He is a well known and respected voice in evolutionary psychology, authored and performed an incredible amount of field research, and has written several books, including the evolution of desire. Welcome to evolutionary psychology, a discipline curiously situated at the interface between evolutionary science and pop psychology, where both wild and reasonable claims seem to clash against the wall of an incredible scarcity of pertinent data. A boom in mate choice research prompts a comprehensive look at. Cq press your definitive resource for politics, policy and people. Providing the first synthesis of the topic in more than three decades, and drawing from a wide range of fields, including animal behavior, evolutionary biology, social psychology, neuroscience, and economics, rosenthal argues that good genes play a relatively minor role in shaping mate choice. The handbook of evolutionary psychology wiley online books.
Sage business cases real world cases at your fingertips. The ideal mate may have to hold valuable resources as well as being highly fertile or fecund. Darwin believed that sexual selection played a major role in the evolution of. As likely as not, it should be neither too closely related nor too distantly related, and it should be maximally attractive. In classical literature and in romance novels, the male pro tagonist is. In this work, darwin fleshed out the mechanism of sexual selection, a hypothesis that he had proposed in the origin of species. This is a welcome change from a lot of evolutionary psychology. In this work, darwin fleshed out the mechanism of sexual selection, a hypothesis that he had proposed in the origin of. Download for offline reading, highlight, bookmark or take notes while you read mate choice. The importance of mate choice and sexual selection has been emphasized by the majority of evolutionary psychologists. Sidari, psychology student, 1 emily ann harris, phd candidate, 1 fiona kate barlow, phd, 2 and brendan p. All these aspects of a member of the opposite sex may influence how many descendants the pair could. In the case of the science of mate choice, the waiting period was a long century after its inception in darwins 1871 work, the descent of man.
Ledlow department of psychology, arizona state university, tempe, arizona 85287 handbook of social psychology, edited by john delamater. Evolutionary psychology also tries to connect with other disciplines in two directions. Sage reference the complete guide for your research journey. That is, there isnt one rule that works all the time.
Is variability in mate choice similar for intelligence and. Highlights conditiondependent traits may be universally, uniformly preferred in a mate. The book argues that our most distinctive psychological adaptations evolved. Testing the matechoice hypothesis of the female orgasm. 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 and the generation of culture pp. How sexual choice shaped the evolution of human nature human creativity is like a peacocks tail. 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. Human evolutionary psychology 02 edition 9780691096223. Drawing on information from the fields of animal behavior, ecology, evolutionary genetics, and sensory physiology, it will be a source of information and inspiration for everyone interested in this fascinatingly complex topic. Sage books the ultimate social sciences digital library. The phenomenon where females will copy or imitate the preferences of other females for a particular male mate has been documented in a wide variety of species, and is commonly referred to by evolutionary biologists as mate choice copying bennett, lim and gilbert, 2008. Cronin 1992 covers the long history of the field since darwin first coined the term sexual selection.
In 1983, when the first edited book about the topic was brought forth. An afterword by richard dawkins provides some final thoughts from the renowned writer and exponent of evolutionary theory. These data were used to test an evolutionary model in which mate choice is hypothesized to depend on. Evolutionary psychology tries to offer a coherent framework for unifying the diverse areas of contemporary psychology research. One result of female choice is the evolution of exaggerated male traits. Selection shapes brains that maximize the number of offspring who survive to reproduce themselves. In the present study, reallife matings were reported by a large representative sample of men and women n 1,3.
Evolutionary psychology and conceptual integration. In 1983, when the first edited book about the topic was brought forth 1, it contained only a few. The evolution of sexual decision making from microbes to humans. Providing the first synthesis of the topic in more than three decades, and drawing from a wide range of fields, including animal behavior, evolutionary biology, social psychology, neuroscience, and economics, rosenthal argues that good genes play a relatively minor role in shaping mate choice decisions and demonstrates how mate choice is. In mate choice, gil rosenthal overturns much of this conventional wisdom.
