S. Morris

From Drmills

Topic: Men & Women- Two Contrasting Outlooks on the "One-Night Stand"
Contributor: Sammy Morris
Class: Evolutionary Psychology- Spring 2009

From an evolutionary perspective, monogamous marriages are more advantageous and indicative of a preferred female mating system. It entails that men must fully restrict sexual promulgation with numerous women in favor of devoting procreation and resource allocation towards one woman. Therefore, if marriage represents the long-term relationship that best aligns with female mating approaches, than the “one-night stand” depicts the ideal evolutionary mating method of men. Consequently, evidence strongly concludes that men have a more positive attitude toward casual sex (Oliver and Hyde 1993); fantasize more than women about having sex with multiple, anonymous sexual partners (Leitenberg and Henning 1995); desire a greater variety and number of sexual partners (Schmitt, 2001); agree to have sex after a shorter time has elapsed (Schmitt, 2003); and lower their threshold criteria significantly for short-term as compared with long-term mates (Kenrick1990; Woodward and Richards 2005). These findings are highly predictable from an evolutionary psychologist’s perspective; but to what extent do opinions vary between men and women in regards to one-night stands? What can we infer as to why women are willing to have one-night stands?
A major discrepancy between the sexes is found in the research conducted by Dayna Fischtein, Edward Herold and Serge Desmarais in 2006. 17.9% of men and just over 70% of women reported they would “definitely not” have casual sex with someone they had just met. Additionally, none of the women reported they would “definitely engage in casual sex” and few reported that they would “probably engage in casual sex”; whereas men were much more willing to partake in casual sex. Moreover, 80% of men had overall positive feelings about the experience compared to 54% of women. Professor Campbell of Durham University stated, “men were more likely than women to secretly want their friends to hear about it and to feel successful because the partner was desirable to others. Men also reported greater sexual satisfaction and contentment following the event, as well as a greater sense of well-being and confidence about themselves” (Campbell, 2008).
Campbell delved deeper into the attitudes of men and women after their one night stands. She found that 23% of men and 58% of women indicated some regret and said they would not repeat the experience. The reasoning tended to differ; men attributed more regret because of embarrassment over the attractiveness of the mate, while a large number of women reported a heavy discontent with the way in which men acted after the sexual encounter. Women consistently cited reports of men disrespecting them, not calling back, or flat out ignoring them. When a woman agrees to sex after a short period of courtship, she expects a degree of appreciation since in the economics of sexual exchange she has lowered her usual market price for the interaction (Baumeister and Vohs 2004). This supports the notion that by opting to have a one-night stand, a woman has clearly granted the man a substantial favor: expediting the courtship process by allowing the man to copulate without devoting much time or resources. This illustrates why in general, men have more positive experiences with one-night stands than women.
The literature presently marketed on the subject of courtship blatantly reveals the distinction of interests between men and women. Males have been more attentive towards writings such as: How to Pick Up Girls, The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists and Mystery Method: How to Get Beautiful Women into Bed. These works, and “Pick Up Artists” narrowly tailor their methods and strategies towards manipulating women into engaging in short-term relationships. On the opposite end of the spectrum, women zealously consume the information found in books such as The Rules: Capturing the Heart of Mr. Right and 7 Ways to Tell if He is Going to Marry You in 30 Days or Less for example. These books essentially take the inverse route by manipulating men into commitment and long-term relationships. Thus, clearly a reason why sexual relationships tend to be complicated is because of this innate biological dynamic that has always existed between men and women.
The question of why women choose to have “one-night stands” is critical; the evidence establishes that women are less likely to have a positive experience, and will be disgraced by our present double-standard society, which accepts and even glorifies male promiscuity, while condemning sexually active females. Evolutionary Psychology provides rationale for why these societal constructions emerge, but it can also explain why a woman would opt for a one-night stand.
Menstrual cycle status may be an important variable in this regard. During the ovulatory phase, between approximately days 10 to 18 of the cycle, researchers have identified behavioral and preference shifts relevant to a woman’s likelihood of engaging in one-night stands (Gangestad, 2005). At this time, women who are not on the contraceptive pill report increased sexual desire (Reagan, 1996), and show stronger positive feelings to nude males (Krug 2000). In addition, during this ovulatory period, mated women fantasize more frequently about sex with men other than their primary partner (Grammar, 2004). This all contributes to an increased interest in short-term relationships, and sexual promiscuity. Ovulation cycle directly impacts sexual motivation towards men of high genetic quality. Therefore, the assertion is that even in women, there is a biological proclivity towards short-term relationships to some extent.
Furthermore, Catherine Grello, Deborah Welsh and Melinda Harper conducted a comprehensive study of casual sex behaviors on college campuses. An intriguing conclusion they were able to draw was for females, as the number of sexual partners during the past year increased, the symptoms of depression also increased. Female participants who had the greatest number of partners had the highest symptoms of depressive pathology (Grello, Welsh, Harper, 2006). Interestingly, for males the relationship between casual sex and depressive symptoms was the opposite; men who engaged in casual sex had the fewest depressive symptoms of any of our participants (Grello, Welsh, Harper, 2006). The research leads one able to suggest that self-esteem problems and depressive psychological outlooks directly correlate with the likelihood of casual sex.
The study also displays the effect of alcohol and drugs on sexual behavior; in every case, alcohol and drugs increased the probability of one-night stands and casual sex. This may seem intuitive to some because it is well known that judgment is impaired with the usage of alcohol and drugs, yet there is most likely a compelling evolutionary reason for why that is. I hypothesize that since our ancestors lived in world devoid of alcohol and drugs, our brains did not evolve the proper mechanisms to maintain its full functioning capabilities while individuals expose themselves to relatively modern stimulants. Thus, the ones that benefit are men, since alcohol and drugs facilitate short-term relationships.
Despite the wide availability of contraception, the acceptance of female sexuality (specifically in the U.S. and Western Europe), and the increase of pre-marital sex, women are predisposed to an evolutionary based double standard in regards to sexual promiscuity. The aforementioned examples may result in more women partaking in casual sex and one-night stands; yet, the progress seen in the last fifty years or so is unable to revise the hundreds of thousands of years of human evolution that has programmed the separate mating strategies.

