Where: Room 156, Psychology Department, Logan Hall, SW
Main Campus
This is a methodological course focused on how to do good research about human mate choice. The course will offer qualified graduate students a chance to develop a deeper understanding of current empirical and theoretical controversies in this lively research area.
We will read and discuss some high-quality journal papers from the last five years, and consider a range of research methods: studies of fitness markers (e.g. fluctuating asymmetry, intelligence), policy capturing, studies of single’s ads and mating markets, Brunswikian analysis of cue use and cue integration, individual differences in mate preferences and mate value, the age-sex demographic profiles of sexual display, and the study of psychopathologies as a window onto mate preferences. We will assess the most sophisticated recent work in evolutionary psychology, and some of the strongest empirical criticisms of that work.
The course aims to help graduate students initiate and improve their own empirical research programs, whether in human or animal mate choice, or in any related area of social cognition, judgment and decision-making, sexual behavior, behavioral ecology, or clinical practice concerning sex and relationships.
Instructor contact details:
Dr. Geoffrey Miller, Assistant Professor
Psychology, Logan Hall 160
(505) 277-1967 (office)
(505) 277-1394 (dept fax)
http://www.unm.edu/~psych/faculty/gmiller.html
Office hours: Tuesdays,
Background knowledge/prerequisites:
This course assumes that you have a decent understanding of evolutionary psychology, sexual selection, and a few basic results from mate choice research. If you’d like to review this sort of material, I’d recommend my book:
Geoffrey Miller
(2000). The mating mind: How sexual
choice shaped the evolution of human nature.
… and I’d also recommend any of the following as background reading:
John Alcock
(2001). Animal behavior: An
evolutionary approach (7th Ed.).
Malte Andersson
(1994). Sexual selection.
Laura Betzig
(Ed.). (1997). Human nature: A critical reader.
David Buss
(1994). The evolution of desire: Strategies of human mating.
David Buss
(1999). Evolutionary psychology: The
new science of mind.
Helena Cronin
(1991). The ant and the peacock: Altruism and sexual selection from
Alan F. Dixson
(1998). Primate sexuality: Comparative studies of the prosimians, monkeys,
apes, and human beings.
Nancy Etcoff
(1999).
Survival of the prettiest: The science of beauty.
James L. Gould
& Carol G. Gould (1997). Sexual
selection.
Richard E. Michod
(1995). Eros and evolution: A natural philosophy of sex.
Anders P. Moller
& John P. Swaddle. (1998). Asymmetry, developmental stability and evolution.
Mark Ridley (2001). The cooperative gene: How Mendel’s demon
explains the evolution of complex beings.
Matt Ridley
(1993). The red queen: Sex and the evolution of human nature.
Randy Thornhill
& Craig T. Palmer. (2000). A
natural history of rape: Biological bases of sexual coercion.
The term paper determines 60% of your course grade. You can choose any topic related to the course content and course readings. The final paper should be about 4,000 to 6,000 words, plus references. I care more about clarity, insight, research, and the flow of argument than about length per se.
Please plan to submit the rough draft and the final draft in standard APA (American Psychological Association) research paper format. This means computer-printed, double-spaced, single-sided, in 12 point Arial (preferably) or Times Roman font, with a proper title page, abstract, references, and page numbering. Consult the APA Publication Manual (4th Edition) for more details.
For graduate students, my goal is for you to produce a paper that you could turn around and submit to a decent journal as a review or commentary piece to improve your C.V., and that you would be proud to submit in an application for a post-doc, tenure-track job, or clinical internship.
You’ll get extra credit if you actually submit the term paper for publication in a reputable journal. Please provide a copy of your submission cover letter.
To make sure that you are thinking, researching, and writing the paper on a good schedule throughout the semester, I require the following:
1.
October 4: Provisional Abstract/outline/bibliography due. A provisional topic
statement/abstract (one paragraph), provisional outline of paper (about a
page), and provisional bibliography.
The bibliography should list about 10 to 20 references (not all from the syllabus here!), that you have actually read, with brief notes about their relevance to your paper. In the abstract, just let me know what you think you’ll probably write about. If you change your mind, no problem, just tell me in an email later. But I want you to have some topic in mind by this date. Pick a topic that you feel passionate about – you’ll have to live with it for several months! This topic statement/outline will determine 10% of the course grade.
