Draft 2: Courtship
This topic submitted by Michelle Flood, Amanda Walter, Azmara Asefa, Laura Collins, Maraya Morgan (
Mfloodmiamiuofoh@aol.com, Walteram@muohio.edu, Asefaac@muohio.edu, Collinlw@muohio.edu, Morganm@muoh ) on 10/7/04 .
Hey Good Lookin'!*By the way, I could not figure out how to do apostrophes and indentations on this, sorry!*
Introduction What makes females attracted to males initially? Surely, most females and most males have been wondering this for centuries. Also, the male species of other animals in the wild tend to be the most colorful or most elaborate in their appearance in order to attract the female. This has led us to research and survey college females and males to attempt to answer this centuries-old question. We predict that a male must have a combination of several traits, physical and non-physical, in order to attract a female.
Background Information
Survival in the Wild: Sexual Strategy investigates the behavioral patterns of various animals and their mating tactics, specifically, finding, choosing, and competing for mates. By using examples from a range of different classes, many common traits emerge while very distinct traits surface as well. In choosing the book, Survival in the Wild: Sexual Strategy, we hope to gain a fuller understanding of a correlation between animal attraction in selecting a mate and human attraction in date selection. If we compare other animals' attractions to that of humans, which we will receive from further research, interviews, and surveys, we can come to a more knowledgeable conclusion to our original question. "Campus Enquirer" contained interesting responses from female college students on what they were looking for in a man. When asked if they would date someone outside their race, one woman responded, "I would. Intelligent, ambitious Black men can be hard to find." When the women were asked whether they trust other women or not, one woman responded, "I trust my friends, but not women in general. Why is it that we'll spread details of a situation all over campus before informing the person who really needs to know?" The "Campus Enquirer" survey shows how race might affect women's decisions in who they will be attracted to and whether they would trust the other women enough not to compete with them. This helps our survey because some of our questions deal with demographics such as race and some other questions mention the reaction towards other women in the presence of a man they are attracted to. In "Non-Verbal and Verbal Communication in 'Involved' and 'Casual' Relationships Among College Students", "findings revealed that 'involved' daters,females, and whites are significantly more likely to be concerned about nonverbal communication than 'casual' daters, males, and blacks." Females valued the importance of eye contact and use of hands during speaking more than males did in this survey. This could be applied to initial dating as well. When a female is attracted to a male, body language and eye contact could play a major role in her reason for being attracted to that particular male or be used when she tries to gain attention from that male. "Non-Verbal and Verbal Communication in 'Involved' and 'Casual' Relationships Among College Students", although it examines students in established relationships, can be used to emphasize how important communication and body language is in any stage in the relationship, including the initial stage of dating. Promiscuity discusses the evolutionary reasons for the mating habits of diverse creatures. It delves into the benefits of promiscuity for both genders, and the history of the theories leading to today's beliefs. Along the way, method, size, potency, fidelity, and function are all discussed. Tim Birkhead basically concludes that having multiple partners is good for an individual, but having a mate who is promiscuous is detrimental. For men, the reason is obvious, the more partners they have, the more chances of passing on their genetic information on to the most offspring. For females, the advantage to having more mates is "choosing" the best genetic information, which leads to the healthiest, most productive offspring. We chose Promiscuity for its title, obviously, and we stuck with it, because we believe that sexual instinct defines courting behavior. The article: "Chemistry in the College Dating Process: Structure and Function" is important and relevant to our research topic in that it discusses the most important aspects of chemistry between prospective mates. The article investigates how it affects dating and, and its role in the original encounter. This is very relevant to our topic because it questions what females find attractive in males. It gave us some ideas for our survey. It led us to further inquire into the role of dating and relationships in college. Many people meet the person they will marry in college. This is the current setting that we are in. We are researching what males are females attracted to and dating goes hand in hand with this."Disco Clothing, Female Sexual Motivation, and Relationship Status: Is She Dressed to Impress?" questioned the role of clothing and the amount of skin shown in whether a female is attractive or not. It answered the question of whether skin shown is important or attractive. What we wear can be a representative of who we are. It is how we are perceived. This got us thinking is this the same for the other way around?This is relevant because this searched for the importance of our outerwear in how attractive we are perceived to be. This