PSYC 351 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Normative Social Influence, Social Proof, Parental Investment
Exam 2 Essay Response
1. Discuss how evolutionary psychologists approach sex differences. Include in your
discussion a brief review on sex differences in parental investment, jealousy, and mate
preferences.
The origins of evolutionary psychology dwelled on genetics and survival of the fittest.
Evolutionary psychologists believed that fitness was direct or indirect. Indirect fitness is helping
those related to us to reproduce or survive while direct fitness is having an offspring. In general,
it means to pass on your genetics for your species to survive. An example of a genetic trait
passed on is aggression. Aggression is seen as an internal quality and can be either physical or
verbal. It is a maladaptive trait but is necessary for survival, for example animal species like
wolves or lions must be aggressive to survive in their natural habitats, be it for mating or for
defense.
Parental investment was one of the traits that was studied in humans. There were vast differences
between males and females in the way they contributed to raising their offspring. There is a
tendency for women to invest more time on parenting a child. The difference relies on three
aspects which include sexual reproduction, pregnancy, and birth. In sexual reproduction, women
donate the egg and men donate the sperm, but women go through cycles of ovulation that require
the egg to be eligible for fertilization. In pregnancy, women carry the fetus and their bodies
change and adapt to accommodate the growing offspring, men do not go through any changes
and are essentially unnecessary. In birth, women do all the investment, they must go through the
entire delivery process and even after birth must be readily available to ensure the survival of the
infant. There is seen a vast difference between men and women in parental investment. The cost
is more for women and they must be selective in who they select for a mate, they must make sure
that the male has good genes to pass on and is able to care for the offspring after birth by
providing living, food, and safety to the two.
This study of parental investment shows differences in jealousy and mate preferences. Women
prefer mates with a stable economy, high dependability, and stable mates while men prefer a
mate based on physical appearance and youth. In a study conducted on jealousy, it was shown
that men have a higher percentage of being hurt by a sexual infidelity by women while women
have a higher percentage of being hurt by a closer emotional infidelity. This help provide
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evidence on how men and women differ in mate preferences, women desire a deeper emotional
connection while men rely more on sexual fidelity.
References
Baker, Michael. Social Psychology Lecture. Spring 2018.
2. Describe the Sherif (autokinetic) study and the Asch (line) stud. In what key way were the
studies different? What does that difference mean in terms of interpreting the results? (Hint:
think of informational social influence and normative social influence).
Conformity is a social influence which involves a change in belief or behavior to fit in with a
group or to agree with others. This change is in response to real or imagined group pressure
(Crutchfield, 1955). Conformity in the current age is seen throughout social media, movies, and
even in cultures. Even in major studies we have conformity such as in the Sherif and Asch
conformity studies.
Examples of societal examples of conformity include situations such as in social media where
people use content in their lives to post about in public. These include instances such as a shout
out to a parent for their birthdays or posting about popular ideas. Majority of social media users
do this not to express their own ideas or feelings, but for the sake of catering to the public, does
your 58-year-old mother really have an Instagram account Becky? We see it in pop culture, such
as in the movie Mean Girls, where protagonist Cady Heron changes her entire demeanor such as
clothing style and self-expression to fit in with the popular crowd. An example of cultural
conformity falls in the era of the 1950’s where each gender was place in traditional roles where
males stuck to male dominant careers and females in their perspective careers. Some examples of
conformity given in class were through the Sherif and Asch studies.
Sherif conducted an experiment with the aim of demonstrating conformity in group situations
(1935). The study was conducted in a lab where he used the autokinetic effect. This effect
involves a group of participants observing a small spot of light on a screen which appears to
move but, is still. The study involves asking participants to estimate how far the dot of light
moved. When the participants were asked individually, the answers varied. However, in a group
setting, the answers were at a high average. The study shows that within the group setting the
average was always greater than individual numbers. In this study we see conformity as
internalized, internalization involves public and private conformity; in which a person changes
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Document Summary
Include in your discussion a brief review on sex differences in parental investment, jealousy, and mate preferences. The origins of evolutionary psychology dwelled on genetics and survival of the fittest. Evolutionary psychologists believed that fitness was direct or indirect. Indirect fitness is helping those related to us to reproduce or survive while direct fitness is having an offspring. In general, it means to pass on your genetics for your species to survive. An example of a genetic trait passed on is aggression. Aggression is seen as an internal quality and can be either physical or verbal. It is a maladaptive trait but is necessary for survival, for example animal species like wolves or lions must be aggressive to survive in their natural habitats, be it for mating or for defense. Parental investment was one of the traits that was studied in humans. There were vast differences between males and females in the way they contributed to raising their offspring.
