Relationship Between Sexual Selection And Human Reproductive Behaviour
What is the relationship between sexual selection and human reproductive behaviour?
Sexual selection is the complementary force in which humans (and animals) compete with each other in order to mate with the partner of their choice (the ones which poses the most adaptive traits) in order to pass on their genes, producing healthy offspring. There are two types of sexual selection: Intersexual selection is where there is competition between the sexes; females are choosey because they have more to loose: Intra-sexual selection, this is competition within males as females are scarce resource for which males compete.
Buss (1989) conducted a cross-cultural study (37 different cultures) and 9000 adults. The study was in the form of a questionnaire/survey. The findings were: females more than male’s valued earning potential (significant in 36/37 cultures), males more than females valued physical attributes (significant in 34/37 cultures), females more than males valued industriousness and ambition (which are clue to gain resources), males more than females value chastity, males prefer younger females than themselves, females prefer older males- they will be able to provide care for themselves and their off-spring. What this study shows is that it agrees with what the evolutionary theory says; males look for physical attractiveness as it …show more content…
is the sign of fertility (the female partner will produce healthy off-spring equalling to a higher reproductive value), whereas females look for resources because resources are signs that the male partner will be able to sustain the needs and requirements. However, caution must be taken when applying these results because although they support the theory and link the evolutionary approach with the human reproductive behaviour, the results were obtained via a questionnaire. The problems with questionnaires are that there is always going to be social desirable answers as every individual wishes to comply with the social norms. Also the independent variable is one which cannot be controlled as it is naturally occurring so the only way to gain validity from this experiment is by applying the theory to the results making them unfalsifiable.
Another study which supports the evolutionary approach- and linking it to a biological approach is one by Pinker. Pinker has suggested that being in a long term romantic relationship is and adaptive advantage promoting survival, therefore it should be prominent in all cultures. If romantic relationships are universal there must be a biological explanation suggesting that being in a romantic relationship is something which has been selected out and evolved into humans. This is what Bartel and Zeiki (2000) have found. They discovered that when people are in love a certain part of the brain lights up; this was done by using fMRI.
Even though the evolutionary explanation is very accurate in answering why men prefer symmetrical features such as a symmetrical bust is because they are signs of fertility and why females look for a man with resources as well as someone who is likely to stay longer the theory ignores social and cultural explanations (Aranson).
Overall the evolutionary explanation has done well to explain why humans ‘seek’ the traits they do and why it varies over the sexes.
However the evolutionary explanation can be accused of sexism as it has ignored homosexual relationships in which there is no possible way to pass on genes. Even thought those in homosexual relationships are unable to pass on their traits they still show the suggested adaptations e.g. females are less willing to engage in casual sex (Buss & Schmidt 1993) and males are looking for young attractive partners, not caring about recourses. Also males in a homosexual relationship are also more
promiscuous.
This shows that their must be a biological factor evolved out into humans from our evolutionary past. The evolutionary explanation also shows gender bias as it assumes that males are promiscuous while males are not, and this cannot be right because for every willing male there must be a willing female. On the other hand this may also be because males have the choice of leaving a relationship as their input in a relationship is as far as providing the sperm to fertilise the egg.
Human behaviour is something that is highly complex ranging from a variety of complex behaviours. The evolutionary explanation is highly reductionist as it reduces this complex behaviour to the selection of genes (genetic determination), by ignoring the range of environmental factors such as media and cultural values.
By Chetan Patel.
Sexual selection is the complementary force in which humans (and animals) compete with each other in order to mate with the partner of their choice (the ones which poses the most adaptive traits) in order to pass on their genes, producing healthy offspring. There are two types of sexual selection: Intersexual selection is where there is competition between the sexes; females are choosey because they have more to loose: Intra-sexual selection, this is competition within males as females are scarce resource for which males compete.
Buss (1989) conducted a cross-cultural study (37 different cultures) and 9000 adults. The study was in the form of a questionnaire/survey. The findings were: females more than male’s valued earning potential (significant in 36/37 cultures), males more than females valued physical attributes (significant in 34/37 cultures), females more than males valued industriousness and ambition (which are clue to gain resources), males more than females value chastity, males prefer younger females than themselves, females prefer older males- they will be able to provide care for themselves and their off-spring. What this study shows is that it agrees with what the evolutionary theory says; males look for physical attractiveness as it …show more content…
is the sign of fertility (the female partner will produce healthy off-spring equalling to a higher reproductive value), whereas females look for resources because resources are signs that the male partner will be able to sustain the needs and requirements. However, caution must be taken when applying these results because although they support the theory and link the evolutionary approach with the human reproductive behaviour, the results were obtained via a questionnaire. The problems with questionnaires are that there is always going to be social desirable answers as every individual wishes to comply with the social norms. Also the independent variable is one which cannot be controlled as it is naturally occurring so the only way to gain validity from this experiment is by applying the theory to the results making them unfalsifiable.
Another study which supports the evolutionary approach- and linking it to a biological approach is one by Pinker. Pinker has suggested that being in a long term romantic relationship is and adaptive advantage promoting survival, therefore it should be prominent in all cultures. If romantic relationships are universal there must be a biological explanation suggesting that being in a romantic relationship is something which has been selected out and evolved into humans. This is what Bartel and Zeiki (2000) have found. They discovered that when people are in love a certain part of the brain lights up; this was done by using fMRI.
Even though the evolutionary explanation is very accurate in answering why men prefer symmetrical features such as a symmetrical bust is because they are signs of fertility and why females look for a man with resources as well as someone who is likely to stay longer the theory ignores social and cultural explanations (Aranson).
Overall the evolutionary explanation has done well to explain why humans ‘seek’ the traits they do and why it varies over the sexes.
However the evolutionary explanation can be accused of sexism as it has ignored homosexual relationships in which there is no possible way to pass on genes. Even thought those in homosexual relationships are unable to pass on their traits they still show the suggested adaptations e.g. females are less willing to engage in casual sex (Buss & Schmidt 1993) and males are looking for young attractive partners, not caring about recourses. Also males in a homosexual relationship are also more
promiscuous.
This shows that their must be a biological factor evolved out into humans from our evolutionary past. The evolutionary explanation also shows gender bias as it assumes that males are promiscuous while males are not, and this cannot be right because for every willing male there must be a willing female. On the other hand this may also be because males have the choice of leaving a relationship as their input in a relationship is as far as providing the sperm to fertilise the egg.
Human behaviour is something that is highly complex ranging from a variety of complex behaviours. The evolutionary explanation is highly reductionist as it reduces this complex behaviour to the selection of genes (genetic determination), by ignoring the range of environmental factors such as media and cultural values.
By Chetan Patel.