#58 April Bleske-Rechek: The Psychology of Friendship, Mate Selection, Modern Psychology
Dr. April Bleske-Rechek is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. As a researcher, she focuses on human mating, friendship, cognitive abilities and intellectual giftedness, and science literacy.
In this episode, the conversation revolves around the evolutionary psychology of friendship and mate selection. She gives a personal account of the development and importance of evolutionary psychology. And then we move on to talk same-sex and opposite-sex friendship; friendship rivalry and its bases; the evolutionary bases of friendship; sex differences in friendship initiation and dissolution; the studying of friendship and mate preferences; cues and signals in mate selection, and clarifying the difference between waist-to-hip ratio and body mass index; exaggerated physical cues and pornography; the effects of pornography in men’s minds; advantages and disadvantages of sex robots; assortative mating, and its evolutionary advantages; a specific study of Dr. Bleske-Rechek’s involving the trolley problem; the contribution of evolutionary psychology to human relationships; if evolutionary psychology should be the core theory of modern Psychology, and why; if Psychology should be looked at as a branch of Biology; and the relationship between Evolutionary Psychology and Behavioral Genetics.
Time Links:
Dr. Bleske-Rechek’s personal account of the development and importance of evolutionary psychology
Studying friendship from an evolutionary perspective
Friendship rivalry and its bases
Do women prefer uglier friends?
Do opposite-sex friendships fail often?
Why do people seek friends of the other sex?
Sex differences in friendship initiation
Friendship dissolution
The studying of friendship and mate preferences
Clarifying waist-to-hip ratio and body mass index
Cues and signals in mate selection
Exaggerated physical cues and pornography
Sex robots: yes or no?
Assortative mating
People save 1 person in the trolley problem if they are young, genetically related, or a romantic partner
Can you learn to deal better with other people with help from evolutionary psychology?
Should evolutionary psychology be the core theory of modern psychology?
Psychology as a branch of Biology?
The relationship between Evolutionary Psychology and Behavioral Genetics
Follow Dr. Bleske-Rechek’s work
Follow Dr. Bleske-Rechek’s work:
Website: http://bleske-rechek.com/
Faculty page: https://www.uwec.edu/profiles/bleskeal/