Sexual Strategies: The Short Term Mating Men and Woman Essay Example

that their ancestors confronted during the course of human evolution; humans’ mate preferences and mating decisions are hypothesized to be strategic products of selection pressures operating during ancestral conditions(Buss & Schmitt, 1993). ” This theory is directly dependent on the effects of long and short term mating. Buss and Schmitt theorize that because of the lower levels of males wanting to be parents, short term mating will represent a large component of the males mating strategy.

Men have evolved in short term a distinct sexual psychology, allow men to identify which woman are sexually accessible. Men have evolved in ways in such that short term mating is used to minimizing commitment and investment. From a male prospective there are various benefits and reprocautions to the argument of short term mateship. These negatives include an increase in sexual partners, the problems of identifying which woman are sexually accessible, minimizing risk, cost and commitment and lack of fertility.

In terms of their being a problem with the number of partner’s men from the beginning of time have desired to sleep with large numbers of woman. This desire can be seen as a turn off. There is also the relaxation of “standards imposed for acceptable short term partners (Buss & Schmitt, 1993). “ There are also time constraints that interfere. “The less time that is permitted to elapse before obtaining sexual intercourse, the larger the number of woman a man can gain access to. Prolonged tie delays, by absorbing more of a man’s mating effort, interfere with solving the problem of the number (Buss & Schmitt, 1993).

The next issue sexual accessibility becomes a problem

after look at evolutionary predictors. Men are the less invested sex and are less discriminatory on who their sexual partner is compared to woman. With this being said females are particular and it narrows down the chances of who a man can get into a short term sexual fling with. `There is also a problem with males trying to identify which females are fertile. When searching for the fertile women men have to differentiate from fertility and reproductive value.

Reproductive value is defined as the “actuarially in units of expected future reproduction (Buss & Schmitt, 1993). ” Unlike reproductive value, fertility is defined as “the probability of present reproduction (Buss & Schmitt, 1993). ” With this being said a male is more likely to go after a woman in her mid-twenties because at that time she is the most fertile. “Men who seek long-term mates would prefer women of high reproductive value rather than women of fertility (Buss & Schmitt, 1993). ” Men also face the problem of woman that are looking for commitment.

This will stop men who are looking for short term matting conditions because the females who are looking for commitment will most likely force the males hand before consenting to sex. Women also have various short term effects. These include the problems of immediate resource extraction, evaluating short term partners as possible long term mates, gene quality and the problem of mate switching, expulsion, and backup. In terms of immediate resource extraction, this was prominent in the older days. A man was expected to bring his mistress gifts such as food or jewelry. What is the matter with this

logic?

When a man creates a demand, in this case sex, and a woman finds an economic advantage through the males’ demand, they are known as prostitutes. This tittle is frowned upon in today’s society. This relates to women evaluating there people they evolve in short term mateship and seeing if they want to have long terms relationships with them. Females looking to see if there short term mates are the right ones to get into a relationship with have to ask themselves two major questions. 1) Are the willing to have a mate that is promiscuous? 2) Are you with knowing that the one you thing is Mr.

Right might be in another short term relationship apart from the one he has with you? The answers to these questions depend on what that person deems undesirable. When it comes to relationships protection is essential for women. In short term relationships protection is not guaranteed. “Because men in long term mateships are heavily invested, they should go to the greater effort than short term mates in ensuring protection from abuse by other men (Buss & Schmitt, 1993). ” This now brings to the articles hypothesis about females in short term relationships.

In short term mating, women will seek men who are willing to impart immediate resources; women will dislike men with characteristics that would be detrimental to a long term prospects. In the article Women's sexual strategies: the hidden dimension of extra pair mating Heidi Greiling and David M. Buss give evidence that women are not as opposed to short tern relationships. There reason behind this information is backed by the statement

“men cannot pursue a strategy of short-term mating, however, without willing women (Greiling & Buss, 1999).