After you submit this outline and bibliography, come to my office hours at least once for my feedback. This is very important; I will try to make sure your paper looks viable and will try to give you some useful suggestions and references. This outline and bibliography will determine 10% of the course grade. Late submissions will be penalized.
2. November 8:
Rough draft due.
This should be a full-length, APA format draft of
your term paper – the sort of thing you would submit as your final draft in
most other courses. After I get this
rough draft, I will write comments and suggestions on it and return it to you
as soon as I can. This should allow you to submit a really good final draft,
and I hope it will help you improve your writing generally. This rough draft will determine 20% of the
course grade. Late submissions will be penalized.
3.
Decmber 6: Final draft due.
This should be a highly polished document in correct
format with no spelling or grammatical errors.
It should represent the culmination of three months of research,
thinking, and writing about a topic that passionately interests you. The final draft will determine 30% of your
course grade. Late submissions will be
penalized. I will try to grade final
drafts by the last days of exams.
Structure of the term paper: The ideal paper would the following elements:
I tried very hard to find recent, methodologically interesting journal papers from high quality journals. Some data on the readings are on the next page: almost all were published since 1997; very few were cited by me in The mating mind or known to me before preparing this course. I suspect many of them might be new to you as well.
The readings have been arranged
week by week according to the theoretical mate choice question being addressed,
in conjunction with the empirical methods being used to address them. Most weeks, there are about 40 to 50 pages of
actual reading to be done (not counting references sections of the
papers.) This should take two to three
hours. My intention is for you to have a
very broad exposure to the state of the art in mate choice research methods.
Some of the readings are harder than others; some weeks require more reading
than other weeks. Please do not take
this course if you cannot commit an average of three hours a week to the
readings.
I originally expected to use my book The mating mind as a primary textbook for this seminar. However, I decided it would be better to focus on methodological issues here, and my book is weak on covering such issues. So it has been relegated to supplementary reading.
For each reading, one student will be assigned to offer a 5-minute constructively critical assessment of the paper’s ideas, methods, findings, and implications. This must be accompanied by a one-page handout for the others students. Please bring enough hand-outs for everyone. The assessment must not simply summarize the paper. Assume that the other students have read the paper fairly attentively, and want to know what you think of it. After each 5-minute report, we will have a class discussion about the paper.
The major educational benefits of the course depend on you doing the readings on time, to benefit maximally from the class discussion. If you don’t read them, you won’t learn much; if you do read them attentively, you’ll learn a lot. I expect all of each week’s required readings to be completed well before class, so you have time to digest them, think about them, compare and contrast them, and prepare intelligent comments and questions about them. Last-minute reading on Thursday night will not result in good comprehension or good in-class discussion.
Evolution & Human Behavior: 20 papers
J. Personality & Social Psychology: 6
Current Anthropology: 3
Psychological Science: 2
Intelligence: 2
Personality & Social Psych. Bulletin: 2
Trends in Cognitive
Sciences: 1
Trends in Genetics: 1
Biological Reviews: 1
Psychological
Bulletin: 1
Ethology: 1
Prospect: 1
Book chapters: 4
Years in which readings were published:
2002: 12 readings
2001: 10
2000: 12
1999: 8
1998: 9
1997: 2
1996: 4
1995: 2
before 1995 0
Schedule of topics and readings week by week:
No assigned readings before first class.
Miller, G. F., & Todd, P. M. (1998). Mate choice turns cognitive. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2(5), 190-198.
Miller, G. F. (1999). Waste is good.
Prospect, Feb., pp. 18-23.
Reznick, D., Nunney, L., & Tessier, A. (2000). Big houses, big cars, superfleas, and the costs of reproduction. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 15(10), 421-425.
Rowe, L, & Houle, D. (1996). The lek
paradox and the capture of genetic variance by condition dependent traits. Proc.
Royal Society of
Miller, G. F.
(2000). Mental traits as fitness
indicators: Expanding evolutionary psychology’s adaptationism. In D. LeCroy & P. Moller (Eds.), Evolutionary perspectives on human
reproductive behavior (Annals of the
Gangestad, S. W., & Thornhill, R. (1997). The evolutionary psychology of extrapair sex: The role of fluctuating asymmetry. Evolution and Human Behavior, 18, 69-88.
Lens, L., Van Dongen, S., Kark, S., & Matthysen, E. (2002). Fluctuating asymmetry as an indicator of fitness: Can we bridge the gap between studies? Biological Reviews, 77, 27-38.
