Men look for partners who are physically
attractive (suggests fertility). Women are
additionally interested in the resources a
partner might be able to provide
Buss, 1989 - Cross Cultural Study
IDAs
Approaches
Biosocial
Alternative view is
that behaviour is
affected by nurture
Determinism
Evolutionary approach is deterministic
but genes don't determine our behaviour
only predispose us to certain behaviours
Division of labour
Role division may have evolved
because women would have
spent most of their adult life
pregnant or producing milk
If women hunted
the reproductive
success of the group
would decrease
Kuhn and Stiner, 2006 - suggests
gender division of labour might
explain survival of the homo
sapiens and not the Neanderthals
Both men and female Neanderthals used to hunt
Cognitive style
Tend and befriend
Women may also be more focused
on interpersonal relationships
Taylor et al, 2000 - proposed
might stem from different
challenges faced when
dealing with stress in EEA
E-S theory
Women are better at empathising
whereas men are better at systematising
Baron-Cohen, 2002 - proposed that
this gender difference may by the
result of selection pressure
- Suggested that males who were
able to systematise with greater
precision would have gained an
evolutionary advantage
Evaluation
Research methods
Problems with the degree to
which data collected actually
represents the behaviour of
people from different cultures
Speculative theories
Do not have a firm factual basis
Example is explanation for the
disappearance of the Neanderthals
Other theories just as plausible include climate change in Europe
Tzedakis et al, 2007
Implications
The meat-sharing hypothesis
An outcome of men becoming
hunters due to selective pressures
is meat being used as a means of
attracting female interest
Stanford, 1999
Autism
Baron-Cohen, 2004 - Proposed
that autism may be an example
of the extreme male brain
- Those with autism score high at
systematising and low on empathising
Research support
Tend and befriend
Taylor et al, 2000 - showed that in women
levels of oxytocin increased with stress
Ennis et al, 2001 - conducted
a natural experiment to test
male-female differences in
stress responses
- Sampled cortisol levels
and found it increased in
males and decreased in
females
Supports
view that
women
respond to
stress of
others in a
different way
Mate choice
Differences in how males and females advertise themselves
Waynforth and Dunbar,
1995 - 44% of males sought
physical attractiveness
compared to women
- 50% of women offered
attractiveness whereas
only 34% of males did
Cognitive style
Baron-Cohen, 2004 - conducted
research to demonstrate that men
and women do think in different
ways which align with predicted
differences in cognitive style
- Developed a Systematising
Quotient Questionnaire
Found that males tended
to be systematisers and
females tended to be
emphathising