Historically, “playing hard-to-get” or unclearly expressing interest in a potential romantic partner has been regarded as an effective means to elicit a potential partner’s interest and attraction. This study examined the effects of gender and expressed interest (clear or unclear) on returned interest in potential long-term romantic partners. Male (N = 54) and female (N = 63) undergraduate students were administered a vignette, in which the person expressed either clear or unclear romantic interest in the participant. Results indicated that men were not influence by expressed interest in either condition. In contrast, women responded with significantly greater returned interest in the clearly-expressed interest condition than in the unclearly-expressed interest. This effect may be due to the greater assumed supportiveness and lower relative social-status of the person in the clearly-expressed interest vignette. Implications for gender differences in long-term partner preferences are discussed.

In this thesis I investigate whether human sexual preferences develop through sexual imprinting. Sexual imprinting is the acquisition of sexual preferences through non-rewarded experiences with parents and siblings during an early sensitive period and it is known to exist in many other animals. Learning is often sex specific so that males, for instance, learn to prefer as sexual partners individuals that look like their mother, and avoid individuals that look like their father. First, sexual imprinting in animals and humans is reviewed and compared to prevailing evolutionary views presupposing genetically determined sexual preferences. Further, by means of web surveys, I have explored the relationship between childhood exposure to parents with certain natural and cultural traits and sexual attraction to these traits in a partner. Cultural traits were included because it is unlikely that preferences for them are genetically determined adaptations. Parental effects varied between traits. For instance, in heterosexual males, a positive effect of mother was found on attraction to smoking, but not glasses, while a negative paternal effect was found on attraction to glasses, but not smoking. However, when maternal and paternal effects were investigated for a large number of artificial and natural traits, including smoking and glasses, an overall positive effect of opposite sex parent emerged in both heterosexual males and females. Additionally, in the last study we explored a sexual preference for pregnant and lactating women. Results suggest that exposure to a pregnant and lactating mother had an effect if it occurred when the respondent was between 1,5 and 5 years old. In conclusion, these results suggest that human sexual preferences are the result of sex specific learning during a sensitive period. Sexual imprinting should therefore be recognised as a plausible explanation to human sexual preferences that deserves further scientific investigation. / At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 3: Manuscript. Paper 4: Manuscript.

The main topic of this thesis is investigation of partner preferences and sexual behavior of female-to-male transsexuals. Number of previous studies showed that on average several partner preferences differ between men and women, and our goal was to determine if these preferences vary in female-to-male transsexuals during the process of sex change. The process of sex change includes intensive exposures to external levels of sex hormones, psychological therapy, and the transformation of their social role and overall life changes. Based on reviewe of the the scientific literature dealing with transsexuality, partner preferences and the potential impact of hormone therapy on sexually dimorphic traits, we developed a questionnaire focusing on partner preference and behavior. We obtained data from 36 heterosexual men transsexual female -to -male (i.e., sexual orientation focused on women) who were divided into three groups according to whether they were prior hormonal therapy (N = 11), whether have already started hormone therapy sex but not yet surgical change ( N = 11) and whether they were already after hormonal and surgical gender conversion (N = 14). In addition, we obtained data from 16 heterosexual non-transsexual men as a control group. Based on my previous bachelor research and literature...

Human mate choice is far from random. Assortative mating can be either positive (homogamy), when people prefer and choose partners with self-similar characteristics, or negative (heterogamy, complementarity), when people prefer self-dissimilar partners. Over one hundred years of research, it has been shown that people generally couple based on the principle of homogamy. This thesis seeks to address the following two goals. First, it critically reviews the current state of knowledge in positive assortative mating (in particular, empirical support, factors affecting homogamy, mechanisms of homogamy, relationship and genetic impact of homogamy, and methodological pitfalls of research). This section includes theoretical papers deal with further mechanisms of assortative mating (homogamy, imprinting-like effect, heterogamy, complementarity). Second, the thesis provides further test of assortative mating in 'ideal partners' (preferences) and actual partners, in the context of sex, sexual orientation (heterosexual and non-heterosexual), and population (Brazil and Czech Republic). Results of these studies show that the principle of homogamy is valid irrespective of sex and population. However, they find a stronger tendency for homogamy in actual partners among heterosexuals than in homosexuals, although...

