Explain the adaptive function and corrosive effects of jealousy in relationships. What type of sex differences exist in experiences of jealousy? How do evolutionary psychologists explain these sex differences?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

In small doses, jealousy can be adaptive because it motivates actions that fend off rivals, which can help to protect the bond between romantic partners. However, in larger amounts, jealousy can be corrosive. Jealously correlates strongly with anger, and it surfaces as one of the most often cited motives for intimate partner violence committed by both women and men, in both heterosexual and same-sex relationships. On average, men tend to react with more jealousy to a partner’s sexual infidelity (having sex with someone else) than they do to a partner’s emotional infidelity (falling in love with someone else). In contrast, women tend to experience more jealousy in response to emotional than sexual infidelity. Evolutionary psychologists explain these sex differences as resulting from the unique adaptive problems that ancestral women and men faced early in humans’ history. Ancestral men faced the problem of paternity uncertainty. This means that, because fertilization occurs internally to women, men could not know with 100% certainty that any given offspring carried their genes. A man who jealously guarded his female mate to prevent her from having sex with other men would therefore have reduced his own risk of supporting offspring who did not carry his genes, a situation referred to as cuckoldry. Thus, men may have evolved a tendency to feel strong jealousy at the prospect of female partners’ sexual infidelity. The adaptive problem faced by ancestral women, in contrast, involved securing a mate who would remain committed to the family unit. Because of female humans’ greater parental investment (the amount of time and energy necessary to produce offspring physically), ancestral women would have benefited from seeking mates who offered dependable assistance and resources. Thus, women should have evolved a tendency to react with strong jealousy to cues that a male partner was in love with someone else, because this meant he would likely abandon the family unit and take his resources elsewhere.