Meagan Beasley

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Topic: The Female Orgasm
Contributor: Meagan L. Beasley
Class: Psyc 310

The female orgasm has been a controversial subject among many evolutionary psychologists. Is this seemingly intimate female pleasure the sign of an adaptation or a non-functional by-product? As it has been explained, an adaptation occurs when “‘there is some evidence that it has evolved (been modified during its evolutionary history) in specific ways to make it more effective in the performance of [a particular task]” (Puts, p. 104). The alteration that occurred in ancestral populations is due to the increased fitness that resulted from their choice. Animals need to maximize their reproductive success in order to effectively pass their genes to offspring; certain actions lead to higher reproductive fitness and are therefore further incorporated into the lives of offspring overtime. It should be acknowledged that adaptations that have evolved over time do not necessarily “[contribute] to current reproductive success” (Puts, p. 104). In other words, adaptation places the emphasis on the history of our ancestor’s selection versus our current selection (Thornhill, p. 98).
The presence of an evolutionary byproduct should be seen as “[sharing] a common developmental origin with an adaptation” (Puts, p. 105). A commonly referenced byproduct is that of the male nipple. Differing from the female nipple (which is an adaptation), the male nipple most likely evolved due to the developmental link that males share with females. However, as Puts (2005) points out, merely explaining the developmental connection between males and females does not fully explain the male nipple as an example of a byproduct (p. 105). As it is concluded, not only should the connection with adaptations be defined within a byproduct, it should be recognized that byproducts do not “appear to have been modified over their evolution to provide function efficiently” (Puts, p. 105). Where adaptations show the function of the product or action, the byproduct views express an absence of proposed functions.
The byproduct approaches have appeared to revolve around the type of tissue creating the clitoral and inter-vaginal regions that result in a female orgasm with stimulation. As it was pointed out by Venis (2005) “Lloyd prefers the theory that since the penis and clitoris arise from the same undifferentiated embryological organ, women get the erectile and nervous tissue necessary for orgasm as a by-product of the selection pressure for the male-sperm delivery system” (p. 800). However, it should be acknowledged that by products come from an adaptation, such as the presence of male erectile tissue, so the likelihood of developed female tissue without purpose is not a widely supported hypothesis in today’s research.
It should also be understood that the female orgasm is not the most consistent and predictable sexual characteristic. As it has been stated, “human sexual tactics are condition-dependent” (Thronhill, p. 99). Due to the needed discrepancy between the physiological and psychological aspects of the female orgasm, the situation at hand plays a major role in the outcome of an individual orgasm. Each female may experience similar physiological responses during an orgasm (ie. deep breathing, and contraction of the uterus), however, the psychological responses and actions taken by each female will realistically differ. Particular women orgasm within particular situations, these climaxes should not be depicted as an absolute occurrence. Studies by Rancour-Laferriere (1983) have shown that a female is most likely to orgasm when she feels a sense of security and attachment to her partner. The orgasm, therefore, may be viewed as somewhat of a reward to both the female and her partner when the emotional plateau has been reached, therefore allowing such attachment to promote offspring (Rancour-Laferriere, 1983). The orgasm and this attachment may serve as a pleasurable aspect to a somewhat dangerous birthing process; especially in consideration of the risks involved in caring a child (such as death during delivery, mal-nutrition, still births, etc.) There are, however, other more structured studies that have been completed to explore the scientific function of the female orgasm.
Baker and Bellis (1993) have paid close attention to the idea of sperm retention by use of the orgasm in order to understand the adaptation. In examination of this theory, the timing of particular orgasms during copulation is viewed as an important difference within women. “Baker & Bellis (1993) showed that orgasms occurring near the time of male ejaculation results in greater sperm retention, as does orgasm up to 45 minutes after ejaculation” (Thornhill, 1995, p. 1601). This aspect of time introduces the idea that females may assist in the sperm retention of certain males with high genetic quality and disable the sperm from other lower status males (Thornhill, 1995).
It has been supported, furthermore, that female orgasms have contributed to different copulation patterns which in turn links with reproductive success. This acknowledgment of different copulation patterns should be viewed as a digression from past research (ie. Rancour-Laferriere reported that females were more likely to orgasm in a steady relationship p. 319). According to Baker and Bellis (1993), findings show that females are more likely to experience an orgasm in extra-pair copulation versus intra-pair copulation (p. 902). This copulation with multiple males has many direct links to reproductive fitness and allows for females to more securely combat such things as infanticide, and to increase the likelihood of cuckoldry which furthermore secures parental investment from a lower status male. These differing views on the function of the orgasm contribute to its controversial status and origin.
More recent studies, however, are attempting to explain the function of the female orgasm as once helping to increase the reproductive fitness of a female. It should be stated, however, that the increase of reproductive fitness does not continue to build as the adaptation is used in present-day. The adaptation helped those ancestors survive over their counterparts hundreds of generations before the current population. The studies completed by modern-day developmental psychologists are more frequently recognizing the current female orgasm as an adaptation. It should be noted that although the wide use of contraceptives helps to reduce sperm retention, ancestral females that could orgasm in order to raise their reproductive success are those that survived natural selection.


