Androphilia refers to sexual attraction and arousal to adult males, whereas gynephilia
refers to sexual attraction and arousal to adult females. Prehistoric artifacts such as art
and pottery indicate that male-male same sex behaviour has existed for millennia.
Bearing this in mind, and considering that male androphilia has a genetic component yet
androphilic males reproduce at a fraction of the rate than do gynephilic males, how the
genes for male androphilia have been maintained in the population presents an
evolutionary puzzle. This thesis tests two hypotheses that attempt to address this
Darwinian paradox. Chapter one reviews the current literature on the kin selection
hypothesis and the sexually antagonistic gene hypothesis. In addition, rationales for
testing these hypotheses in Canada are provided. Chapter two tests the kin selection
hypothesis for male androphilia within a Canadian population. Results and implications
are discussed. Chapter three tests the sexually antagonistic gene hypothesis within a
Canadian population. Results and implications are discussed. Chapter four summarizes
the results of the two studies and discusses how these findings may be interpreted from
an evolutionary perspective. The impacts of gene-environment interaction on the
functional behavioral expression of traits are emphasized. / viii, 113 leaves ; 29 cm
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:ALU.w.uleth.ca/dspace#10133/2631 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Forrester, Deanna L, University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Arts and Science |
| Contributors | Vasey, Paul |
| Publisher | Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dept. of Psychology, 2011, Arts and Science, Department of Psychology |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Relation | Thesis (University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Arts and Science) |
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