Social Psychology Research Project MATE SELECTION Coursework

Social Psychology Research Project MATE SELECTION Coursework Social Psychology Research Project: MATE SELECTION â€" Coursework Example > Social Psychology Research Project: Mate SelectionAbstractMate selection process shows uniformity in all cultures and all genders. This is a unique phenomenon. The following study has been done to understand the criteria men and women have for mate selection and also to see whether they have the same criteria or not. The study is based on the personal advertisements. The ads have been studied carefully regarding their preferences. Tabulation of the results in the Chi Square confirms that the theory is valid and there is a common set of parameters for mate selection regardless of the gender. But there are certain factors that women rate higher than men do, like, status or resources, are ranked higher by women and attractiveness and vitality is ranked higher by men. This study is had a total of 65 students of social psychology laboratory comprising of 20 males and 45 females. They did this study based on ads given by individual looking for an individual mate. IntroductionSelection o f mates is a unique feature of the human race. Although there are many differences among various cultures, when it comes to mate selection, a remarkable uniformity is noticed. It cuts across the gender boundaries as well and both men and women display the same preferences. (Fletcher, 2002) Evolutionary hypothesis developed by Buss(1987, 1994) has discussed the sex differences in mate selection criteria as seen in humans. He says that since a female can reproduce a limited number of offspring, the evolution theory would encourage her to find such mates who have sufficient resources for rearing her offspring. That is why women will look for men with resources. He also adds that other associated traits that indicate control over resources and show similar personality traits like ambition, and dominance, find a place of priority in the mate selection process of women. Similarly, for men the reproductive success is not too much associated with resources as they do not have much parenta l investment. For them the point of concern is the limited reproductive value of the female in terms of health and age. (Buss, 1987). Since they cannot directly judge their health and age, they go for physical beauty. According to Buss and Symons, the physical appearance of the female is an indicator to the man regarding her reproductive capabilities. Like a clear unblemished skin, long lustrous hair, white teeth, big eyes and full lips are proof of good health and reproductive age. (Buss, 1987,p. 341; Symns, 1979) According to the socio-structural theory, the difference in mate selection criteria is the outcome of class and gender inequalities, patriarchal system and sexual powers. ( Eagly and Wood, 1999, Jackson, 1992) According to Eagly and Wood, the social roles of men and women influences their choice in mate selection. Since a typical social role of men is associated with power and prestige, women tend to look for those criteria in men and in a way they exchange their role fo r beauty and nurturing for the power and status offered by men. (Hamermesh Biddle, 1994)There seems to be a never-ending debate on which theory is more appropriate. As more and more studied are taking place, we have more data to judge the inferences. It has been found in the researches that warmth and trustworthiness are most desirable features that men and women both look for in their prospective mates. The other criteria are like physical fitness and attractiveness, wealth, status and ambition( Weiderman, 1993). This was a correlation study to look for relationship between variables and to find out whether there is a positive correlation( with a correlation coefficient close to +1.00); or a negative correlation( correlation coefficient close to â€"1.00) or no correlation( correlation coefficient of 0). (Prof. Jeff Connor-Linton, Chi-Square Tutorial)