Rhodes, G., Zebrowitz, L. A., Clark, A., Kalick, S. M., Hightower, A., & McKay, R. (2001). Do facial averageness and symmetry signal health? Evolution and Human Behavior, 22, 31-46.
Little, A. C.,
Burt, D. M., Penton-Voak,
Hughes, S. M., Harrison, M. A., & Gallup, G. G. Jr. (2002). The sound of symmetry: Voice as a marker of developmental instability. Evolution and Human Behavior, 23, 173-180.
Penton-Voak,
Strassman, B. I. (1997). The biology of menstruation in Homo sapiens: Total lifetime menses, fecundity, and nonsynchrony in a natural-fertility population. Current Anthropology, 38(1), 123-129.
Tassinary, L. G., & Hansen, K. A. (1998). A critical test of the waist-to-hip ratio hypothesis of female physical attractiveness. Psychological Science, 9(2), 150-155.
Miller, G. F. (2000). Sexual selection for indicators of intelligence. In Bock, G. R., Goode, J. A., & Webb, K. (Eds.), The nature of intelligence (pp. 260-275.). Novartis Foundation Symposium 233. NY: Wiley.
Anderson, B. (2001). g as a consequence of shared genes. Intelligence, 29, 367-371.
Zechner, U.,
Wilda, M., Kehrer-Sawatzki, H., Vogel, W., Fundele, R., & Hameister, H.
(2001). A high density of X-linked genes
for general cognitive ability: a run-away process shaping human evolution? Trends in Genetics, 17(12), 697-701.
Madden, J.
(2001). Sex, bowers and brains. Proc. Royal Society of
Lynn, R., Irwing, P., & Crammock, T. (2002). Sex differences in general knowledge. Intelligence, 30, 27-39.
Week 7 (October 4): Brunswik’s lens model: Cue use and cue integration in mate choice
Reynolds, D. Jr., & Gifford, R. (2001). The sounds and sights of intelligence: A lens model channel analysis. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27(2), 187-200.
Zebrowitz, L. A., Hall, J. A., Murphy, N. A., & Rhodes, G. (2002). Looking smart and looking good: Facial cues to intelligence and their origins. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28(2), 238-249. (10 pp).
Gosling, S. D., Ko, S. J., Mannarelli, T., & Morris, M. E. (2002). A room with a cue: Personality judgments based on offices and bedrooms. J. Personality and Social Psychology, 82(3), 379-398.
Kenrick, D. T., Sundie, J. M., Nicastle, L. D., & Stone, G. O. (2001). Can one ever be too wealthy or too chaste? Searching for nonlinearities in mate judgment. J. Personality and Social Psychology, 80(3), 462-471.
NOTE: Abstract/outline of term paper due on Oct. 4.
(no class Oct
11: fall break)
Wiederman, M. W., & DuBois, S. L. (1998). Evolution and sex differences in preferences for short-term mates: Results from a policy capturing study. Evolution and Human Behavior, 19, 153-170.
Li, N. P., Kenrick, D. T., Bailey, J. M., & Linsenmeier, J. A. W. (2002). The necessities and luxuries of mate preferences: Testing the tradeoffs. J. Personality and Social Psychology, 82(6), 947-955.
Grammer, K., Honda, M., Jutte, A., & Schmitt, A. (1999). Fuzziness of nonverbal courtship communication unblurred by motion energy detection. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(3), 487-508.
Wenegrat, B.,
Abrams, L., Castillo-Yee, E., & Romine,
Pawlowski, B., & Dunbar, R. I. M. (1999). Withholding age as putative deception in mate search tactics. Evolution and Human Behavior, 20, 53-69.
Pawlowski, B., & Koziel, S. (2002). The impact of traits offered in personal advertisements on response rates. Evolution and Human Behavior, 23(2), 139-149.
McGraw, K. J. (2002). Environmental predictors of geographic variation in human mating preferences. Ethology, 108, 303-317.
Todd, P. & Miller, G. F. (1999). From Pride and Prejudice to Persuasion:
Satisficing in mate search. In G.
Gigerenzer & P. Todd. (Eds.), Simple
heuristics that make us smart, pp. 287-308.
Week 10 (November 1): Individual differences in mate preferences and mate value
Widemo, F., & Saether, S. A. (1999). Beauty is in the eye of the beholder: Causes and consequences of variation in mating preferences. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 14(1), 26-31.
