Teaching
Office Hours: Durham Office: Room 77, Tuesdays 10-11
Queen's Campus
Office: Room D333, Thursdays 3-4
Courses: Introduction to
Social & Developmental
Psychology (PSYS1021)
Abnormal & Social Psychology
(PSYS2111)
The Evolution of Human Behaviour
(PSYC3141)
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Durham Campus Office:
Room 77,
Tel 0191 334 3289
Queen's Campus Office:
Room D333,
Tel 0191 334 0120
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Current
research
news:
Father-daughter relationships and physical attraction
It's been known for years that the presence or absence
of a woman's biological father from the family home relates to her
reproductive development - there is a tendancy for 'father absent'
girls (those whose biological fathers do not live with them throughout
their childhood) to reach puberty earlier than other girls. They
also tend to enage in sexual relationships at an earlier age and are
more at risk of teenaged pregnancies. Less was known, however,
about who they had these relationships with - i.e. how might father
absence relate to attraction?
This new study shows that the better a relationship a woman reports
with her father, the more she's attracted to masculine men, and also
suggests that women who experienced 'father absence' may prefer less masculine
men than those who did not. Since masculine men are thought to be
'high quality' and harder to engage in a long term relationship, it may
be that difficult or disrupted family relationships in childhood have
an impact on a woman's sense of what she can 'compete' for. This
would fit with our previous research into father absence and physical appearance.
Boothroyd, L.G. & Perrett,
D.I. (2008) Journal of Evolutionary Psychology, 6, 187-205
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