PSYC 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Menopause, Physical Attractiveness, Work Ethic

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 100
• Professor: Jill L Atkinson

Document Summary

Expectations of jealousy: recalling parental investment theory, consider this: an ancestral woman was limited in the number of offspring she could produce because of pregnancy, lactation, and menopause. On the other hand, an ancestral man"s number of offspring was limited by the number of fertile women with whom he could mate. Because the principal limitation on a woman"s reproductive success was the resources available to raise offspring successfully, women competed among each other for access to men with the resources and willingness to commit those resources to them. Competition: early men and women were both limited in their potential reproductive success. Men"s limitations- men"s reproductive success was limited by the number of fertile partners and those partners" reproductive capacity. How men competed- one important way men could successfully compete was by acquiring status and wealth. Having more resources to commit, powerful, wealthy men would be more attractive to women.