psychology

ASSIGNMENT 1 ESSAY

1. To expose you to scientific research on a topic – sexual attractiveness – which you may not have thought //could// be approached in a scientific way 2. To expose you to empirical research literature formatted according to APA guidelines 3. To have you practice applying APA guidelines for referencing. See also http://www.apastyle.org/previoustips.html
 * Topic introduction**: In a species where the female has to invest a lot of resources to ensure the survival of her offspring, she should tend to find such attributes „sexy‟ in a male, which tell her that „here‟s a fellow who will look after me //and my baby’// (Trivers, 1972, in Dawkins, 2006). Extensive research has been done that supports the notion that women are attracted to men of means (Buss, Abbott, Angleitner, Asherian et al., 1990; Buss & Schmitt, 1993). That would cover the //capacity// aspect – what about //willingness//?
 * Assignment question: **What are the attributes that women find „sexy‟ in men? Are they predictive of paternal investment? **Please note** that evolution does //not// rely on voluntary choices. The male attributes are most likely to be such that if perceived, they will arouse (most) women //unconsciously// **Aims**:

What attributes make a man attractive to a woman and are they the same attributes that attracts a woman to a man? Are these attributes predictive of paternal investment? These are the two questions I will attempt to answer in this essay. Sexual selection is such a distinctive form of natural selection that it is often described as a separate mechanism. It occurs in species where the two sexes are strongly differentiated and individuals compete to attract members of the opposite sex. If we start with Darwins fascination of the size of the tail of the male peacock where he wondered how natural selection alone could have resulted in a tail so large that its weight nearly threatened the bird’s survival, can we recognise the same physical attributes in human males. The answer Darwin proposed was that this tail might have been the result of the selective pressure by females seeking those male partners who displayed the greatest strength and vigour and since Darwin’s time, the male peacock’s tail has become the archetypal example of sexual selection. Sexual selection is recognised as operating in two ways, firstly, intersexual selection females and males seek partners with the most attractive attributes and in the second, intrasexual selection, competition is encouraged between individuals of the same sex. But is there a link between sexual selection and parental investment? Parental Investment is the time and energy that parents invest in raising their young and the risks that they incur to protect them. Many factors, varying from one species to another, help to determine which sex will make the greater parental investment. But since in many cases this will be the female, some very large differences can be observed in the behavioural strategies that males and females typically employ to choose their partners. Darwin had already observed this tendency, which has been confirmed many times since: males simply try to have as many females as possible, while females spent a long time looking for the best provider before they mate. Trivers (1972) systematized these observations, from which he concluded that the sex that invests the most in its young will evolve to be more selective in its choice of a partner. Buss (?) has conducted studies which tend to indicate that this pattern may still be present in the human species. Buss has shown, for instance, that women accord more importance to a man’s financial prospects and social status, preferringmen who are rich and of high social standing, as well as men who are older than they are. Such men can make a greater parental investment and thus contribute to the success of their offspring. (the brain article) Research carried out at McMaster university, Hamilton, Ont., in 1999, supported the notion that being "taken" influences perceptions of "goodness" (CMAJ, p.1574). This research developed from a debate of a group of unweb graduate students in the Department of Psychology when they questioned the saying that 'all good men are taken", in other words "the men who were in relationships were perceived as being good men". Participants for this study were recruited from the introductory psychology course and were given credit for their participation. Each of the 38 participants whose average age was 20.8 were shown 10 pictures of males, randomly sorted and accompanied by a brief description of the individual and his interests. Half of the participants were given the status of each of the males as being "Married" and the other half were given the status of "Single". Participants were then asked to use a 7-point scale to indicate (a) how well they anticipated being able to work with the man, (b) how attractive they found him, (c) how interested they would be in being friends with theman, and (d) how interested they would be in a romantic relationship with the man. The results revealed that males were rated as more attractive when labelled "married", thereby suggesting that human females are indeed sensitive to informtion provided by the choices of other females. I believe that this research does not show a willingness to take care of children, but simply that women identify someone who is ready for a commitment.

The "good-genes hypothesis" predicts that women should prefer presumed markers of genetic benefits ("good-genes") most strongly when they are fertile and evaluating men as possible short-term mates. (Cousins, A.J, 2007). In this research, women at different points in their ovulatory cycle rated videotapes of men in terms of how attractive they found each man as a short-term and long-term mate. It also examined how women's preferences for traits typically valued in long-term and short-term mates varied according to women's fertility status. A different sample of women then rated each man's perceived traits and characteristics on 10 broad dimensions preferred inlong-term and/or short-term mates: Intelligence, warmth, degree of social respect, ability to be a good father, sexual faithfulness, capacity for financial success, physical attractiveness, mascularity, confrontativeness with other men and arrogance. The results of this research thus supported the good genes hypothesis.

As discussed in Gangestad et al (2007), the "good genes sexual selection theory" which led researchers to test for patterned changes in women's preferences for certain male characteristics across the reproductive cycle found that women were in favour of males who possess attributes that are likely to signal heritable fitness, which were identified through 'good gene indicators". In this study, the investigators compared the results in relation to where in the ovulatory cycle the participants were. A second study took place which more specifically, examined whether and how women's preferences for a broad range of traits perceived in men changed across the ovulatory cycle. The study also compared humans to other species in which females mate with males in both long-term mateship and short-term sexual encounters and found that female mate preferences often differed systematically across these mating contexts. "A male's relative value as a long-term mate should depend both on his ability and willingness to provide paternal care and on his heritable fitness" (Gangestad et al, p.152). The research suggests that in many cultures, women place relatively greater emphasis on the physical attractiveness and mascularity of men when evaluating them as short-term mates and less weight on attributes that signal the quality of paternal care and investment. Some of these characteristics suggested are conscientiousness, loyalty, good parenting qualities.

§  Write an essay making a //plausible// argument regarding whether //or not// those attributes you found in the research literature can be considered predictive of a willingness to take care of children

§  Base your argument on at least five (5) scientific journal research reports and refer to them according to APA guidelines in your essay. We will provide you with three of these on AUTOnline, but the rest have to be articles not on that list

§  When referring to articles, always shortly describe what researchers looked at and how, do not just describe their findings. This allows reader to judge the quality of the findings

 References  Brase, G. L., (2006). Cues of parental investment as a factor in attractiveness. Journal of Evolution and Human Behavior, 27, 145 – 157. Retrieved on April 2, 2009 from Buss, D. M. & Barnes, M. (1986). Preferences in Human Mate Selection. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 50, No. 3, 559 – 570. Retrieved on April 2, 2009 from Cousins, A.J (2007). Changes in Women's Mate Preferences Across the Ovulatory Cycle, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 92, No. 1, 151 – 163. Retrieved on April 4, 2009 from Pillsworth, E. G & Haselton, M. G (2006). Male sexual attractiveness predicts differential ovulatory shifts in female extra-pair attraction and male mate retention. Evolution and Human Behagior 27 (2006) 247 – 258. Retrieved on April 6, 2009 from AUT.  Are all the taken men good? An indirect examination of mate-choice copying in humans. (2006). Canadian Medical Association Journal. 1573 – 1574. Retrieved on April 2, 2009 from <span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 153);">Tool Module: Sexual Selection and the Theory of Parental Investment. <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Retrieved on April 5, 2009 from <span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 153);"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/capsules/outil_bleu11.html