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Friday, February 11, 2011
Today in one of my classes, we happened to talk about the difference between men and women from the paradigm of evolutionary psychology. Men and women differ, in this view, in domains in which they have faced different adaptive problems over human evolutionary history.
Here is a summary of the evolutionary psychology's view.
Men face paternal uncertainty and thus are more prone to sexual jealousy while women are more "reproductively valuable" as they invest more heavily in offspring. Men are also fertile throughout their lifespan while women's fertility is steeply age graded. As a result, there is rarely a shortage of men willing to contribute sperm for fertilization while there is a pervasive shortage of fertile women.
Because of the large asymmetry between men and women in their minimum obligatory parental investment - nine months gestation vs an act of sex for men, it is better for men to gain sexual access to women while for women to identify men who are able and willing to invest.
As a result of these differences, Men express greater distress about sexual than emotional infidelity, whereas women showed the opposite pattern. It is interesting to note that this result has been replicated in other cultures. In today's society, studies have shown that men would ideally like to have more than 18 sex partners in their lifetimes, while women 4 or 5. Women also tend to place greater value on good finantial prospects in a mate.
Response
I personally feel that evolutionary psychology provides a sound explanation for differences between men and women, especially for differences in domains closely linked with sex and mating. The evolutionary psychology perspective also provides insights into the broader discourse on sex differences - the most important being that neither men or women can be considered "superior" or "inferior".
I also think that it is important to know how certain sex differences originated so as to understand the contexts in which they are manisfested (eg mate selection). It will not be very effective to try and discuss about inequality and the status quo without understanding how they came about in the first place.
Nevertheless, I think there are other domains that are important in explaining sex differences, such as social influences. With higher earning power of women these days, they may not look for the same qualities in mates as compared to women 50 years before.
One interesting area that can be explored regarding the differences between me and women is to take a look at matrilineal societies, where women are more dominant compared to men.
Food for thought:
Do you agree with evolutionary psychology's explanations for sex differences?
Are there other domains that can explain these differences?
Do matrilineal societies differ in viewing these sex differences?
hui jun published at 2/11/2011 06:29:00 PM