Sperm competition occurs when the sperm of multiple males concurrently occupy a female's reproductive tract and compete for fertilization. Sperm competition may have been a recurrent adaptive problem over human evolutionary history. Women's orgasm may facilitate retention of a particular man's sperm. I therefore hypothesized that men experiencing greater sperm competition risk will be particularly interested in the occurrence of their partner's copulatory orgasm. Men who are more satisfied with and invested in their relationship may experience greater costs in the event of sperm competition and potential cuckoldry. Therefore, these men may be more interested in ensuring their partner's copulatory orgasm. I hypothesized that men's relationship satisfaction and investment would predict interest in their partner's copulatory orgasm and moderate the link between sperm competition risk and interest in partner's copulatory orgasm. Using data secured from 229 men in a committed relationship, I tested and found support for these hypotheses. / by Vincent M. Bates. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Murdoch University, 2009. / Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts and Education. Includes bibliographical references (p. 259-285)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 90-98). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.S.) in Teaching--University of Maine, 2009. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-98).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 90-98). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio State University, 1950. / Advisor: John R. Kinzer. Text made available in compliance with Section 108 of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 73-77). Online version of print reproduction.

Thesis (M.S. in Defense Analysis)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2001. / Thesis advisor(s): Anna Simons, Gordon H. McCormick. Graduation date for Louis M. McCray: March 2002. Includes bibliographical references (p. 89). Also available online.

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According to realistic conflict theory (RCT), people develop negative attitudes towards others as a result of competition with those others over limited resources. I hypothesized that participants would change their opinions of others in a greater negative direction if those others were competitive in resource use than if those others are cooperative. Additionally, I hypothesized that the participants' own resource use would influence how they changed their opinions of the others. Participants were asked to complete a ten-item trait-rating questionnaire before and after competing in a simulated fishing environment against a simulated group that fished either a little (cooperative opponent) or a lot (competitive opponent). As predicted, when fishing against competitive opponents, participants changed their ratings in a more negative direction than when fishing against cooperative opponents. In addition, participants' own fishing behaviour influenced some of their rating shifts. I discuss an alternative explanation of the results as based on group identity processes (Tajfel & Turner, 1979), and suggest that the effects of such processes should be directly compared with competition over resources in the same study. Limitations of the study are discussed along with potential solutions.