Conflict Between The Sexes
Chap 11
What does this mean to you?
• http://youtube.com/watch?v=dWk0YaTLhek
Battle of the Sexes
What does this mean to you?
Battle of the Sexes
• “This implies that men as a group are united
in their interests and women are likewise
united in their interests and that the two
groups are somehow at war with each other”
(p. 313, Buss)
• Not true, society would not work
Strategic Interference Theory
•
Defined as, “Occurring when a person employs a particular strategy to
achieve a goal and another person blocks or prevents the successful
enactment of that strategy of fulfillment of the desire” (p. 312, Buss)
–
•
Timing of sex, fights during a marriage,
Two main postulates
1.
2.
Strategic interference occurs whenever one member of one sex violates
the desires of the opposite sex. Evolutionary speaking this would have
interfered with the preferred sexual strategy.
Negative emotions (anger, rage) seem to serve as solutions to the
problem of strategic interference. Alerting people to the problem and
allowing them to create solutions.
Strategic Interference Theory
• Two Important Qualifiers
1. Conflict per se serves no adaptive purpose
2. Metaphor of “Battle Between the Sexes” is
misleading.
• “The Breakup”
– Last weeks assignment
Conflict over Sexual
Access
Conflict about the Occurrence
and Timing of Sex
• Study by Byers & Lewis, 1998. 47% reported
on or more disagreements about their
desired level of sexual intimacy.
• Australian magpie-larks duet.
• Women
• Men
Sexual Withholding
•
•
•
Leading a man on
Serves a purpose for women
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Helps choose higher quality mate
Allows woman to be selective
Increases the value of sex
Increases value of woman as prospective mate
Encourages man to think of her as a long-term
prospective
What are the implications of this?
–
Does our current language for those who do not
sexually withhold have any possible relationship to our
evolutionary predispositions?
Inferences about Sexual Intent
• Men are more likely to make sexual
inferences from interaction than women
– “She wants me…”
• Study by Abbey 1982; Saal, Johnson, &
Weber, 1989
– Showed both male and female same situation
and had them interpret the interaction and
found different interpretations.
Deception about Commitment
• I love you……?
• Men use this as a tool to fool women into
thinking that they are more emotionally
committed than they really are.
• Do you think women use this strategy?
Deception about Commitment
• Women are more burdened by this trick
than men.
• What are potential problems that women
face from this tactic?
– Teen pregnancy
– Culturally bound
• What can women do to avoid this
potentially life changing problem?
Deception about Commitment
Possible Evolved Strategies
• Courtship
• Extended emotional/friend relationship,
before involving any physical relationship
• Longer she waits, the more knowledge she
will gain about her potential mate
• Discuss with friends
Cognitive Biases in Sexual Mind
Reading
• A. Error Management Theory
• B. Cognitive Biases
1. Sexual over perception bias
2. Commitment skepticism
Jealous Conflict
• “Sexual jealousy is one
psychological mechanism
that has evolved in men to
combat the manifold
potential costs of being
cuckolded” (p. 325, Buss)
• How is this useful?
• http://discoveryhealth.que
endom.com/questions/jeal
ousy_men_abridged_1.htm
l
Sex Differences In Jealousy
• Men are more bothered by possibility of
physical infidelity, whereas women are more
bothered by both physical and emotional.
Sex Differences in the Use of MateRetention Tactics
• Men
– Violence, resource display
– Moulin Rouge
• Women
– Enhance appearance, flirting
– Emotional involvement plays a key role
– Flavor of Love
http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/flavor_of_love_2/series.j
html
Man Protecting His Mate
• http://youtube.com/watch?v=NXeuDK47H
ng
Contexts Influencing the Intensity of
Mate-Retention Tactics
• Perceived likelihood of
infidelity
• Reproductive vale of the
wife: effects of Age and
Physical Attraction
• Income and Status Striving
of the Husband
– Flavor of Love
http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/flavor_of_love_2/s
eries_videos.jhtml
Violence toward Partners
• Men use violence to keep partner.
