Critical Evaluationg of Psychological Theories of Interpersonal Attraction

Sociobiology (the systematic study of the biological basis of all social behavior) was developed by E.O. Wilson in 1980 s. According to sociobiology’s human behavior is determined naturally just like animal behavior. According to sociobiologist Steven Gavlin and Alice Schlegel (1980) individuals act in order to maximize their genes in future generations. Thus the tendency of man to have sexual relationship with beautiful women is to maximize his genes. Similarly behavior of both men and women is thus guided by genetic factors.

It is well-known that diversity is common amongst individuals as each varies in their physical appearances, personality, values and beliefs. A person’s individuality can be shaped through many factors such as cognitive process, biological process, psychological origins of attraction, social perspective attributions, etc. Cognitive origins of attraction is the acquiring and understanding of thoughts and senses and the perceptions of the individual’s own experiences. Biological process is the idea in which sexual attraction (for the purpose of gene survival) is the driving force behind choosing a partner (Charles Darwin). Psychological origins of attraction assumes that people are more likely to be attracted tit e individuals who are perceived to be similar to themselves. Social perspective attributions is the scientific field that seeks to understand the nature and causes of individual behaviour in social situations. Due to these many factors, each decision an individual makes is different from that of another. This individuality is relied upon when a person chooses others to form a relationship with, including a romantic one. The following studies/research have been provided to explore whether the differences in gender and the types processes may have an effect on decision-making when multiple options are available.

When looking at intimate relationships from the varying psychological perspectives one must wonder how it is that any one perspective could be more or less important or contributive than another. Each perspective actually seems to come into play and have a role throughout an intimate relationship. When we first meet someone we decide if we are attracted to that person, we gauge how we physically respond to them this tends to be biologically driven, “The lust system is proposed to motivate individuals to locate sexual opportunities and is mainly associated with estrogens and androgens in the brain. The attraction system directs an individual’s attention toward specific mates, makes him or her crave emotional union with this person, and

In “Men, Women, Sex, and Darwin,” an article that appeared in The New York Times Magazine 1999. Natalie Angier discusses and gives a brief understanding of evolutionary psychology’s ideas about men, women, and se. Angier compares and contrast women, and men mates’ preferences. But she also analyzes the various ways in which scientists have studied gender differences. Angier mentions that men want women who are virginal and who seem as though they’ll be faithful and not make cuckolds of them. While women in the other hand want a man who seems rich, stable and have a good status. This idea of the mate preferences is supported by David Buss. David Buss surveys are performed in 37 countries, on six continents. His surveys consistently find that men rate youth and beauty as important traits in a mate, while women care more about ambition

Human attraction has also become a sensitive topic over the course of history due to the fact that in earlier times, attraction was used just as a method to produce offspring, however, nowadays, attraction is used to create relationships that are meant to last. In other words, attraction is no longer just about producing offspring, but to find the perfect mate that will become a lifetime companion. Furthermore, literature that has been written on the subject has mainly focused on the attraction that form heterosexual romantic relationships. However, this

The nature and nurture of the human sexuality has been a debate argued among researchers and scientists. With regards to human sexuality, both nature and nurture become an integral factor in making the sexual beings that we eventually get to be. From our hereditary inclinations to how our associates influence our advancement, our childhoods have a tendency to be one long trek into adulthood that is neither pre-customised or totally formed by outside components, this trek incorporates the blooming of our sexual nature. his debate is concerned with the extent to which particular aspects of behaviour reflects the influence of genetically arranged maturity or whether it comes from learning and experience.This essay will disclose to what degree human sexuality is the consequence of nature or nurture; it will likewise relate sexuality to the Biopsychosocial.

Participants were randomly assigned to either the romance-induced condition, the fear-induced condition, or the control group. These arousal inducing conditions acted as the independent variables, testing to see how they effected our dependent variable, misattribution. In all three conditions, participants were required to watch a short clip, and subsequently rate 30 neutral faced profiles. Beginning the study, the participants were seated to a computer, and each were assigned a link to a video clip, in random order. The first group (fear-induced arousal condition) watched a short clip from the film The Conjuring. The second group (romance-induced arousal) watched a clip from the film The Notebook. The final group, the control group, watched a short clip from the National Geographic film America before Columbus. The control groups’ film was a neutral/boring film in which there was no arousal stimuli. Afterwards, all the participants were asked to rate the same 30 profiles on attractiveness on a survey created in Qaultrics. All things considered, the experiment was built to examine the differences of mean attractiveness ratings, which was influenced by the condition they were

Another important concept is understanding what is normal. The “normal” leads to expectations that males and females have for one another. By not meeting these expectations thoughts of being different can be provoked. Improving education and public knowledge will decrease the suffering by such individuals (Baumeister, et al., 2001). Barr, Bryan, and Kenrick (2002) researched what is the expected sexual peak of men and women. The researchers did three different studies on what participants thought the age of sexual peak was. The first study consisted of 60 members from the Psychology Department at Arizona State, the second consisted of 73 undergraduates at Arizona State, and the third consisted 53 members recruited from the 73 undergraduates. Each group was given a questionnaire asking at what age do you think male/female sexual peak is, and at when do you think males/females experience the highest sexual frequency (Barr, et al., 2002).

“Why do people become homosexual?” has been the topic of debate as to what factors contribute to homosexuality. The following paper discusses two studies conducted to determine the cause of homosexuality through biological theories.

People from all cultures have acted in relationships in different ways that are influenced by their cultural traditions and laws about sex. Human sexuality and how males and females act within the relationship can be considered as physically influenced by biology, for example hormones, brain centres, networks of nerves, and sex organs all shape the character of the male and female. However there are various arguments to this. hjwatson24, please do not redistribute this paper.

Throughout this course I have learned that the concepts being taught such as, sexual motivation, gender difference, and homosexuality and nature-nurture debate, all tie into the general subject of sexual motivation and gender difference. When choosing this topic, the main questions I was trying to answer is why it is that men seem to be more sexually aggressive then women, and why some people choose to have romantic relationships with people of the same sex. Sociosexuality refers to an individual’s willingness to participate in sexual activity with a diversity of partners outside of a romantic relationship. Studies comparing women and man have proposed that an unlimited sociosexual orientation may be problematic when authorized by men but relatively harmless when endorsed by women.

David Buss is a professor of psychology at Harvard. His primary field of study is evolutionary psychology with a focus on human sexual behavior. This study is important within the concept of evolution, its influence on behavior, and how it will progress into the future. Buss had a curiosity of human behaviors and how they played a role when choosing a mate, breeding, as well as evolution’s influencing role in these endeavors.

• But when an initial dislike in the liker changes to liking this is more valued than a uniformly positive attitude

Being a human being is to be involved in interpersonal relationships. Interpersonal relations are social connections with others that can be brief or enduring. As human beings we experience different changes in regard to our interpersonal relations on a daily basis with family, friends, and people at workplace. While every relationship is unique there are some common themes that influence the health and continuation of all relationships.

However, the interpersonal attraction of two people of opposite sex was relatively extended to a romantic