EEA environment of evolutionary adaptation Essay Example

EEA environment of evolutionary adaptation Essay Example EEA environment of evolutionary adaptation Paper EEA environment of evolutionary adaptation Paper Since males are motivated to maximise their reproductive success also, they need to first display their willingness and ability to provide what the choosy female needs, from which they may be selected as suitable this is known as INTRA-SEXUAL selection, whereby males must compete amongst themselves to be selected by the female i.e. the female has evolved to become the choosier of the sexes, since she has more to lose. However, the male, in attempting to maximise his reproductive success must also safeguard his investment (time, effort, resources, etc) by selecting a female who can give him what he needs beautiful and healthy children who will survive to reproduce themselves. However, reproduction is not the sole motivator for relationships because some couples may not want to have children and in some other relationships (gay and lesbian relationships) it is physically impossible to have offspring naturally, also couples that have children from previous relationships may not want to have any more children, therefore the theories can not be applied in this situation. INTER-SEXUAL selection may also be used to explain human mate choice and gender specific preferences, whereby each sex has evolved success criteria for the opposite sex, based on what they need from one another. From here, both males and females accept or reject a potential mate, i.e. since females have evolved to become choosier, males might be motivated to display such characteristics, whilst females must also indicate their viability as a potential mate to ensure her own reproductive success. Such selection in both sexes leads to definite preferences for a mate males use indicators of viability and fertility and so look for signals of this, including youthfulness and health. Females, in contrast motivated by their need for provision search for indicators of this, looking for status and resources, together with a willingness to invest. This is, again thought to be based on sex differences in parental investment. Buss (1999) to some extent magnified the gender differences and failed to highlight the many similarities between genders, e.g. the fact that kindness and inelligence were rated as equally important by both genders. The links to a criticism levelled at many evolutionary psychologists, which is that they are highly selective in their use of research evidence, which brings its validity into question. Since it seems that both males and females have definite preferences in mind, and given that when advertising themselves in lonely hearts males and females tend to emphasise what it is we think the opposite sex wants, it is worth noting that certain signals are given out by both males and females in their everyday lives. For example, waist to hip ratio (valued by men) can be emphasised by women using belts, shapewear, etc. Upper body strength in males can be shown by tighter fitting clothes, shoulder pads, etc However, a lot of signals can be dishonest and therefore indicate a good body, youthfulness and trying to make yourself seem more attractive, examples of these dishonest signals is plastic surgery, you can cover up wrinkles and ageing by having plastic surgery this can trick your potential partner to think you are more attractive and younger than you actually are. Makeup can cover imperfections and attract males. The origins of human reproductive strategies is thought to be the EEA environment of evolutionary adaptation. During this time, males who mated with young ( therefore more fertile) females would have enjoyed greater reproductive success. Similarly, females who selected high status males who were capable and willing to invest their resources would have, in turn, become more reproductively successful. Therefore modern day reproductive behaviours operate by accepting or rejecting potential mates on their perceived ability to fulfil our evolutionary needs.