References


Baker, R. R., Bellis, M. A. (1993). Human sperm competition: ejaculate


adjustment by males and the function of masturbation. Animal Behaviour, 46'(5), 861-885. Retrieved April 20, 2008, from ScienceDirect. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6W9W-45R7F17-2B&_user=945462&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000048 964&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=945462&md5=2546f00b441b0f3d390715061 2953380.


Baker, R. R., Bellis, M. A. (1993). Human sperm competition: ejaculate manipulation by females and a function for the female orgasm. Animal Behaviour, 46, 887-909.
Levin, R. J. (1981). The female orgasm--A current appraisal. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 25(2), 119-133. Retrieved April 20, 2008, from ScienceDirect.


Puts, D. A. (2006). The case of the female orgasm: Bias in the science of evolution. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 35(1), 103-108. Retrieved April 20, 2008, from SpringerLink, http://www.springerlink.com/content/g90u18k056307605/.


Rancour-Laferriere, D. (1983). Four adaptive aspects of the female orgasm. Journal of Social and Biological Systems, 6(4), 319-333. Retrieved April 20, 2008, from ScienceDirect, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=MImg&_imagekey=B7GX4-4DT5HCR-2- 1&_cdi=20476&_user=945462&_orig=article&_coverDate=10%2F31%2F1983&_sk=99 9939995&view=c&wchp=dGLzVzz- zSkWA&md5=19dbadb95b2be59446d9bc47cb7dd156&ie=/sdarticle.PDF.


Thornhill, R., Gangestad, S. W. (1996). The evolution of human sexuality. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 11(2), 98-102. Retrieved April 20, 2008, from ScienceDirect, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=MImg&_imagekey=B6VJ1-3WJG1XR-6J- 1&_cdi=6081&_user=945462&_orig=search&_coverDate=02%2F29%2F1996&_sk=999 889997&view=c&wchp=dGLbVtz- zSkWz&md5=bed454a10328bea72dddb784474b5c07&ie=/sdarticle.PDF.


Thornhill, R., Gangestad, S. W., Comer, R. (1995). Human female orgasm and mate fluctuating a symmetry. Animal Behaviour, 50(6), 1601-1615. Retrieved April 20, 2008, from ScienceDirect.
Venis, S. (2005). Orgasm and evolution. The Lancet, 366(9488), 800. Retrieved April 20, 2008, from ScienceDirect, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T1B-4H10YRW- G&_user=945462&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C0000489 64&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=945462&md5=9d1705565c77835a9b145926c 1b57eca.


Relevant Website Links:


Hrdy, S. B. (1996). The evolution of female orgasms: Logic please but no atavism. Animal Behaviour, 52(4), 851-852. Retrieved April 20, 2008, from ScienceDirect, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=MImg&_imagekey=B6W9W-45N4R5V-26- 1&_cdi=6693&_user=945462&_orig=search&_coverDate=10%2F31%2F1996&_sk=999 479995&view=c&wchp=dGLzVzz- zSkzV&md5=458443b05020183fd3a75c7ff6630021&ie=/sdarticle.PDF.



Rating scale:

Ratings ( 1 - 5):

  • found appropriate research references relevant to a topic 5
  • discovered, integrated and synthesized relevant information about the topic 4
  • writing is of high quality: interesting, flows, analytic, organized 4
  • used APA style referencing appropriately (including reference list) 5
  • included as a list of web links to the original articles cited (if available), and included a list of additional resources relevant to the topic on the web 4

Total points:  22


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