• Women lacking resources are more likely to be
abused
• Wives that leave husbands are more likely to be
killed
• Women are safer when family is closer and if she
chooses a mate who is more likely to have
reliable resources
Domestic Violence
• Domestic Violence is $67.5 billion dollars or
15% of the crime cost
• In Douglas County
– 911: Averages 1,000 DV Calls A Month
– 47 DV Homicides in Omaha since 1997
– 6 of those were children
Domestic Violence
• More than just physical. There is also
emotional and psychological.
• What is the evolutionary advantage?
• Do you think this is truly a good means to
keep a partner?
Domestic Violence
• Hi-tech helps fight domestic violence
• Two domestic violence incidents each week prove fatal Police forces
around Britain could soon be issued with a gadget that helps them tackle
cases of domestic violence.
• The Domestic Violence Positive Action Kit includes a small plinth-based
unit similar to an answering machine and a radio trigger that can worn
by victims of abuse.
• Victims can discreetly trigger an alert to police and emergency services if
they are attacked.
• Domestic violence is a growing problem in the UK with 830 incidents
reported every day. Two attacks every week prove fatal.
• The DVPAK has a range of sensors including a fall detector, movement
detector and even a button that can be used if a bogus caller comes to
the door.
•
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/39172000/jpg/_39172642_domesticviolence203_body.jp
g&imgrefurl=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2997428.stm&h=152&w=203&sz=13&hl=en&start=11&tbnid=egi6Y2KS6_lKAM:&tbnh=79
&tbnw=105&prev=/images%3Fq%3DFight%2BMan%2Band%2BWoman%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D
Conflict over Access to Resources
• Men control resources that allow them to
control women?
• Do men only control resources?
Sexual Aggression
Individual Differences in Sexual Aggression:
The Mate Deprivation Hypothesis
• 1. Two paths to sexual aggression
A. impersonal sex path
B. Hostile masculinity path
• 2. Mate Deprivation Hypothesis
Sexual Aggressiveness
• “Acts of sexual aggression are exemplifies by the
man’s demanding or forcing sexual intimacy, failing
to get mutual agreement for sex, and touching a
woman’s body without her permission” (p. 319,
Buss)
• Men don’t seemed to be bothered by women’s
sexual aggressiveness.
– Jordan?
• Men underestimate how disturbing sexual
aggression is to women.
Sexual Harassment
• Main Entry: sexual harassment
Function: noun
: uninvited and unwelcome verbal or physical
behavior of a sexual nature especially by a person in
authority toward a subordinate (as an employee or
student)
• http://youtube.com/watch?v=vm_YewSqOy8
http://webster.com/dictionary/Sexual%20Harassment
Facts About Sexual Harassment
• Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
• Included but not limited to the following
– The victim as well as the harasser may be a woman or a man. The
victim does not have to be of the opposite sex
– The harasser can be the victim’s supervisor, an agent of the
employer, a supervisor in another area, a co-worker, or a nonemployee.
– The victim does not have to be the person harassed but could be
anyone affected by the offensive conduct.
– Unlawful sexual harassment may occur without economic injury to
or discharge of the victim.
– The harasser’s conduct must be unwelcome.
•
www.un.org/womenwatch/osagi/pdf/Imfeeoc.pdf
Sexual Harassment
• Motivations
– Short-term sexual encounter
– Desire to exercise power
– Seek a long lasting romantic relationships
– Do you agree or disagree with these statements?
Sexual Harassment
• Status affects how offended women are by
this act.
– Why is this?
•Men have lower thresholds than women.
•Is this due to socialization or evolution.
Do Men Have Evolved Rape
Adaptations?
• Do men have evolved specialized adaptations
to rape under certain circumstances or is rape
a by-product of other evolved mechanisms?
