Evolutionary Explanations for Partner Choice

Question 1

What do evolutionary psychologists believe?

Answer 1

1. That the psychological processes that people use to choose a partner come from evolution,
2. The idea is that these processes came about because, in the past, when humans lived as hunter-gatherers, having them made people well adapted to the environment,
3. A key part of this explanation is the theory that attractive traits are reliable indicators that a partner is a good bet for passing on our genes.

Question 2

Singh (1993), method and findings?

Answer 2

1. Got male participants aged 18-22 to rank drawings of female figures with a waist to hip ration of 0.7 to 1.0 in terms of attractiveness and ability to have children,
2. The drawings with a waist to hip ration 0.7 were rated the most attractive and the most able to have children.

Question 3

Singh (2002), findings?

Answer 3

1. Argued that low WHR is a reliable indicator of health and ability to reproduce in women,
2. He cited evidence that females have higher WHR before puberty and after menopause (i.e. low WHR correlates with fertility), and that high WHR in women has been shown to correlate with health issues like diabetes.

Question 4

What is natural selection?

Answer 4

1. The process where characteristics that make an individual more likely to reproduce and pass on their genes becomes more prevalent in a population,
2. Darwin’s theory of natural selection, which is generally accepted, says this is how evolution happens.

Question 5

What is sexual selection?

Answer 5

1. Within a species, there are certain characteristics that make an individual more able to find a partner and reproduce,
2. These characteristics give an individual a reproductive advantage, therefore they become more prevalent because they are more likely to be passed on to future generations. This is known as sexual selection.

Question 6

What are the two types of sexual selection?

Answer 6

1. Intra-sexual selection,
2. Inter-sexual selection.

Question 7

What is intra-sexual selection?

Answer 7

1. Takes place when males compete, often aggressively, and the winner is rewarded with the female,
2. The female is passive in this process - she doesn’t choose her own mate.

Question 8

What is inter-sexual selection?

Answer 8

1. Takes place when males compete for the attention of a female,
2. The female plays an active role, choosing her mate.

Question 9

What is the conflict between sexual and natural selection?

Answer 9

1. Natural selection also happens with traits that give a survival advantage - traits that make it more likely an individual will survive long enough to reproduce,
2. Sometimes the traits that are attractive to a mate make an individual less likely to survive, so sexual selection can conflict with natural selection more generally. For example, female peacocks find the long, brightly coloured tails of male peacocks attractive, but very brightly coloured tails are more notceable to predators.

Question 10

What is the handicap principle?

Answer 10

1. One theory from evolutionary psychology explaining this conflict in natural and sexual selection,
2. Zahavi (1975) argued that displaying a noticeable handicap to survival actually indicates survival strength, Zahavi called this the handicap principle,
3. If an individual has managed to survive despite having the unhelpful characteristics, then they must have superior genes.

Question 11

How can the handicap principle be applied to humans?

Answer 11

1. For example, masculine facial features (e.g. a strong jaw) result from high levels of testosterone,
2. Testosterone causes the immune system to be less responsive, so having these features indicates a cost to the individual,
3. This cost means masculine facial features can be seen as an honest indicator of ‘quality’ genes - they’re only displayed by individuals who can afford the handicap.

Question 12

Buss (1989), method?

Answer 12

1. Questionnaires were used to collect data from over 10,000 men and women from 37 different cultural groups,
2. The questionnaires covered demographic information such as age, gender, and marital status,
3. They also asked about preferences such as marriage, age differences, and characteristics in a mate (e.g. intelligence, sociability, and financial prospects).

Question 13

Buss (1989), results?

Answer 13

1. Women valued variables associated with gaining resources (e.g. money, safe environment) more highly than men,
2. Men valued variables associated with reproductive capacity (e.g. youth) more highly than women.

Question 14

Buss (1989), conclusion?

Answer 14

1. Women have had limited access to the resources needed to provide for themselves and their offspring,
2. So, they are evolved to select mates who can provide these resources,
3. The factor limiting men’s reproductive success has been access to fertile women, and so they have evolved to be attracted to women with a high likelihood of reproducing.

Question 15

Buss (1989), evaluation?

Answer 15

1. There were similar findings across a range of different cultures. However, it wasn’t a truly representative study as it was hard to include rural and less educated populations,
2. Cross-cultural research is important as it suggests universality, providing strong evidence for an evolutionary explanation of gender differences in sexual selection.

Question 16

Buss and Schmitt (1993), sexual strategies theory?

Answer 16

1. The theory argues that men and women apply various different strategies for choosing partners, depending on the situation,
2. These strategies have evolved to help them meet the different requirements they have of long-term and short-term partners,
3. For example, women try to assess the quality of a short-term partner’s genes, whereas men are mostly concerned with a short-term partner’s availability and fertility.

Question 17

Strengths of the evolutionary explanation theory?

Answer 17

1. The idea that men and women have different strategies for choosing a partner is supported by Buss (1989),
2. The argument that men use strategies which lead them to choose fertile women as partners is also supported by Singh’s findings on waist-to-hip ratio.

Question 18

Weaknesses of the evolutionary explanation theory?

Answer 18

1. There were more similarities than differences between men and women’s responses in Buss (1989). Neither resources nor youth were rated as important by men or women - other factors like intelligence and mutual attraction were rated as most important by both genders. Overall there was a much greater difference between cultures than between genders. This doesn’t rule out evolutionary explanations for partner preference, but it may suggest that other factors play a part too,
2. Evolutionary explanations of partner choice don’t take into account social determinants of behaviour. For example, in lots of societies women still don’t have the same opportunity to provide for themselves as men do. This may have more influence on the differences in partner preference than evolutionary theory,
3. Lots of evidence for evolutionary explanations of partner preference comes from studies on other animals, and this evidence cannot be reliably generalised to human partner preferences.