THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES:

BIOLOGICAL EXPLANATION
Janice Z. Morales
 ESSENTIALISM VS.
CONSTRUCTIONISM

❖What explains gender

differences? NATURE or
NURTURE?
 ESSENTIALISM VS.
CONSTRUCTIONISM

❖Essentialism- The mode of thinking

that assumes that all manifestations of
gender difference are innate and
transcultural and historical.
 ESSENTIALISM VS.
CONSTRUCTIONISM

❖Social Constructionism- Sexuality, sexual

meanings, sexual identities and gender relations
are socially defined and controlled.
Sexual behaviour and sexual meanings are
subject to the forces of culture.
 BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES
❖4 Subgroups of Biological Theorists:

1. Sociobiologists, sometimes called as Darwinian Psychologists

(unit of analysis- genes)
2. Endocrinologists, physiologists, physiological psychologists, etc.
(focus on pre-natal hormones)
3. Medical and Social Scientists (sex hormones after the period of
puberty)
4. Researchers who study brain organization
 SOCIOBIOLOGY: DARWIN
WITH A TWIST
❖influenced by Darwin’s Law of Natural
Selection (On the Origin of Species, 1859)
❖Sociobiology is the brainchild of entomologist
Edward Wilson (1975); It emerged as a discipline
in the 1970s.
 SOCIOBIOLOGY: DARWIN
WITH A TWIST
❖Wilson (1975 as cited in Nielsen 1990) defines
Sociobiology as ‘a systematic study of the
biological basis of social behavior and social
organization in all kinds of organisms, including
humans.’
 SOCIOBIOLOGY: DARWIN
WITH A TWIST
❖Wilson’s view is that evolution also favors
certain genetically based psychological traits and
tendencies (e.g. male aggression) if they
ENHANCE the odds of an individual passing
along his or her genes.
 SOCIOBIOLOGY: DARWIN
WITH A TWIST
❖Basic principles:
❖INCLUSIVE FITNESS- ‘behaviors that
contribute to the survival and reproduction of
organisms with genes similar to one’s own.
 SOCIOBIOLOGY: DARWIN
WITH A TWIST
❖ Reproductive success or ‘fitness’-the
differences in the reproductive efficiency of sexes
explains the double standard in sexual infidelity.
 SOCIOBIOLOGY: DARWIN
WITH A TWIST
❖Male can copulate with number of different females at the
same time while the female gets pregnant in 9 months.

❖- The female needs to maintain sexual fidelity so as the

male will stay and will be reassured that he is the father of
the offspring.
 SOCIOBIOLOGY: DARWIN
WITH A TWIST
❖This explains why women are ‘choosy’ in choosing
a partner and in why male adultery seems more
‘natural’ than females.
❖ Male and female have different strategies in
maximizing their reproductive fitness. (The female
‘invest’ more.)
 SOCIOBIOLOGY: DARWIN
WITH A TWIST
2. PARENTAL INVESTMENT- ‘the
behavior toward one’s offspring that increases
the chances of survival at the cost of a parent’s
ability to invest in other offspring.’
 SOCIOBIOLOGY: DARWIN
WITH A TWIST
❖ The female have greater investment in
producing eggs and gestating embryos than
by males in producing sperms. (Biologist
Ruth Huggard mentioned that this is difficult
to verify.)
 SOCIOBIOLOGY: DARWIN
WITH A TWIST
3. SEXUAL OR MATE SELECTION-
virtually all members of the sex has greater
parental investment.
 SOCIOBIOLOGY: DARWIN
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❖*The Male reproductive success depends on:
1.) Their possession of traits that female finds
attractive. (Parental Investment Potential)
 SOCIOBIOLOGY: DARWIN
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❖2.) Their success in male-male competition.
❖- Because men have competed with men for
sexual access to women, men have evolved to
favor VIOLENCE & COMPETITION.
 SOCIOBIOLOGY: DARWIN
WITH A TWIST
❖Wilson’s Explanation of POLYGYNY:

❖-The male’s relatively lesser investment in sperm production means

that they will be polygynous and invest less in parenthood (assuming
all factors are constant).
 SOCIOBIOLOGY: DARWIN
WITH A TWIST
❖Wilson’s Explanation of POLYGYNY:

❖IF the physical environment is extremely harsh it will lead to a

monogamous arrangement instead of a polygynous pattern. Female
sexuality is restricted in this scenario because the male needs to
ensure that he is caring for his own offspring.
 SOCIOBIOLOGY: DARWIN
WITH A TWIST
❖Weaknesses/Critic of this perspective:

❖Stephen Jay Gould (1980) pointed out that ‘whatever

influence genes do have on human behavior is bound to be
exceedingly complicated.’ ( thus, inconclusive to say that
biological basis could explain social behavior)
 SOCIOBIOLOGY: DARWIN
WITH A TWIST
❖REDUCTIONISM. Sociobiology explains complex social
phenomena using basic biological processes (e.g. Embryo
reproduction).
 SOCIOBIOLOGY: DARWIN
WITH A TWIST
❖Sociobiologists are guilty of ANTHROPOMORPHIZING
(ascribing human attributes to animals) birds and other species.
(Remember that Wilson is an entomologist. His study focused
on insects.)