gave us an insight into how our clothing tells more about us, and how it can be a symbol of our personality. How does what we wear change how we are perceived? How does this affect how attractive we are to a potential mate. The article about clothing attempted to answer these important questions for us. "Evolution of Human Mate Choice" discusses the biological reasons for the way we act the way we do when searching for a mate, and how we have evolved our sexual behavior. This article talked about how much investment the parents put into their young. This is relevant to our topic because when searching for a mate, it is biological instinct to notice whether the individual is perceived to have the characteristics of what is considered to be ideal for a parent. All living things inherently want the best for their offspring. At the first encounter humans instinctively look for these qualities in a mate. We needed to know what impact this had on how females choose their mate, as this is our topic. "Development of the Attitudes About Romance and Mate Selection Scale" identified our personal attitudes that affect who we find attractive. But it also mentions that all of our attitudes may not influence our actual mate choice. This article also mentions that partners may idealize each other. These are all important because we needed to know why women find certain males attractive and it was these certain attitudes that helped us find our answer. "Mating Strategies of Young Women: the Role of Physical Attractiveness" investigated the typical stereotypes of women and their body size. It researched which was found to be the most attractive. This was done in both here and Indonesia, to find if their were any cultural differences. It also researched the signals and body language that they used. This article discussed whether more attractive females use different signals or if it is just purely their looks that help them attract a guy.This was important to us because we also needed to know what females use to attract males and if looks correlate to body signals. We needed to know how the role of being attractive works in the real world and how beauty affects are mate choice. Do we choose someone who looks like us.
"A meta-analysis of sex differences in romantic attraction: Do rating contexts moderate tactic effectiveness judgments?" discussed the differences in what males and females are attracted to. It discussed what each desires and the indirect effects on what happens. It discussed the outcomes of these desires and their tactics. This especially was important to use because it discussed much of what we were interested in exactly in great detail. It talked about what attracted females to males as well as the other way around. Knowing the opposite of what we are studying: What males find attractive in females helps us get a better understand of females. The differences help us understand both to a greater extent."Hormones and History: The Evolution and Development of Primate Female Sexuality" discussed the biology side of what females find attractive in males. It deals with not only humans, but other primates, including the Rhesus Monkey. Primates have unique mating characteristics that only they have. It discusses what biologically causes us to engage in sexual behavior.It is relevant to our research because in order to understand what causes us to be attracted to who we are attracted to we must first understand the biology of it. We can learn more about our selves from other primates. They have many of the same characteristics as we do and some of the same drives and motivations that only primates have."Sexual-Moral Attitudes, Love Styles, and Mate Selection" researched the views students at a university had about sex and the morality of it. It also discusses different types of love and ways of expressing. It talks about contemporary issues about sex including pornography, homosexuality, and its involvement in marriage.This is important to our research because we are also university students studying how college females are attracted to males. The contemporary issues because they change our view of sex and society's view of sex is changing everyday. We tend to be attracted to people who have similar sexual view as we do and this an important topic in that realm.
References
Bastock, Margaret (1967). Courtship: An Ethological Study. Chicago: Aldine
Publishing Company.
Birkhead, Tim (2000). Promiscuity. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
Cronin, Helena (1991). The Ant and the Peacock: Altruism and Sexual Selection From
Darwin to Today. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Geary, David C.; Vigil, Jacob; Byrd-Caver, Jennifer (2004). Evolution of Human Mate
Choice. The Journal of Sex Research, Vol. 41, 27-42.
Gordy, Cynthia (2004). Campus Enquirer. Essence, Vol. 35, 212.
Grammar, Karl; Renniger, Lee Ann; Fischer, Bettina (2004). Disco Clothing, Female
Sexual Motivation, and Relationship Status: Is She Dressed to Impress? The
Journal of Sex Research, Vol. 41, 66-74.
Halliday, Tim (1980). Survival in the Wild: Sexual Strategy. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press.
Lacey, Rachel Saul; Reifman, Alex; Scott, Jean Pearson; Harns, Steven M.; Fitzpatrick,
Jacki (2004.) Sexual Moral Attitudes, Love Styles, and Mate Selection. The
Journal of Sex Research, Vol. 41, 121-128.
McGinty, Kristen; Knox, David; Zusman, Marty E. (2003). Nonverbal and Verbal
Communication in 'Involved' and 'Casual' Relationships Among College Students.
College Student Journal, Vol. 37, 68-72.
