Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- 1 Introduction to evolutionary psychology: A Darwinian approach to human behavior and cognition
- 2 The evolution of general fluid intelligence
- 3 The role of a general cognitive factor in the evolution of human intelligence
- 4 Where there is an adaptation, there is a domain: The form-function fit in information processing
- 5 Invention and community in the emergence of language: Insights from new sign languages
- 6 Origins of the language: Correlation between brain evolution and language development
- 7 The evolutionary cognitive neuropsychology of face preferences
- 8 Sex differences in the neural correlates of jealousy
- Index
8 - Sex differences in the neural correlates of jealousy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- 1 Introduction to evolutionary psychology: A Darwinian approach to human behavior and cognition
- 2 The evolution of general fluid intelligence
- 3 The role of a general cognitive factor in the evolution of human intelligence
- 4 Where there is an adaptation, there is a domain: The form-function fit in information processing
- 5 Invention and community in the emergence of language: Insights from new sign languages
- 6 Origins of the language: Correlation between brain evolution and language development
- 7 The evolutionary cognitive neuropsychology of face preferences
- 8 Sex differences in the neural correlates of jealousy
- Index
Summary
Sexual jealousy and mate retention behaviors
Jealousy is an emotional response generated by a threat to a valued relationship with another person, due to an actual or imagined rival (Dijkstra and Buunk, 2002). Jealousy, however, may become maladaptive when it causes distress in the jealous person or the target person and could be associated with behavioral problems observed not only in a psychiatric setting but also in a general social environment.
One of the most common forms of violence against women is that perpetrated by a husband or an intimate male partner (Wathen and MacMillan, 2003; Watts and Zimmerman, 2002). Research on intimate partner violence, often termed domestic violence, occurs in all countries, irrespective of social, economic, religious, or cultural group (WHO, 2002). Although women can be violent in relationships with men, the overwhelming majority of victims of partner violence are women (WHO, 2002). In 48 population-based surveys from around the world, between 10% and 69% of women were reported to be physically assaulted by an intimate male partner at some point in their lives (WHO, 2002). Although there are multiple risk factors for intimate partner violence such as poverty, alcohol consumption, and the social status of women, a key risk factor is the partner's jealousy (Jewkes, 2002; Kingham and Gordon, 2004). Expressions of male sexual jealousy historically may have been functional in deterring rivals from mate poaching (Schmitt and Buss, 2001) and in deterring a mate from committing a sexual infidelity or defecting permanently from the relationship (Buss, Larsen, Westen, and Semmelroth, 1992; Daly, Wilson, and Weghorst, 1982; Symons, 1979).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Foundations in Evolutionary Cognitive Neuroscience , pp. 205 - 215Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009