Animal Behavior - Chpt. 14 Reading Notes

Front 1

What is one possible evolutionary explanation for blood donation?

Back 1

The donor's everyday companions may be impressed by the donation and wish to cooperate with them in the future

Front 2

At what level does blood donation occur?

Back 2

The proximate level, because our psychological mechanisms make us feel better when we do any of a wide range of conspicuous good deeds

Front 3

What is indirect reciprocity?

Back 3

Hypothesis for blood donation, according to which the donor gains fitness from others who see his good deed

Front 4

How is it observed that indirect reciprocity applies to blood donation?

Back 4

1. Unpaid blood donors almost always let their friends know that they have given blood
2. People are reluctant to broadcast their refusal to give blood
3. when people have a choice of other people to help, they will prefer to assist those who they know to be generous

Front 5

What type of faces are remembered the best?

Back 5

Those of a supposed bad character ~ having a good reputation helps

Front 6

What does it mean that something is biologically or evolutionarily adaptive?

Back 6

It tends to elevate the inclusive fitness of individuals with the trait; does not promote discrimination or political inequality; does not mean the trait is developmentally inflexible

Front 7

What is the main alternative to an evolutionary approach to human behavior?

Back 7

The arbitrary culture theory

Front 8

What is the arbitrary culture theory?

Back 8

Most of our activities have little or nothing to do with fitness maximization, but instead reflect the more or less arbitrary process by which traditions originate and persist over time.

Front 9

Give two examples of the way people unable to satisfy their proximate wishes sometimes do things that do not boost their inclusive fitness.

Back 9

1. A person deprived of the opportunity to have sex may masturbate
2. A couple unable to have a family may adopt a child who is not genetically related to them

Front 10

Give examples of the way men possess psychological mechanisms that enable them to evaluate female fertility with accuracy, attaching special value to cues associated with high fertility.

Back 10

In Western cultures, amels generally prefer the following feminine features: full lips, small noses, large breasts, a waist circumference that is sbustantially smaller than hip circumference, and an intermediate weight rather than extreme thinness or obesity; women that produce the preferred odors and vocalizations are also visually attractive to men; men fin dhte smell of a T-shirt worn by an ovulatory woman to be more pleasant and sexy than the scent of a T-shirt worn by the same woman when she is not fertile; men typically prefer photographs of ovulating owmen

Front 11

What trumps handsomeness from a woman's perspective?

Back 11

Direct evidence of a man's wealth and his willingness to share it with a partner and her offspring

Front 12

Are good looks more important for single women or single men?

Back 12

Single men

Front 13

Do females in cultures without birth control who secure relatively rich husbands have a tendency to have higher fitness than females whose partners can provide them with fewer material benefits?

Back 13

yes; household income is correlated with children's health, with the effect growing larger as children get older.

Front 14

What age-range of men is most desirable to women?

Back 14

Men in their thirties, because they have relatively high incomes and are likely to live long enough to invest large amounts in their children over many years

Front 15

Do relatively wealthy female undergraduates put higher value on wealth and status in potential long-term mates than less wealthy females?

Back 15

Yes

Front 16

What is the number of births called that a male would have been responsible for, had he and his partner(s) abstained from birth control?

Back 16

Number of potential conceptions, (NPC)

Front 17

Do all women feel a change in sexual desire over the menstrual cycle?

Back 17

No only women in a long-term partnerships with a committed companion; peak occurs around the time of ovulation

Front 18

Describe the relationship between intelligence level and the seriousness of the relationship.

Back 18

The minimum level of intelligence increases upward in relation to the degree of long-term commitment involved

Front 19

What percent of men agreed to go to bed with an attractive woman when approached on a campus?

Back 19

75%; (no women agreed to do so with an attractive man)

Front 20

In a relationship, what makes men and women respectively become more jealous?

Back 20

Men - potential loss of paternity and parental investment arising from a wife's extramarital sexual activity
Women - loss of emotional commitment; shared with another woman

Front 21

Does rape occur in ever culture?

Back 21

Yes; occurs in every culture studied to date

Front 22

If rape a function of the desire to subjugate women?

Back 22

No, because rapists do not target older, dominant women; most rape victims are younger, poor women; moreover, if there is no sexual component, the age distribution of rape victims should be the same as that of women murdered by male assailants; crime data is at odds with this prediction

Front 23

Give an example of a species of insect that uses "rape"/forced copulations.

Back 23

The Panorpa scorpionfly

Front 24

Is the theory that human rape is an evolved reproductive tactic supported?

Back 24

Yes; copulatory rape apparently is more likely to result in pregnancy than consensual sex
Moreover, if rape is an evolved reproductive tactic of last resort, then it should occur more often in populations in which a higher proportion of the fertile female population is monopolized by a relatively small part of the male population; in conjunction, the more serial monogamists in a population, the smaller the pool of fertile unmarried women ~ the higher the annual divorce rate in the United States, the higher the frequency of rape

Front 25

Is rape adaptive?

Back 25

No; it is a maladaptive by-product of the male sexual psyche, which causes quick sexual arousal, a desire for variety in sexual partners, and an interest in impersonal sex

Front 26

What is the theory that rape is a result of the male sexual psyche?

Back 26

The by-product hypothesis

Front 27

What is one prediction uniquely supported by the by-product hypothesis.

Back 27

Rapists have unusually high levels of sexual activity with consenting as well as nonconsenting partners

Front 28

Are a man's stephchildren as likely to receive money for college as his genetic offspring by a current mate?

Back 28

No; stepchildren not only tend to receive fewer resources form their stepparents, but are also at greater risk of being physically assaulted, (40 time more likely to suffer abuse)