Discuss evolutionary explanations of human reproductive behaviour (25)
Sexual selection is a process that favours individuals possessing features that make them attractive to members of the opposite sex or help them compete with members of the same sex for access to mates. Darwin believed that the competition between mates of the same sex affects the evolution of some physical characteristic. Such as, the famous peacocks’ tail, which demonstrates that males have a large attractive tail to attract mates of the opposite sex and to stand out from their rivals. This led Buss and Workman and Reader to come up with two kinds of mate selection. One of them, called the Intrasexual which consists of individuals competing with members of their own sex for access to the opposite sex. This creates competition between the males as they fight each other in order to access the female. The second type of mate selection is known as intersexual, this consists of members of one sex attempting to impress members of the other. This is normally based on females, as they need to be impressed before they consent to mating. This mating selection led to Fisher’s “runaway process” which consists of an adaptive feature used by females choosing a sexual mate; this may become exaggerated over many generations. Also, the “sexy sons hypothesis” states that females choose a sexual partner for successful and attractive attributes as they are likely to pass onto their sons; this leads to successful mating, therefore the females genes will be passed on and continued. However, this hypothesis has been criticised by Zahavi, suggesting that the exaggerated feature is regarded as handicap and not an asset (Handicap Theory). However, evolutionary perspectives on human mate selection are extremely deterministic; Thornhill and Thornhill said that men who are unable to mate are driven to rape women.
