Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Sexual Contexts (sexual + context)
Selected AbstractsContext-specific mate choice criteria: Women's trade-offs in the contexts of long-term and extra-pair mateshipsPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS, Issue 4 2001JOANNA E. SCHEIB Women's mate choice criteria were examined experimentally in the contexts of long-term and extra-pair mateship scenarios. In long-term mateships, women may benefit by pairing with males who provide material resources and assistance in child rearing. In contrast, in extra-pair mateships, women may benefit in other ways, with such benefits outweighing the potential costs imposed by a primary mate who discovers the relationship. One benefit, or evolutionary function, of extra-pair mateships may be to replace a primary mate, in which case mate preferences should look similar across long-term and extra-pair contexts. However, another function of extra-pair mateships may be to obtain high quality gametes (Le., "good genes"), in which case women should be differentially attracted to cues of heritable phenotypic quality, such as physical attractiveness. By using detailed verbal and pictorial descriptions of men and requiring participants to trade off physical attractiveness for good character (i.e., being a good cooperator and parent), it was possible to determine whether women's criteria for partners varied across experimental contexts. Findings suggest that extra-pair mateships may have served the evolutionary function of obtaining "good genes," because attractiveness was more important in extra-pair mateships to the detriment of good character. This effect was maintained even when characteristics of the female participants (age, parity, marital experience) were covaried. In addition, the preference for physical attractiveness was specific to the sexual context; it did not generalize, in a second experiment, to choices among short-term male coworkers. [source] Investigating the relationship between past contraceptive behaviour, self-efficacy, and anticipated shame and guilt in sexual contexts among Norwegian adolescentsJOURNAL OF COMMUNITY & APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 1 2007Bente Trĉen Abstract What are the relationships between self-efficacy when communicating to the partner about use of contraception, stopping undesired intercourse, and perceived self-conscious emotions in sexual contexts? How does past contraceptive behaviour influence perceived self-efficacy? These research questions were studied among 399 10th grade students with coital experience in the county Nordland in Norway. Two dimensions of perceived emotional responses were identified in a hypothetical situation related to communicating to the partner about use of contraception, namely Shame and Emotional intimacy. Two dimensions were also identified with regard to anticipated emotional responses in a hypothetical situation related to stopping undesired intercourse: Guilt and responsibility and Emotional intimacy. Most of the boys and girls reported that they would react with positive emotions in both hypothetical situations. Path models were constructed with the affective dimensions and self-esteem as mediating variables between past contraceptive behaviour and contextual self-efficacy. Past behaviour influenced communication self-efficacy indirectly via Shame, and Shame had a direct effect upon self-efficacy. Guilt and responsibility had a direct effect upon stop-self-efficacy. Copyright İ 2006 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. [source] Sexually antagonistic coevolution in insects is associated with only limited morphological diversityJOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY, Issue 3 2006W. Eberhard Abstract Morphological traits involved in male,female sexual interactions, such as male genitalia, often show rapid divergent evolution. This widespread evolutionary pattern could result from sustained sexually antagonistic coevolution, or from other types of selection such as female choice or selection for species isolation. I reviewed the extensive but under-utilized taxonomic literature on a selected subset of insects, in which male,female conflict has apparently resulted in antagonistic coevolution in males and females. I checked the sexual morphology of groups comprising 500,1000 species in six orders for three evolutionary trends predicted by the sexually antagonistic coevolution hypothesis: males with species-specific differences and elaborate morphology in structures that grasp or perforate females in sexual contexts; corresponding female structures with apparently coevolved species-specific morphology; and potentially defensive designs of female morphology. The expectation was that the predictions were especially likely to be fulfilled in these groups. A largely qualitative overview revealed several surprising patterns: sexually antagonistic coevolution is associated with frequent, relatively weak species-specific differences in males, but male designs are usually relatively simple and conservative (in contrast to the diverse and elaborate designs common in male structures specialized to contact and hold females in other species, and also in weapons such as horns and pincers used in intra-specific battles); coevolutionary divergence of females is not common; and defensive female divergence is very uncommon. No cases were found of female defensive devices that can be facultatively deployed. Coevolutionary morphological races may have occurred between males and females of some bugs with traumatic insemination, but apparently as a result of female attempts to control fertilization, rather than to reduce the physical damage and infections resulting from insertion of the male's hypodermic genitalia. In sum, the sexually antagonistic coevolution that probably occurs in these groups has generally not resulted in rapid, sustained evolutionary divergence in male and female external sexual morphology. Several limitations of this study, and directions for further analyses are discussed. [source] | ||||||||||