Gangestad, S. W., & Simpson, J. (2000).
The evolution of human mating: Trade-offs and strategic pluralism. Behavioral
and Brain Sciences, 23, 573-644.
[Note: You only need read the actual article on pp. 573-587. The voluminous commentaries are not included
in this copy. The authors’ response and
references are included, but they need not be read.]
Mikach, S. M., & Bailey, J. M. (1999). What distinguishes women with unusually high numbers of sex partners? Evolution and Human Behavior, 20, 141-150.
Pratto, F., & Hegarty, P. (2000). The political psychology of reproductive
strategies. Psychological Science, 11(1),
57-62.
Anderson, K. G. (2000). The life histories of American stepfathers in evolutionary perspective. Human Nature, 11(4), 307-333.
Goldberg, T. L. (1995). Altruism towards panhandlers: Who gives? Human Nature, 6(1), 79-89.
Kelly, S., & Dunbar, R. I. M. (2001). Who dares, wins. Heroism versus altruism in women’s mate choice. Human Nature, 12(2), 89-105.
Johnson, R. C. (1996). Attributes of Carnegie Medalists performing acts of heroism and of the recipients of these acts. Ethology and Sociobiology, 17, 355-362.
Mueller, U., & Mazur, A. (1998). Reproductive constraints on dominance competition in male Homo sapiens. Evolution and Human Behavior, 19, 387-396.
NOTE: Rough
draft term paper due on Nov.8.
Miller, G. F.
(1999). Sexual selection for cultural
displays. In R. Dunbar, C. Knight, &
C. Power (Eds.), The evolution of culture,
pp. 71-91.
Wallace, H. M., & Baumeister, R. F. (2002). The performance of narcissists rises and falls with perceived opportunity for glory. J. Personality and Social Psychology, 82(5), 819-834.
Harold Leitenberg & Kris Henning (1995). Sexual fantasy. Psychological Bulletin, 117(3), 469-496.
Brüne, M. (2001). De Clérambault’s syndrome (erotomania) in an evolutionary perspective. Evolution and Human Behavior, 22, 409-415.
Whissell, C. (1996). Mate selection in popular women’s fiction. Human Nature, 7(4), 427-447.
Verdoux, H., von Os, J., Maurice-Tison, S., Gay, B., Salamon, R., & Bourgeois, M. (1998). Is early adulthood a critical developmental stage for psychosis proneness? A survey of delusional ideation in normal subjects. Schizophrenia Research, 29, 247-254.
Note: I will
probably be away at conferences in
(no class Nov.
29: Thanksgiving)
Shaner, A., & Miller, G. F. (2002). Schizophrenia as a disorder of verbal courtship adaptations: A fitness indicator model for the evolutionary genetics of psychosis. (Submitted).
Ben Hamida, S., Mineka, S., & Bailey, J. M. (1998). Sex differences in perceived controllability of mate value: An evolutionary perspective. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(4), 953-966.
Qirko, H. (2002). The institutional maintenance of celibacy. Current Anthropology, 43(2), 321-329.
NOTE: Final term paper due on Dec 6.
Note for students who took any of my previous graduate
seminars:
There are some papers from those courses that you may want to review as relevant to mate choice research:
Papers from my grad seminar in spring 2002 ‘Social Psychology and Evolution’
·
Jean-Louis Dessalles (1998).
Altruism, status and the origin of relevance (pp. 130-147). From J. R. Hurford, M. Studdert-Kennedy,
& C. Knight (Eds.), Approaches to the evolution of language.
Papers from my grad seminar in autumn 2001 ‘Products and preferences’
·
Barkow, Jerome (1989). Chapter 8 ‘Relative standing, prestige, and
self-esteem’ (pp. 179-212) from Darwin, sex, and status. U. Toronto Press.
·
Ellis, Bruce & Symons, Don (1990). Sex
differences in sexual fantasy: An evolutionary approach. Journal of Sex Research, 27, 527-556.
·
Frank,
Robert (1999). Exerpts on ‘Concerns
about relative position’ (pp. 109-121) from Luxury fever. Princeton U. Press.
·
Illouz,
Eva (1997). Exerpts on dating and
consumerism. From Consumering the
romantic utopia: Love and the contradictions of capitalism. Berkeley, CA: U. California Press.