• The General’s Daughter
Rape-as-adaptation theory
•
•
Selection has favored males who raped under certain pretenses
Six specialized adaptations that might have evolved in the male mind
1. assessment of the vulnerability of potential rape victims
2. a context-sensitive “switch” that motivates rape in men who lack
sexual access to consenting partners
3. A preference for maximally fertile rape victims, as contrasted with
a preference in marriage contexts for more reproductively valuable
but perhaps less immediately fertile partners
4. An increase in sperm counts of rape ejaculates compared with
those occurring in consensual sex
5. Sexual arousal in men specifically to the use of force or to signs of
female resistance to consensual sex
6. Context-specific marital rape in circumstances in which sperm
competition might exist
By-product theory of rape
• Rape is a by-product of other evolved
mechanisms, such as the desire for variety,
sex with little investment, physical aggression
to achieve goals, lack of other partners.
• Your opinion?
Do Women Have Evolved Anti-rape
Adaptations?
•
•
Separate issue than male adaptation
Possible adaptations that women have evolved
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Making friendships with males
Choose mate based on physical size
Female-female coalition
Development of fear to avoid dangerous situations
Avoid risky situations especially during ovulation, to
avoid conception
Psychological pain after rape, to avoid another rape
–
–
Do you think you have to have all of these, any?
Do you use any of these strategies?
Women & Rape
• What are the consequences of being raped?
Facts about Rape
• Myths
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Rape is a one-time incident, lapse in judgment
Rapists are strangers
Rape is provoked by the victim
Rapes happen to women alone at night. If at home a women will be safe.
Women cannot be raped against their will…rape can be avoided by resistance.
Most rapes involve black men and white women.
Women respect men for overpowering them; they may even enjoy that rape.
Rapists are mentally ill or developmentally challenged and therefore not responsible
•
•
•
•
•
•
Rape is intentional act, and may occur many times, usually a pattern.
76% intimate partners, 16.8% acquaintances, 14.1% strangers, 8.6% other relatives
No one provokes rape
Anyone can be raped, any age, either sex and by someone of the same or opposite sex
1:4 girls, 1:10 boys
Black women are the most raped group
• Facts
Rape
• Study by Thornhill & Thornhill, 1992 found
that men are aroused by rape
• What do you think this means?
• Why do you think rape happens so often?
• What about marital rape?
Social Perception of Rape
• Article by Frese, Moya, Megias
Bibliography
•
Picture of Gabrielle Union
http://www2.oprah.com/tows/slide/200611/20061110/slide_20061110_284_1
05.jhtml
• Buss, D. (2004). Evolutionary Psychology: The New Science of the Mind.
Pearson, Boston.
• Jealousy Quiz
http://discoveryhealth.queendom.com/questions/jealousy_men_abridged_1.ht
ml
• Information on Domestic Violence from Sue Michalski. Training and Education
Director. Domestic Violence Coordination Council.
• http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Women+saying+no+to+man
• www.un.org/womenwatch/osagi/pdf/Imfeeoc.pdf
• Convergent vocal strategies of males and females are consistent with a
cooperative function of duetting in Australian magpie-larks. By: Hall, Michelle
L.. Behaviour, Apr2006, Vol. 143 Issue 4, p425-449, 25p, 6 graphs; DOI:
10.1163/156853906776240623; (AN 20197618)
Bibliography
• http://youtube.com/watch?v=vm_YewSqOy8
• http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/im
ages/39172000/jpg/_39172642_domesticviolence203_body.jpg&imgrefurl=htt
p://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2997428.stm&h=152&w=203&sz=13&hl=
en&start=11&tbnid=egi6Y2KS6_lKAM:&tbnh=79&tbnw=105&prev=/images%3Fq
%3DFight%2BMan%2Band%2BWoman%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D
• http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/flavor_of_love_2/series_videos.jhtml
http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/flavor_of_love_2/series.jhtml
• http://youtube.com/watch?v=dWk0YaTLhek
• http://youtube.com/watch?v=NXeuDK47Hng
• http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Jealousy&btnG=Search+Images