Their research states that there are actual benefits for women being involved in short term relationships. An example that is used in this study is that of an affair. Being in a short term relationship spears her the pain of the affair and allows her to move on from the situation to find another mate that is compatible. From the study that was conducted results showed that out of the 18 questions asked the woman were more likely to engage in “extra-pair mating” after they find out that their partner had an affair.

In the article The Effects of Sex and Temporal Context on Feelings of Romantic Desire: An Experimental Evaluation of Sexual Strategies Theory the opposite was proven that within the data men who are pre exposed to females that show cues of easy sexual access. It was even shown that “women exposed to easy sexual access cues did not express particularly high levels of short-term desire. These results support the evolutionary hypothesis that feelings of romantic desire are guided by context specific mate preference adaptations (Schmitt, Couden & Baker, 2001).

Bryan Leighton Dawson and William D. McIntosh have written an article called Rapid Communication: Sexual Strategies Theory and Internet Personal Advertisements that talks about “how people who are weaker on evolutionarily advantageous traits (i. e. , less attractive women, less wealthy men) would emphasize alternative, socially desirable traits to compensate for these perceived deficiencies (Dawson & McIntosh, 2006). ” In the data found it was recognized that when women see their beauty as strength

they do not feel that it is necessary to highlight another traits.

They also stated that “researchers have been skeptical that Internet dating can provide a foundation for establishing successful intimate relationships (Dawson & McIntosh, 2006). ” The research papers that I used for this paper all brought forth a different sources of information. In each of the articles I selected often used diverse samples of people that were drawn from different walks of life. They also examined various romantic relationships whish pertained to long and short term effects. These studies also showed how these relations were both pleasant and unpleasant.

In all of the articles the data that was stated was either proven or compared by other articles there were relevant articles. I found it incredibly useful that the article that I based my data off of was used in several other articles that I had. These articles stated there purpose and at the end conclude with what the limitations to their data were. The topic of short term mating interested me because of the gender stereotypes given to males and females. Society places such a hindrance on what females can or cannot do. This bothers me so in this study I found out that in many areas women do like short term mating.

Norms today classify woman who enjoy short term mating to be either a prostitute or if she does not receive benefits a hoe. When analyzing information about this subject it appeared like most sociologist took the biological stance in saying that men want sex and women want some type of emotional bond. From my research has shown

me that this is true in some instances, but women use short term mating relations as a form of protection. I found it so backwards that in society today as men we shun those who are virgins, but praise the males who sleep with everyone or have multiple partners.

When we turn this phenomenon around the women who sleep with everyone are hoes, but for you to be a respectable woman you must be a virgin. This topic helped me learn about the psychological state of a female at times when society shuns them. The prevailing argument was shown to me in the article that stated that women use these as a sense of protection. I believe that if it is acceptable for men to sleep around, why would it not be okay for a woman to protect herself when a man’s goal in society is to simply have intimate relations with as many females as they possibly can?

I also do not agree with the argument that every man in the world does not simply want to have sex with as many women as possible. Yes, this might be true of the majority, but some men actually like being in long term meaningful relationship. In conclusion I believe that the information in the articles that I have researched shows a different side to short term relationships. I believe the article shows the difference in society norms between men and women. I also believe that the articles show the difference between men and women in terms of short term mating.

Because men’s and women’s long-term sexual strategy is based, for sex-differentiated reasons,

on a sustained and committed relationship, one article stated that the exposure to a target person who possessed cues to relationship exclusivity would augment their long-term romantic desires. Targets exhibiting cues to relationship exclusivity were generally rated the most desirable by participants in the context of long term mating. As you can see the article shows the cons for men and women to be in short term mating relationships. When tested these articles did prove that men do want sex and women do want emotional ties.

But it also brought forth the notion that women should be able to be in short term relationships. The article gave very important reasons of why this should be possible. Equality is a huge right that many have fought for time after time and I believe that short term mating should not be judged by anyone. With this being said the intimate relationships form and destruct by the actions of people. The impact of which a destructive long term relationship has on both male and females can change an individual’s life’s course. If short term mating is used as a coping mechanism then so be it.