Oxford Handbook of Human Mating

The scientific study of human mating has mushroomed over the past three decades. This handbook showcases "the best and the brightest" scientists in the field, providing up-to-date summaries of theories and empirical evidence of the science of human mating strategies. It includes major sections on theories of human mating; mate selection and mate attraction; mate competition; sexual conflict in mating; human pair bonding; the endocrinology of mating; and mating in the modern world.

List of contents

• Theoretical Perspectives


• Robert Trivers -- Writing Trivers's 1972 Theory of Parental Investment and Sexual Selection


• Michael Ryan -- Sexual Selection and the Animal's Mating Mind


• Jennifer Perry and Tracy Chapman - The interface of sexual selection, conflict and evolutionary psychology: emerging core themes


• David Schmitt -- Extensions of Sexual Strategies Theory across Peoples, Cultures, and Ecologies


• Attraction and Mate Selection


• Norman Li and Bryan K. C. Choy -- The Early Stages of Mate Selection


• Daniel Conroy-Beam -- Computational Models of Mate Choice


• David M.G. Lewis, Kortnee C. Evans, and Laith Al-Shawaf -- The logic of physical attractiveness: what people find attractive, when, and why


• Debra Lieberman and Carlton Patrick - Incest Avoidance Adaptations: Evolved function and proximate mechanisms


• Menalaos Apostalou -- Parental Influence Over Mate Choice


• Ryan Schacht and Caroline Uggla -- Beyond sex: Reproductive Strategies and Sex Ratio Variation


• LE Kennair, Trond Viggo Grøntvedt, Andrea M. Kessler, Steven W. Gangestad, and Mons Bendixen -- Mating Strateges in Sexually Egalitarian Cultures


• David Frederick, Jenna C. Alley, Scott Semenyna, and Justin R. Garcia -- Mating Strategy Variation by Sexual Orientation


• Mate Competition


• David Puts, David Carrier, and Alan R Rogers -- Contest Competition for Mates and the Evolution of Human Males


• Maryanne Fisher and Jaimie Krems -- An Evolutionary Review of Female Intrasexual Competition


• Scott W. Semenyna, Francisco R. Gómez Jiménez, and Paul Vasey -- Mate competition between the sexes: Evidence from two non-Western cultures


• Pair-Bonded Relationship Dynamics


• Gurit Birnbaum -- Evolving Connections: Attachment and Human Mating Strategies


• William Jankoviak and Alex J. Nelson -- Archeology of love: A review of the ethnographic exploration of love around the world


• Andrea Meltzer -- Marital and Sexual Satisfaction


• John Edlund, Brad Sagarin, and Kristin M. Kinner -- Sex Differences in Jealousy: The State of the Theory


• Valerie G. Starratt and Todd Shackelford -- Mate Guarding


• Sexual Conflict in Mating


• Gayle Brewer -- Deception in Human Mating


• Brooke Scelza -- Marriage and Monogamy in Cross-cultural Perspective


• Valerie G. Starratt and Todd Shackelford -- Sperm Competition


• Joshua Duntley -- Violent Mates


• Peter Jonason and Vlad Burtaverde -- The Dark Triad and Human Mating Strategies


• Kingsley Browne -- Sexual Harassment


• Joe Camilleri -- Sexual Coercion


• Rachel M. James, Melissa M. McDonald, and Viviana Weekes-Shackelford -- Women's Avoidance of Sexual Assault


• Mating and Endocrinology


• James Roney -- Hormones and Human Mating


• Steven Gangestad, Tran Dinh, Lauren Lesko, Martie Haselton -- Understanding Women's Estrus and Extended Sexuality: The Dual Sexuality Framework


• Julia Sterns and Lars Penke -- Ovulatory cycle effects and hormonal influences on women's mating psychology


• Katja Cunningham and Sarah E. Hill -- The Impact of Hormonal Contraceptives on Women's Sexual and Mating Psychology


• Mating in the Modern World


• Helen Fisher and Justin Garcia -- Mate Choice in the Digital Age


• Catherine Salmon and Rebecca Burch -- Popular Culture and Human Mating: Artifacts of Desire


• Cari Goetz -- Evolutionary Mismatch and Human Mating: Understanding the Mating Mind in the Modern World

About the author

David M. Buss is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. Buss previously taught at Harvard University and the University of Michigan. He is considered the world's leading scientific expert on strategies of human mating and one of the founders of the field of evolutionary psychology. His books include The Evolution of Desire: Strategies of Human Mating; Evolutionary Psychology: The New Science of the Mind; The Dangerous Passion: Why Jealousy is as Necessary as Love and Sex; The Murderer Next Door: Why the Mind is Designed to Kill; and Why Women Have Sex (with Cindy Meston). His most recent book: When Men Behave Badly: The Hidden Roots of Sexual Deception, Harassment, and Assault (2021) uncovers the evolutionary roots of conflict between the sexes.

Summary

The scientific study of human mating has mushroomed over the past three decades, and this growth in turn has generated a proliferation of evolving literature revealing fresh discoveries about mate attraction, mate choice, mate retention, marital satisfaction, jealousy, infidelity, intimate partner violence, breakups, internet dating, cyberstalking, and sexual coercion. In The Oxford Handbook of Human Mating, editor David M. Buss showcases contributions from "the best and the brightest" scientists in the field, providing up-to-date summaries of theories and empirical evidence of the science of human mating strategies.

Much of the research in the field is guided by sexual selection theory. Over 150 years after Darwin's proposal of sexual selection theory, it has become the most important overarching theoretical framework for the scientific study of the mating strategies of all sexually reproducing species, including humans. A mountain of research centered around Darwin's classic book has documented the many complexities of human mate competition and mate choice; how these processes differ between the sexes; and how they differ as a function of sex ratio, mate value, social contexts, ovulation cycles, personality characteristics, and cultural norms and mating rituals. Thus, the science is now ripe for a collection of work by eminent scholars in the field.

David M. Buss is a leading researcher and pioneer in the study of human mating strategies, and he applies his expertise to the curation of this volume, which includes major sections covering theories of human mating; mate selection and mate attraction; mate competition; sexual conflict in mating; human pair bonding; the endocrinology of mating; and mating in the modern world.

Additional text

This edited volume is a compendium of literature reviews summarizing the latest research on a variety of aspects of human mating strategies from an evolutionary perspective, a field generally characterized as evolutionary psychology...Recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals.

Product details

• Authors: David M. Buss, David M. (Professor of Psychology Buss, Buss David M.
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.12.2022
• EAN: 9780197536438
• ISBN: 978-0-19-753643-8
• No. of pages: 864
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > Psychology, esoterics, spirituality, anthroposophy > Psychology: general, reference works; Evolution, PSYCHOLOGY / General, SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Evolution, Child & developmental psychology, Social, group or collective psychology, Child, developmental and lifespan psychology, Human biology, Evolutionary anthropology / Human evolution, Evolution / Evolutionary biology