Sexual Strategies Of Animals: The Evolution Of Human Mating

Throughout history, the subject of human sexuality has been extremely complex, where at most it was deemed controversial, and taboo in certain societies and cultures. Since the twentieth century, we have become knowledgeable in the areas of sexuality and sexual function, both from a biological and psychological standpoint. The scientific contribution in the area of human sexuality has been accredited to the departed William H. Masters (1915-2001) and his co-researcher Virginia E. Johnson (1925-2013) for their work in sexual functioning from 1957 to the the early 1990s (Morrow, 2013). In their earlier research Masters and Johnson viewed sex as a natural function determined by one’s genetics (Morrow 2013, pp. 144). They held a strong

Reproductive monogamy is defined as an exclusive sexual relationship between a female and a male based on their sexual interactions. Social Monogamy refers to male and female’s social living arrangement without sexual interactions. It refers to the living patterns, raising offsprings, and obtaining food. Monogamy is common in birds, but also occurs in invertebrates. Why would a male mammal choose to mate with one female when he can mate with more than one? Why would the male stay around instead of finding another female to live with? Many researchers have attempted to answer this question of why some mammals prefer monogamy over polygamy. Vole rats, one of the species that perform monogamous mating, demonstrate pair boding. Male and female pairs of vole rats have been observed together over several months, and the males stay with females even when the female is not reproductively active. A typical vole family in the wild is almost always consisted of one male, one female, and their offspring. In addition, unlike other species in which females are the only ones taking care of the offspring, vole rats share parental roles and even build nests together. Because they show these monogamous behaviors, they have served as a good species/model to learn about monogamy for neuroscientists. In this paper, monogamy, specifically in vole rats, will be explained along with its proximate and ultimate causes of this adaptation.

Clark and Hatfield helped support this by getting female and male experiments to ask male and female participants if they would like to engage in casual sex. 75% of males said yes while every female participant said no. This helps support the sexual selection theory as it shows that females have to be more careful with mating as they only have a limited amount of opportunities therefore are more likely to enter a longterm mating strategy. Males can have casual sex with little investment so are more likely to then females. This study helps to show the gender differences.

This essay aims to show a comparison between the differences between both female short-term mating strategies and female long-term mating strategies. It will explore the evolution of psychology that has shown reasons for human mating and how these reasons go above and beyond the general idea of physical attractiveness and love. This essay will identify how mate preferences have evolved and further identify psychological mechanisms that women have used to select their mates over the past. This essay will compare and critically discuss the differences and outline them between female short-term mating strategies and female long-term mating

Human sexuality is a common phrase for all, and anything, pertaining to the feelings and behaviors of sex for the human race. Sexuality has been a topic that has been discussed and studied for as far back as 1000 years B.C. and is still being studied today. As the discussion of sexuality has progressed through history, theories have been created based on research and experiments that scholars have implemented, based on their own perceptions of human behavior. Out of the many theories that pose to explain sexual behavior, Sexuality Now explained ten that are seemed to be the most overlapped, and built off of theories. Of these theories, two that were discussed in the text were the behavioral and sociological theory. These two theories cover some of the basic ideas of what could possibly influence a person’s sexuality.

In this chapter, Orr and Zuk explains the importance of ornaments of males and the mechanism behind sexual selection. The questions that they seek to answer involve the fact that why are the males fighting during mating season, and the ones with the colorful ornaments. In both human and animal relationship, there are many similarities, such as the fact that the male fights for the female such as their masculinity or traits that females look for whether an animal or a human. Darwin in The Origin explained that sexual selection involves competition, but for mating instead of fighting for survival, in The Descent went on to explain the relevance of the traits like the peacock tails.

In the article the researchers were trying to challenge the sexual strategies theory. It seems as though sexual strategies theory is different genders having different preferences when choosing a mate, in the case of long and short term relationships. The hypothesis at first was that both boys and girls felt that attractiveness was important. Girls would be more inclined to date someone because of social status and that boys would be the complete opposite. They also expected that social status would only become important when the person is attractive and social status would be important no matter if the person is attractive on no for girls. The last thing that was tested was according to Ha (2009) “the potential moderator effects of

“Why Humans Have Sex” article by Cindy Meston and David Buss contains two research methods. Both methods have pros and cons. Meston and Buss did well in some part and not so well in some part. For example, Meston and Buss did well in using self-report for both methods. Although self-report can be distorted in some ways, it is generally accurate (Hyde & Delamater, 43).