This is more than just a book about the psychology of sex. 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. How ecology, genes, fertility, and fashion influence mating behavior article pdf available november 2006 with 4,317 reads how we measure reads. He wrote the mating mind and spent, and coedited the book mating intelligence. Massimo seems to dismiss mate choice as something that isnt really what evolutionary. 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. A boom in mate choice research prompts a comprehensive. 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. Having students reflect on their own mate preferences can provide a meaningful introduction to the evolutionary perspective on mate selection. Academic journal article mankind quarterly oedipus complex, mate choice, imprinting. Buss is the author of a number of publications and books, including the evolution of desire, the dangerous passion, and the murderer next door, which introduces a new theory of homicide from an evolutionary perspective. It connects with the biological sciences through evolutionary biology, behavior genetics, and neuroscience. Fully updated with the latest research and new learning features, it provides a. The popular consensus on mate choice has long been that females select mates likely to pass good genes to offspring.
What we know, and dont know, about the process of mate selection. Written with students in mind, human evolutionary psychology is a highly readable and balanced account of eps central concepts and conflicts, from altruism and mate choice to cultural evolution and the origins of language. Evolutionary social psychology university of michigan. We analyzed preferences provided by people in 37 cultures for 18 characteristics. This is very different from maximizing health or longevity. Sage video bringing teaching, learning and research to life. Miller, phd the recent incorporation of sexual selection theories into the rubric of. Evolutionary psychology, in short, does not predict rigid roboticlike instincts.
This book is a marvelously insightful, thoughtprovoking, and stimulating synthesis of mate choice. Evolutionary psychology and the emerging science of human courtship. Animals may be careful in their choice of mates for a variety of reasons. At present, there are five sub mechanisms that explain how mate ch oice has evolved over time. This paper assesses three cases of work on mate choice and sexual selection in evolutionary psychology. It became more and more extreme in a runaway process guided by female mate selection. An indispensable resource for students of animal behavior and evolution, this comprehensive and thoughtful book. Over the past decade, psychologists and behavioral ecologists have been finding answers to such seemingly unrelated questions by applying an evolutionary perspective to the study of human behavior and psychology. The evolution of sexual decision making from microbes to humans ebook written by gil g. Providing the first synthesis of the topic in more than three decades, and drawing from a wide range of fields, including animal behavior, evolutionary biology, social psychology, neuroscience, and.
Rather, evolutionary psychology studies flexible, environmentallyconnected and culturallyinfluenced adaptations that vary according to the situation. David buss on crosscultural human mate preferences, randy thornhill and steve gangestad on the link between mate preferences and fluctuating asymmetry, and. Pdf the evolutionary psychology of human mate choice. Great ideas can sometimes lie underrecognized for years. How we mate, why we stray, and what it means for modern relationships.
Indeed, the bulk of the book concerns sexual selection, but many of darwins. Sexual selection and mate choice in evolutionary psychology. Abstracthuman mate choice is central to individuals lives and to the evolution of the species, but the basis of variation in mate choice is not well understood. As such, it provides a brief overview of the theoretical and methodological commitments of. Geoffrey miller is an evolutionary psychologist best known for his books the mating mind 2001, mating intelligence 2008, spent 2009, and mate 2015.
Most research on mate choice in modern societies is based on data that may or may not reflect actual mating behavior e. Next, we examine womens and mens mating preferences, focusing on the adaptive significance of material, genetic and fertility benefits, and their relationship to environmental characteristics. The latter was, if not exactly forgotten, then at least sidelined. David buss is an evolutionary psychologist and researcher, currently teaching at the university of texas. Designed to set the standard for handbooks in the field, the handbook of evolutionary psychology is an indispensable reference tool for every evolutionary psychologist and student. Mate choi ce is one of two components of sexual selection, the other being intrasexual selection. Conditiondependent traits were not universally, uniformly preferred. That is why organisms do things other than having sex. Literature in evolutionary psychology suggests that mate choice has been the primary mechanism of sexual selection in humans, but this conclusion conforms neither. Human evolutionary psychology is a comprehensive, balanced, and readable introduction to this burgeoning field. Ideas on sexual selection were first introduced in 1871, by charles darwin, then expanded on by ronald fisher in 1915.
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