References

Campbell, A. (2008). The Morning after the Night Before. Human Nature, 1, 157-173. Retrieved April 12, 2009, from http://0-web.ebscohost.com.linus.lmu.edu:80/ehost/pdf?vid=11&hid=2&sid=c7049d0e-9402-4a2c-a003-a5ab0ca92a05%40sessionmgr9

Fischtein, D., Herold, E., & Desmarais, S. (2007). How Much Does Gender Explain in Sexual Attitudes and Behaviors? A Survey of Canadian Adults . ProQuest, 1, 451-461. Retrieved April 12, 2009, from http://0-proquest.umi.com.linus.lmu.edu:80/pqdlink?Ver=1&Exp=04-11-2014&FMT=7&DID=1284711131&RQT=309

Grello, C., Welsh, D., & Harpter, M. (2006). No Strings Attached: The Nature of Sex in College Students. The Journal of Sex Research, 1, 255-267. Retrieved April 9, 2012, from http://0-web.ebscohost.com.linus.lmu.edu:80/ehost/pdf?vid=5&hid=17&sid=eee51237-6099-470f-af45-d7738eb627f8%40sessionmgr9

Study confirms men like casual sex more than women - Steve Connor - NZ Herald News. (n.d.). Retrieved April 12, 2009, from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/steve-connor/news/article.cfm?a_id=138&objectid=10518668

Women Have Not Adapted To Casual Sex, Research Shows. (n.d.). Retrieved April 12, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080625092023.htm

Women feel used after one night stands: Study. (n.d.). Retrieved April 12, 2009, from http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/women-feel-used-after-one-night-stands-study_10065778.html

RATINGS:

Scale: 1 - 5 (5 is best)

_5__ discovered, integrated and synthesized relevant information about the topic

_4__ critical analysis of information (of both corroborating and non-corroborating evidence)

_3__ conclusions based on empirical evidence (when available), not simply opinion

_4__ written in an impartial, objective tone

_5__ the contribution fits in well with the existing outline and material

_4__ writing is of high quality: interesting, flows, analytic, organized

_3__ used APA style referencing appropriately (including reference list)

_5__ included relevant graphics (tables, histograms, photos, etc.).

___ included a list of relevant external web links for more information

GRADE:  B