PSYC 4520 1st Edition Lecture 17Outline of Last Lecture I. Extraversion-IntroversionA. The heritability of extraversionB. Extraversion and preferred arousal levelC. Extraversion and happinessII. Assessment: Brain Electrical Activity and Cerebral AsymmetryA. Indicators of brain activityB. Measuring brain activityC. Cerebral asymmetryD. Individual differences in cerebral asymmetryIII. TemperamentA. What is temperament?B. Temperament and personality C. Inhibited and uninhibited childrenIV. Application: Children’s Temperaments and SchoolA. The association between a child’s temperament and school lifeB. Temperament and academic performanceC. The “goodness of fit” modelV. Evolutionary Personality PsychologyThese notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.A. How natural selection worksB. Evolutionary personality psychologyC. Natural selection and psychological mechanismsOutline of Current Lecture I. Anxiety and Social ExclusionA. How is anxiety beneficial?II. Evolutionary Personality Theory and Mate SelectionA. Online datingB. What men look for in womenC. What women look for in menD. Conclusions and limitationsIII. Strengths and Criticisms of the Biological ApproachA. StrengthsB. CriticismsIV. Introduction to the Humanistic ApproachA. The humanistic approachV. Roots of Humanistic PsychologyA. Existential philosophyCurrent LectureI. Anxiety and Social ExclusionA. How is anxiety beneficial?i. Evolutionary personality theory says that human traits like anxiety evolved because they benefitted our ancestors’ survival. But anxiety is unpleasant and interferes with our life, so how can it help the species?ii. The answer is that anxiety motivates people to avoid social exclusion. Humans have a need to belong to groups, and when we are excluded/ rejected, we suffer great distress. Primitive people who lived in small groups were more likely to survive/reproduce than those living alone (an isolated person would be more susceptible to injury, illness, etc.). Thus, anything that motivates people to avoid behaviors that may lead to exclusion would help the species survive. Anxiety serves this purpose.II. Evolutionary Personality Theory and Mate SelectionA. Online datingi. On a dating profile, people describe themselves and the kind of person they are looking for.ii. Women describe themselves as physically attractive and look for someone who is older/can provide financial security. Men look for someone younger/physically attractive and describe themselves as someone who can provide financial security.iii. Evolutionary personality theorists think of romantic relationships in termsof male and female members of a species getting together to eventually reproduce; choosing a partner is based partly on concerns for parental investment. This means that, as members of a species, we are concerned about reproducing and effective child rearing; while we may not actively consider reproduction success when choosing partners, certain mate-selection preferences have been passed down to us.iv. Men and women have different ideas about parental investment. Becausethey bear/raise the offspring, females are more selective about their mate/reproduction partner. However, males of any species may attempt to reproduce with many females; this increases the odds that one will pass on his genes. Thus, the woman’s investment is larger.B. What men look for in womeni. From an evolutionary view, men serve the species by reproducing often. So, they should be attracted to women with “high reproductive value”—ones who can give him many kids. There are many outward signs of a woman’s likely fertility; one is her age: a young wife can produce more kids than an older wife (so, men prefer younger women). Also, physical features associated with young adult women (“smooth skin, good muscle tone, lustrous hair, full lips”) are cues to fertility.ii. Evolutionary psychologists predict that men want young/physically attractive partners. The same cannot be applied to women, who see a younger man as less of a provider. We will more often see an older man with a younger wife than an older woman with a younger husband.iii. The importance of a woman’s physical attractiveness is also seen in the tactics women use to get a man’s attention. This is intrasexual selection—competition among members of one gender for mating access to the bestmembers of the other gender. If men select young/beautiful partners, a woman can improve her odds of being with him by emphasizing these attributes (e.g. makeup).iv. When evolutionary personality theory was tested cross-culturally, evidence showed strong support for it. Each male in different cultures preferred younger partners; each woman an older partner. All men were also more likely to say that good looks are important. C. What women look for in meni. Women prefer to mate with men who can provide for the kids. This involves financial resources, nurturing, and the ability to transfer status and power to the kids.ii. Research finds that men are aware of these preferences and, like women, compete for the most desirable partner: some men said that they bragged about their financial status to get their future wife’s attention.iii. Other studies find that women prefer dominant men, who, according to evolutionary personality theory, are better able to provide needed resources for their families. However, mating with a dominant man can bedisadvantageous if he is unwilling to share resources/invest in his kids.iv. When the theory was studied cross-culturally, women in all cultures were more likely to prefer a spouse who had good financial prospects.D. Conclusions and limitationsi. Research on what men and women look for in partners is consistent with evolutionary personality theory. Men prefer younger/physically attractive women, while women want a man who can provide material resources toraise the kids. However, researchers testing these hypotheses are limited in their ability to make strong tests of causal relationships. ii. First, they cannot manipulate variables like gender and physical attractiveness; thus, they cannot rule out alternative explanations for their findings. For example, differences in the ages men and women marry may simply have to do with maturity levels, with women being physically and emotionally mature more quickly.iii. Second, studies do not always produce