Evolutionary psychology and mate selection in the age of. A sensible starting point is a handful of books that cover mate choice and allied topics. This conflict on mate selection was truly a novel and genius revelation for me. Understanding the theories of attraction and mate selection. Critical reflections on evolutionary psychology and sexual. The dating mind evolutionary psychology issn 14747049 volume 105.
Therefore, our evolutionary needs and tendencies may be less likely to influence our present behavior and choices, especially in terms of mate selection. I am still not 100% bought into it as offspring might simply want an attractive partner because they will have sex with them. Charles darwin laid the foundation for all modern work on sexual selection in his seminal book the descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. What are the best books about evolutionary psychology. Evolutionary theorists have posited that contemporary men and women may differ in their specific psychological mechanisms having to do with mate selection because different strategies would have benefitted men versus women in our distant ancestral past.
Parents dont care since they dont have to live and. Despite much research into mate selection, nonheterosexual populations are often only included for comparison purposes, while trans people and their partners are overlooked. From darwins 1871 theory of sexual selection, all the way up to wood and brumbaughs 2009 study on mate preferences published a couple of years ago, aspects of this theory have intrigued psychologists and other scientists for hundreds of years. Evolutionary psychology is a field specializing in hypothesis in which natural selection explains all human behaviors. Converging findings from a variety of disciplines are leading. In the course of discussing the psychology of human mate selection, this chapter specifically addresses. Evolutionary theory of mate selection and partners of.
Content topics are logically arrayed, starting with challenges of survival, mating, parenting, and kinship. Evolutionary psychology is the principles of darwinian natural selection applied to the study of the human mind. Combating automatic prejudice with images of admired and disliked individuals. In this tremendous book, geoffrey miller argues for the importance of sexual selection through mate choice as an evolutionary force, and he presents one way out of the many possible to apply sexual selection theory in evolutionary psychology. Evolutionary psychology, interpersonal relationships, psychosexual behavior, psychology stubs. Download evolutionary psychology as maladapted psychology. The book provides a clear synthesis of the state of affairs in the study of mate. Miller, phd the recent incorporation of sexual selection theories into the rubric of. Next, we examine womens and mens mating preferences, focusing on the adaptive significance of material, genetic and fertility benefits, and their. Specifically, we address the consequences for sexual selection and assortative mating. This paper assesses three cases of work on mate choice and sexual selection in evolutionary psychology. How ecology, genes, fertility, and fashion influence mating behavior article pdf available november 2006 with 4,494 reads how we measure reads.
The purpose of evolutionary psychology is to identify evolved. The handbook of evolutionary psychology by david m. Mate selection new research in psychological science a sample of research on mate preferences across countries, preference biases in candidate selection, cue visibility and task switching, and persuasion by nonhuman artificial agents. Wilson took human sociobiology to provide us with an account of human nature 1978. A central claim is that the brain and therefore the mind evolved to solve problems encountered by our huntergatherer ancestors during the upper pleistocene period over 10,000 years ago, a time known as the environment of. It is an adapted mind, containing specific fears, preferences, and behavioral tendencies inherited from our ancestors, especially those eons earlier. Evolutionary psychology is well suited to providing an account of human nature. Five factors in mate selection and marital satisfaction. This is more than just a book about the psychology of sex. Even after tens of books on evolutionary psychology, i had never thought about it. Buss earned his phd in psychology at university of california, berkeley in 1981. Sage books the ultimate social sciences digital library. Mate selection association for psychological science aps. As noted above section 1, evolutionary psychology owes a theoretical debt to human sociobiology.
Journal of personality and social psychology, 81, 800814. The importance of mate choice and sexual selection has been emphasized by the majority of evolutionary psychologists. Evolutionary psychology stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Sexual selection and mate choice in evolutionary psychology. Martel 20 proposed a metatheory, based on sexual selection theory and broad evolutionary psychological ep principles, to account for wellknown sex differences in the emergence of common behavioral and certain internalizing disorders across childhood and adolescence, respectively. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. Although researchers have long been aware that the speciestypical architecture of the human mind is the product of our evolutionary history, it has only been in the last three decades that advances in such fields as evolutionary biology, cognitive psychology, and paleoanthropology have made the fact of our evolution illuminating.
Hampton, s 2010, mate selection, in essential evolutionary psychology, sage publications ltd, london, pp. Fully updated with the latest research and new learning features, it provides a thoughtprovoking overview of evolution and illuminates the evolutionary foundation of many of the. The ne w science of the mind, 5e provides students with the conceptual tools of evolutionary psychology, and applies them to empirical research on the human mind. The new science of evolutionary psychology by robert wright, the b. Human mate selection is a complex process that has been studied by psychologists from a number of perspectives. The recent incorporation of sexual selection theories into the rubric of evolutionary psychology has produced an important framework from which to examine human mating behavior. David buss on crosscultural human mate preferences, randy thornhill and steve gangestad on the link between mate preferences and fluctuating asymmetry, and. Evolutionary psychology provides a metatheory for psychological science that unites these fields, and justifies why the seemingly disparate branches of psychology truly belong within the covers of introductory psychology books and within the same departments of psychology.
