Alita J. Cousins

Women's Preferences for Male Behavioral Displays Change Across the Menstrual Cycle

Women prefer both the scent of symmetrical men and masculine male faces more during the fertile (late follicular and ovulatory) phases of their menstrual cycles than during their infertile (e.g., luteal) phases. Mens behavioral displays in social settings may convey signals that affect womens attraction to men even more strongly. This study examined shifts in womens preferences for these behavioral displays. A sample of 237 normally ovulating women viewed 36 or 40 videotaped men who were competing for a potential lunch date and then rated each mans attractiveness as a short-term and a long-term mate. As predicted, womens preference for men who displayed social presence and direct intrasexual competitiveness increased on high-fertility days relative to low-fertility days, but only in a short-term, not a long-term, mating context. These findings add to the growing literature indicating that womens mate preferences systematically vary across the reproductive cycle.

Adaptive Design, Female Mate Preferences, and Shifts across the Menstrual Cycle

Abstract This paper has two aims: first, to review work addressing the functional significance of variation in sexuality across the womens menstrual cycle and its implications for an understanding of human sexual nature; second, to illustrate the more general use of adaptationism in sex research. Adaptationism provides a method for recognizing adaptations, traits that evolved because they bestowed reproductive advantages upon their owners. The telltale sign of adaptation is its special design for a particular function. In recent years, evolutionary psychologists have explored changes in womens sexuality and standards of male attractiveness across the menstrual cycle. Evidence provisionally supports the idea that these changes constitute special design for the function of obtaining genetic benefits through mating with men other than primary partners.

Perceived Threats of Female Infidelity, Male Proprietariness, and Violence in College Dating Couples

According to evolutionary theory, men faced the adaptive problem of keeping their partners sexually faithful. In the current study, men’s perception that their partners are interested in other men was hypothesized to be associated with more controlling behaviors in romantic relationships. Of the two dimensions of mating tactics, controlling and attentive behaviors, physically aggressive men were expected to be especially controlling, but not attentive. Using structural equation modeling with 116 college dating couples, women who reported greater interest in other men were perceived by their partners to do so and these men also exhibited more controlling behaviors, which were associated with physical aggression. Men’s perception of women’s interest in others was a more important predictor of male violence than women’s actual interest in other men. The link between women’s control tactics and their use of physical violence differed from men.

The social psychology of attraction and romantic relationships

PART I: ATTRACTION 1. Forming Attitudes toward Potential Partners: First Impressions of Physical Characteristics 2. Forming Attitudes toward Potential Partners: First Impressions of Non-Physical Characteristics 3. First Impressions of Non-Physical Characteristics: Levels of Acquaintance and the Importance of Meeting in Person 4. Evolutionary Theory 5. Initiating and Enhancing Attraction PART II: ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS 6. Assessing and Changing Attitudes toward Romantic Partners 7. Romantic Relationships 8. Sex and Love 9. Gender

Resistance to mate guarding scale in women: psychometric properties.

One individuals actions may affect the evolutionary fitness of another individual. Sexually antagonistic coevolution occurs when one partners behavior decreases the fitness of the other partner (Rice, 1996). This conflict pressures the other partner to counter these disadvantageous actions. Mate guarding is a mate retention tactic aimed at keeping a partner from cheating. Mate guarding may reduce mate choice, especially for extra pair mates. Therefore, some individuals may resist their partners mate guarding tactics. We developed a scale to measure resistance to mate guarding and tested it in women (N = 1069). Using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), six theoretically sound factors emerged and explained 69% of the variance. Confirmatory Factor Analysis showed strong support for the six original subscales as well as for the overall scale. The subscales had high reliability. The validity of the Resistance to Mate Guarding Scale was also excellent. Women who stated they used more resistance to mate guarding strategies also indicated that they had partners who mate guarded more, were less invested in their relationships, felt their partners were more controlling, had a more avoidant attachment style, and had a more unrestricted sociosexual orientation.