Perett, Peter O.; Abplanal P.; Richard R. Jr. (2004). Chemistry in the College Dating
Process; Structure and Function. Social Behavior and Personality, Vol. 32, 147-
154.
Waller, Kim; Zehr, Julia L (2004.) Hormones and History: The Evolution and
Development of Primate Female Sexuality. The Journal of Sex Research, Vol.
41, 101.
Research Design
We are approaching this question by creating two separate surveys, one for the females
and one for the males. The questions for the surveys are as follows:
For the females:
Mark the box that best applies. Please answer every question as truthfully
as possible.
1. Age:
18-19 20-21 22-23 24+
2. What year are you?
Freshmen Sophmore Junior Senior Graduate
3. Major Department
4. Greek non-greek
Major Department
5. Race
Caucasian/White
African American/Black
Native American
Hispanic/Latino
Asian/Pacific Islander
Middle Easterner
6. Numbering 1 through 5, 5 being the most important 1 being the least,
rate which aspects are the most important thing you first notice about a
guy
Clothes Smell Walk Hair Facial
Expression None of these
7. What's your "type"
Built Charming Nerdy Shy/Quiet Athletic Gangsta
Other
8. Which height on a male best attracts you
5'5" and shorter 5'6"-5'-11" 6' and taller
9. You have a soft spot for
athletes guys in uniform musicians
the starving artist type none of these
10. Body hair or no body hair
Lots Some None
11. Have you ever altered your appearance and/or personality in an attempt to attract a female?
12. Your at a party with some girlfriends and you see an attractive guy
eyeing from across the room you what do you do?
consult your friends first before go over
take a friend with you for moral support you
just smile and make eye contact ignore him
wait for him to approach you
Comments? Heard any good pick up lines lately? Funny stories?
For the males:
Mark the box that best applies. Please answer every question as truthfully
as possible.
1. Age:
18-19 20-21 22-23 24+
2. What year are you?
Freshmen Sophmore Junior Senior Graduate
3. Major Department
4. Greek non-greek
Major Department
5. Race
Caucasian/White
African American/Black
Native American
Hispanic/Latino
Asian/Pacific Islander
Middle Easterner
6. Numbering 1 through 5 5 being the most important 1 being the least,
rate which aspects are most important to you when attracting a female
Clothes Smell Walk Hair Facial
Expression None of these
7. What colors do you tend to wear when going to a party, club, sports
event, ect.
red orange yellow blue green earth tones
Anything thats clean
8. how many girlfriends have you had since the 9th grade
0 1-5 6-10 11+
9. On average how long do your relationships tend to be
1-6 days I -3 weeks 1-6months 7-12 months
1year or more
10. Would you learn to or play an instrument just to impress a girl
Yes No
11. Do you play any sports?
Yes No
12. True or False Muscles make the man
True False
Comments? Pick up lines? Funny stories
We will also be interviewing several people and asking them the same questions as we
stated in the surveys. The interviews will be a beneficial supplement to the surveys because of
the more detailed answers that we will receive from asking the interview participants one-on-one.
With these methods, we will be analyzing the results statistically, including percentages
and means, in order to detect a pattern in the responses of female and male college students.
Materials and Methods
One of the materials that we will use to conduct this research will include a camera to
film the interviews. Filming the interviews is important because not only do we want solid answers
to our questions, we are also interested in the reactions and feelings we receive with the topics
we will address to them. The interviews and the surveys will only be given to students attending
Miami University of Ohio in Oxford and will be distributed by us and our Natural Systems I
classmates. They will each be assigned a certain number of surveys to give out to other students
at Miami that they could approach. While giving out surveys and conducting interviews, we will
each be keeping a research journal, documenting our results and our reactions weekly.
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- Courtship (10/19/04) [ Contributor: Elizabeth Nellums ]
- From Gerbils (10/19/04) [ Contributor: Katie, Erin^2, Ben ]
- Sugestions (10/18/04) [ Contributor: Birds ]
- From Dreams: Suggestions (10/18/04) [ Contributor: Emily, Steve, Chris, Emily, Lauren ]
- From Stress: Dating Suggestions (10/18/04) [ Contributor: Alex, Evin, Lindsay, Brandon, Drew ]
- From Hays: The Courtship Game (10/15/04) [ Contributor: Hays Cummins ]
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