burden of parental investment are predicted to place more value on a potential mates financial resources and the qualities that lead to such resources - Men are predicted to place greater value on a womans physical appearance which provides cues for her fertility - Have been found across 37 cultures

mate selection: Psych 150 Students and their friends

MALES (n= 14)
Physically attractive Intelligent Kind and Understanding College graduate Exciting personality Healthy Creative and Artistic Religious Good earning capacity Good heredity Good housekeeper Wants children 3.79 4.07 4.71 5.29 5.57 5.78 7.07 7.79 8.07 8.21 8.29 9.38

mate selection: Psych 150 Students and their friends

FEMALES (n= 14)
Kind and Understanding Intelligent Good earning capacity College graduate Healthy Exciting personality Creative and Artistic Physically attractive Good housekeeper Religious Good heredity Wants children 3.29 3.57 4.36 4.71 5.64 5.79 6.49 7.86 8.29 8.64 8.86 9.36

mate selection: Psych 150 Students and their friends

Good earning capacity: t (26) = 3.131, p < .01 Physical attractiveness: t (26) = 3.703, p < .01

Sex difference : mate selection

structural powerlessness hypothesis - women value income in a mate not because of any evolved preferences but because men tend to control resources; so the primary route women traditionally have had to obtain needed resources has been through marriage

Sex differences : Jealousy

Think of a serious, committed romantic relationship that you had in the past, that you currently have, or that you like to have. Imagine that you discover that the person with who youve been seriously involved has become interested in someone else. Of the following, what would distress or upset you more? a) Imagining your partner forming a deep emotional attachment to that person. b) Imagining your partner enjoying passionate sexual intercourse with that other person.

Sex differences : Jealousy

- men and women differ in their beliefs about sexual and emotional involvement - men are more distressed than women when imagining their partners having sexual intercourse with someone else - women are more distressed when imagining their partners becoming emotionally involved with someone else

Sex differences : Jealousy

- Robustness of result across cultures: Gemany, Netherlands, Korea, Japan - double shot of infidelity (DeSteno &
Salovey, 1996)

Sex differences : desire for sexual variety

- Stems from parental investment and sexual selection theory - The members of the sex that invests less in offspring is predicted to be less discriminating in their selection of mates and more inclined to seek multiple mates

Sex differences : desire for sexual variety

If you were given your ideal wish, how many sex partners would you like to have in the next month? Entire lifetime?
Females College Students * In the next month * Couple of years * Entire lifetime 1 4 to 5 Males 2 8 18

Sex differences : desire for sexual variety

Consenting to Sex with a Stranger & Hatfield, 1989): Females Date Go back to apartment Have sex 55% 6%
(Clark

Males 50% 69%

0%

75%

Sex differences : desire for sexual variety

Lust for affairs: extramarital sex 1938): Females Americans
Females, N = 770 Males, N = 769 (Terman,

Males
72%

27%

Germans

6%

46%