PSYC 111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Promiscuity, Social Learning Theory, Casual Sex

• School: Binghamton University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 111
• Professor: Lanora Duell

Document Summary

Cross-culturally, men think more than women about sex, and men are more likely to think that casual sex is acceptable. Men who had the trait of promiscuity were more likely to have their genes continue, and even spread, in the next generation. There is little cost to spreading extra genes. For women, a trait of promiscuity would not greatly increase the number of babies, and it would have greater survival costs. Men prefer women with signs of future fertility (narrow waist and fuller figure). Women prefer men with loyal behavior and physical and social power and resources. Critics: start with effect and work backward; more immediate explanations for results better understood by social learning theory than decisions made by very different ancestors. Some behaviors are hard to explain by natural selection. To make well used brain pathways work better, unused connections are pruned away.