The majority of the time the person who is left longing for more than just a casual hookup is the female. Women, by nature, are more likely to become more emotionally attached, especially when it comes to sexual activities. However, most of the time, girls will be willing to play along with the game of hooking up. Perhaps, in hopes, that it will someday lead to something more. But, if and when it doesn’t, they can be left emotionally distraught. Girls will become attached to the person they are with and grow to have a sincere care for them. However, when it comes to picking a mate, boys are not as particular about the girl. A study, Age and gender differences in mate selection criteria for various involvement levels found that “men should be equally as selective as women with respect to long-term mates, but less selective than woman with respect to short-term mates criteria (Kenrick).” Boys are less likely to think about all aspects of girl when planning on hooking up with her, unlike girls. They are not as particular because they are just looking for

This journal describes the growth over the past couple of years in terms of research on sexual selection. It articulates the influence sexual selection play on pre- and post-copulatory selection mechanisms, such as sperm storage/utilization, courtship, mate choice aggressive competition between male species and sexual conflict. In this journal, genetic mechanisms are highlighted to address some of the recently questioned areas of pre- and post-copulatory sexual selection. Although all the genetic mechanisms for sexual selection are not yet known, many of the identified genes show evidence of positive selection. It showed that sexual selection leads to the rapid coevolution of male and female reproductive organs. They identified how new techniques

How we select and lose our mates has always been a source of fascination and in the article, “The Strategies of Human Mating”, by David Buss surveys college students and more than 10,000 adult males and women from 37 countries to record that in the sexual selection process, humans choose between temporary (casual) and long-term (co-parenting) and use many strategies to draw in and keep a partner. There were 9 hypotheses Buss came up with about explaining different strategies of a long term and short term relationship between men and women. The hypotheses were that short term mating is more important for men than women, men seeking a short-term mate will solve the problem of identifying women who are sexually accessible, men seeing a short-term mate will minimize commitment and investment, men seeking a short-term mate will solve the problem of identifying fertile women, men seeking a long-term mate will solve the problem of identifying reproductively valuable women, men seeking a long-term mate will solve the problem of paternity confidence, women seeking short-term mate will prefer men willing to impart immediate resources, women will be more selective than men in choosing a short-term mate and lastly women seeking a long-term mate will prefer men

Sexual Selection is a powerful evolutionary process, for those unable to attract or gain access to the opposite sex, risk being eliminated from the population (Apostolou). The theory of sexual selection was introduced by Charles Darwin in his book The Descent of Man, in which he explains, that selecting a mate is not a random process, and it is key to evolution, for it depends on which individuals have advantage over the rest of the same specie (Stanford 99). In sexual selection, males compete between one another to gain access to a mate, and females choose particular promising mates that demonstrate trait variability, so that their future offspring will have a higher chance of survival (Stanford 99). Male individuals have to demonstrate power, who can conquer the most, ability to survive and provide protection, among other characteristics that will make him the right mate for a female. And Females, must consider their options, since they want high quality genes for their future children (Angeloni 77). Therefore, as a female, I am seeking for specific characteristics in a mate, such as a lean body build, healthy white teeth, and height—he must be over 5’6. I seek for those traits in a mate to further add trait variability in my future offspring, which will help adapt, live longer, and reproduce in the future.

Mate choice involves a variety of behaviors and tasks. Female choice of mates is a key part of traditional sexual selection. Some individuals choose mates based upon things such as size and age(Leonard, 2006). There is evidence that suggests that individual organisms and species may choose their mates depending upon the amount of sperm that is released from the male. Male individuals produce more sperm with other individuals who were previously abandoned(Leonard, 2006). This suggests that some individuals prefer low sperm competition during sexual selection. It has been said that females choose mates on the basis of their mates being compatible with their own genotype. On the contrary, some male individuals don’t choose mates according to age and size. They would rather mate with females who are closer to reproduction(Galipaud et al.,2015). This could be beneficial for male organisms because regardless of the age and size of the individual that they mate with, it is an increased probability that they will have successful offspring. Mate choice may also be dependent upon direct and indirect social information(Kavaliers et al.,

psychological energy that may not be expendable, and can be costly for men to use (Starratt

The changes in allele frequencies help animals adapt to survive and reproduce in an environment. Through natural selection, different species will develop new physical, emotional, and intellectual characteristics to yield a higher fitness in future generations. Also, specific populations of the same geographic area will produce different traits to adapt to that location, such as humans having a higher lung capacity at higher elevations. Thus, the more advantageous qualities will carry on to future generations. Many evolutionary theorists believe that male sexual aggression is one of these dominantly inherited traits. Finding many correlations between human and animal characteristics when it pertains to sexual violence. Research from Primatologists suggests the reasons sexual aggression has become an adaptive trait, as well as why some populations of species do not perform acts of sexual violence.