Biological approach to personal relationships

Question 1

What does the biological approach of human attraction argue?

Answer 1

That human interaction is rooted in natural selection. It implies that we are attracted to the traits that would have the greatest advantage for our potential offspring.

Question 2

Explain the role of neurotransmitters

Answer 2

Fisher (the main researcher behind the study), argues that the attraction system has evolved to attract mates and enable individuals to focus their mating energy on one specific partner. This system in particular can be generalized as a “biochemical cocktail” consisting of neurotransmitters such as dopamine, noradrenaline, and serotonin.

Question 3

Dopamine

Answer 3

This is responsible for motivation. Every time a person thinks about that partner, Fisher observed this being released.

Question 3

Noradrenaline

Answer 3

This helps to control emotions and stress.

It:
- Increases alertness to your new partner
- Stimulates the production of adrenaline (heart racing, palm sweating)

Question 4

Serotonin

Answer 4

Serotonin levels drop when we become deeply attracted to someone.

This can cause:
- Obsessive thinking
- Extreme heightened moods

Question 5

Fisher et al (2005)

Answer 5

Aim: Determine if there are specific neural mechanisms associated with romantic love.

Procedure:

The researchers first conducted a semi-structured interview to establish the duration and intensity of the participants’ feelings of romantic love. Then, the participants completed the “Passionate Love Scale”. This collection of data was to compare what participants reported on the questionnaires to their brain activity seen on the fMRI.

Participants looked at the photograph of their partner for 30 seconds while they were being scanned. Then, they had a filler task to distract them. After the filler task, they were given a neutral photo to look at for 30 seconds while being scanned. This was repeated six times.

Results:
The brain’s reward system was particularly active when the lovers looked at pictures of their partner, meaning increased activity in the areas of the brain associated with high levels of dopamine neurons. Furthermore, the more passionate they reported they were, the more active this particular part of the brain was, showing a correlation.

Findings:
According to Fisher, romantic love is not an emotion, but rather a motivation system designed to enable lovers to mate. This may be why attraction releases neurotransmitters linked to increased energy, focused attention, obsession, sleeplessness, and loss of appetite.

Question 6

Transition to MHC

Answer 6

Despite biochemistry helping us to understand what is occurring when someone falls in love, it does not explain why we find some people more attractive than others. Evolutionary psychologists use the theory of natural selection, that is humans are attracted to the traits that would have the greatest advantage for our potential offspring, to offer an explanation. One aspect of this is MHC genes.

Question 7

MHC genes what is it and its involvement in attraction

Answer 7

MHC (Major Histocompatibility Complex) are a group of genes that play an important role in the immune system to recognize foreign substances. The more someone has different MHC genes to us, the more diverse and stronger the MHC genes our hypothetical offspring will have. Therefore, according to this, we may be driven to be more attracted to those whose MHC genes are least similar to ours, and it would make sense for us to have evolved systems of recognizing this in other individuals. There is current research suggesting that MHC genes have an influence on human smell.

Question 8

Wedekind (1995)

Answer 8

Aim: Investigate the role of MHC in human attraction

Procedure:
Each male participant was given a clean T-shirt and asked to wear it for two nights. To ensure there was no influence of other odors, the men were given odor-free soap and asked to stay away from products or food that could affect their odor - including spicy food.

Study was a double-blind experiment, meaning neither the participants or the researchers know which t-shirt they were being exposed to at any point in the study (more critical thinking but this minimized researcher bias and demand characteristics in the participants_

After the shirts were returned, Wedekind created “smelling holes” which were cardboard boxes containing the t-shirts. Female participants were asked to return when they were in the middle of their menstrual cycle, meaning their sense of smell was the best. Female participants were present with seven of these “smelling holes”, 3 with t-shirts from men with dissimilar MHC genes, 3 from MHC-similar men, and one unworn t-shirt as a control. The women were asked to rate each of the smelling holes as pleasant or unpleasant.

Results:
Women he tested were more likely to prefer the scent of men with dissimilar MHC.

Question 8

2 critical thinking points about this approach

Answer 8

• This approach is a reductionist approach, and cognitive + sociocultural factors play an important role in human attraction too.
• Much of the research is correlational (like Fisher + Wedekind) in nature meaning a direct cause-and-effect relationship cannot be established