Evolutionary psychology provides a metatheory for psychological science that unites these fields, and justifies why the seemingly disparate branches of psychology truly belong within the covers of introductory psychology books and within the same departments of. It is characterized by a selective response by animals to particular stimuli which can be observed as behavior. Books edit papers edit additional material edit books edit papers edit. Darwins concept of sexual selection evolutionary considerations of mate choice date back to darwin 1871. Currently, professor of psychology at the university of texas at austin. How sexual choice shaped the evolution of human nature by geoffrey miller what role did sexual selection play in shaping.
That is, there isnt one rule that works all the time. Geoffrey miller is an evolutionary psychologist best known for his books the mating mind 2001, mating intelligence 2008, spent 2009, and mate 2015. The psychology of human mate preferences behavioral and. How ecology, genes, fertility, and fashion influence mating behavior jon a. For wilson human nature is the collection of universal human behavioral. This study attempts to address this using qualitative methodology to explore the mate selection of the partners of trans people. According to this way of thinking, all of our modern behaviors are best understood as carryovers from those ancient behaviors that offered our ancestors evolutionary advantage over others. In other words, before an animal engages with a potential mate, they first evaluate various aspects of that mate which are indicative of qualitysuch as the resources or phenotypes they haveand.
This comment first enumerates several strengths and then offers two primary critiques about martels. Evolutionary psychology is an approach that views human nature as the product of a universal set of evolved psychological adaptations to recurring problems in the ancestral environment. The preferred age of a potential mate reflects evolved male sexual psychology. Mate choice evolutionary biology oxford bibliographies. Evolutionary psychologistswomen prefer to mate with men who would be good fathers and who would stay around to be good providersmen preferred to mate with women who could bear healthy babies who could feed their childrencould apply to any given relationship. Written for undergraduate psychology students, and assuming little knowledge of evolutionary science, the third edition of this classic textbook provides an essential introduction to evolutionary psychology. The book argues that our most distinctive psychological adaptations evolved. Rather, evolutionary psychology studies flexible, environmentallyconnected and culturallyinfluenced adaptations that vary according to the situation. Six participants were recruited from online communities and interviewed via instant.
A provocative new study finds that individuals are more genetically similar to their spouses than they are to randomly selected individuals from. Psychologist geoffrey miller offers the most convincingand. The latter was, if not exactly forgotten, then at least sidelined. In two empirical studies we document several basic features of this conception. Our psychology has been shaped by a sometimes uneasy balance of natural and sexual selection the practical need to acquire our daily bread and the romantic need to find love and produce offspring. Psychology studies can answer the question with considerable success. Strategies of human mating is a 1994 book by evolutionary psychology professor david. In this work, darwin fleshed out the mechanism of sexual selection, a hypothesis that he had proposed in the origin of. Buss is the author of a number of publications and books in the field of evolutionary psychology. Evolutionary theories in psychology introduction to. Economics and affection volume 12 issue 1 kim wallen. Evolutionary psychology states that the newborn human mind is not a clean slate awaiting its contents. In the present study, reallife matings were reported by a large representative sample of men and women n 1,3. The vast evolutionary differences between direct and indirect care provided by mothers and fathers, respectively, are therefore overlooked and both parents influence the life decisions of the offspring.
The evolutionary theory of mate selection is a fascinating attempt to explain attraction. Burger has cited that many women nowadays may be more attracted to men who spend more time with them than to dominant, ambitious men who devote all. Geoffrey millers the mating mind is one of the best books on human psychology ever writtenon my list, he comes just after dawkins the selfish gene and pinkers how the mind works. They delve into the use of sex as a defensive tactic against a mates infidelity protection, as a ploy to boost selfconfidence status, as a barter for gifts or household chores resource acquisition, or as a cure for a migraine headache medication. Cronin 1992 covers the long history of the field since darwin first coined the term sexual selection. In this brilliantly ambitious and provocative book, evolutionary psychologist geoffrey miller shows the evolutionary power of sexual choice, and the reasons why. These data were used to test an evolutionary model in which mate choice is hypothesized to depend on. How sexual choice shaped the evolution of human nature on. Evolutionary psychology, in short, does not predict rigid roboticlike instincts. Research on sexual dimorphism in mate selection criteria has resulted in the broad generalization that women are more concerned with prospective mates potential control over social and economic resources and with his readiness to share them, while men pay relatively more attention to physical attractiveness e. Buss is a professor of psychology at the university of texas at austin, known for his evolutionary psychology research on human sex differences in mate selection.
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