Chapter 3 Essays
Question 1- Many people would consider it ironic that a man is more likely than a woman to be comfortable with having casual sex with multiple partners, but at the same time be angered about a mate having sex with someone else. Evolutionary psychologists, however, are not surprised by this statement because they believe that people are genetically predisposed to these feelings. The main reason for this is that women can only produce one child a year (9 months for a pregnancy), but men can pass their genes to many women during an even smaller time frame. These different views towards sex by each gender is believed by evolutionary psychologists to be a direct result of natural selection, women passed on their genes by carefully selecting their mate, while men bred early and often. The argument also posed by these psychologists is that the reason a male wouldn’t be happy with a mate engaging in sexual relations with another person is because men (and women) ultimately seek to find a mate that they will spend the rest of their life with.
Question 3- Mr. Firkin is a shy and reserved man who often feels tense and nervous. He blames his temperament on his parents, not receiving enough attention from his mother and the less strict discipline system that his father used. He blames both of his parents for his current unhappiness, loneliness, and anxiety. Due to the psychological understanding of nature and nurture, Mr. Firkin is technically right, but not for the reasons he is giving. His parents would be to blame because of the genes they passed on to him. Behavioral geneticists have found that only 10% of one’s personality comes from the environment they grow up in, the other 90% comes from genes. A study on temperament also showed that some infants who exhibit emotional qualities like being inhibited remained shy and isolated through adolescence and even into adulthood. If Mr. Firkin had shown these traits as a child, it may be why he...