Years of psychotherapy practice at university, state, and military hospitals developed the author's interest in the presentation of love relationship problems. Mood and anxiety disorders, as the most prevalent pathologies, were often co-morbid with or secondary to partner relationship issues. Most vexing for clients was a situation of repeated dysfunctional partner selections in which similar problems arose each time. This incubated the idea of a process, probably outside of awareness, that functioned to perpetuate self-defeating partner selection patterns. The author was introduced to Money's `lovemap' concept during studies and identified readily with its principles and mechanisms. The lovemap is defined as a highly individualised, developed, mental template or cognitive blueprint of the ideal lover. It is assumed that every person has a lovemap, and would be able to describe it if asked the right questions. The concept promised to be a useful vehicle for studying self-defeating partner selection patterns, as `errors' might be coded into the lovemap that are expressed in such a presentation. The author identified the need to ground the lovemap concept in recognised psychological theory in order to motivate for its relevance. Kelly's theory of cognitive constructs provided robust links for lovemap as a sophisticated construction system, and the developmental theories of Freud and Erikson situated lovemap genesis within recognised periods of emerging human capacities to love and relate sexually; the stages of puberty to young adulthood. Lovemaps are assumed to function optimally when love and lust co-operate in pairbonding, or the capacity to couple. Extensive literature reviews cover the research fields of romantic love, human sexuality, and pairbonding, affording hypotheses as to lovemap pathology. A qualitative, Phenomenological research design of case studies with six adult persons, who had experienced radical contradictions of original lovemaps, identified when and how lovemap change took place. Thematic analysis of the attributions for change distilled a number of implications for therapy that would encourage certain indicated change processes. An integrative psychotherapy model recognises the cognitively- and socially constructed nature of lovemaps and proposes intervention components that blend cognitive-behavioural and narrative approaches. This model will be tested extensively with a suitable client population. / Psychology / D. Litt. ET Phil. (Psychology)

Years of psychotherapy practice at university, state, and military hospitals developed the author's interest in the presentation of love relationship problems. Mood and anxiety disorders, as the most prevalent pathologies, were often co-morbid with or secondary to partner relationship issues. Most vexing for clients was a situation of repeated dysfunctional partner selections in which similar problems arose each time. This incubated the idea of a process, probably outside of awareness, that functioned to perpetuate self-defeating partner selection patterns. The author was introduced to Money's `lovemap' concept during studies and identified readily with its principles and mechanisms. The lovemap is defined as a highly individualised, developed, mental template or cognitive blueprint of the ideal lover. It is assumed that every person has a lovemap, and would be able to describe it if asked the right questions. The concept promised to be a useful vehicle for studying self-defeating partner selection patterns, as `errors' might be coded into the lovemap that are expressed in such a presentation. The author identified the need to ground the lovemap concept in recognised psychological theory in order to motivate for its relevance. Kelly's theory of cognitive constructs provided robust links for lovemap as a sophisticated construction system, and the developmental theories of Freud and Erikson situated lovemap genesis within recognised periods of emerging human capacities to love and relate sexually; the stages of puberty to young adulthood. Lovemaps are assumed to function optimally when love and lust co-operate in pairbonding, or the capacity to couple. Extensive literature reviews cover the research fields of romantic love, human sexuality, and pairbonding, affording hypotheses as to lovemap pathology. A qualitative, Phenomenological research design of case studies with six adult persons, who had experienced radical contradictions of original lovemaps, identified when and how lovemap change took place. Thematic analysis of the attributions for change distilled a number of implications for therapy that would encourage certain indicated change processes. An integrative psychotherapy model recognises the cognitively- and socially constructed nature of lovemaps and proposes intervention components that blend cognitive-behavioural and narrative approaches. This model will be tested extensively with a suitable client population. / Psychology / D. Litt. ET Phil. (Psychology)