Abstract
Primary psychological evaluation in prison was addressed in terms of the interaction between convict (female) – psychologist (male), aiming to identify seductive behavior indicators within the context of protean strategy used by females to create ambiguity in the intergender encounters. Also, we aimed to investigate the association of seductive behaviour indicators with individual inclusive fitness score of female detainees, calculated based on the psychological screening form and a standardised fitness evaluation scale from the field of Evolutionary Psychology (High-K Strategy Scale). Recorded interviews of 33 detainees from Arad Maximum Security Penitentiary, Romania, were analysed taking into account that five women had suicidal attempts before conviction. Seductively expressive women (N=14) had higher values of individual fitness values compared to the non-expressive female category (N=19), but the difference was not statistically significant. Suicidal females expressed no seductive behavioral indicators despite their moderate to high fitness scores, which claims for further reconsideration of fitness evaluation in the context of suicidal behavior.
Keywords: Prison environmentseductive behavior indicatorssuicidal behaviourevolutionary fitness
Introduction
Asymmetries in communication between genders: Views on seductive behavior
Literature analysis in the area of gender interactions reveals an asymmetric distribution of control behaviour in terms of who initiates and determines the outcome of opposite sex communication (Grammer et al., 2000). According to Grammer et al. (2000), several non-evolutionary views on gender differences and equalities indicate that, if sex differences in behavior between men and women exist, they should be mainly a result of culture-specific learning processes (norms), which are related to the emergence of
The field of evolutionary psychology supports the idea of asymmetric distribution of control behavior regarding the interactions between genders through the asymmetric investment theory or
Several empirically validated studies on interactions between genders indicate a repertoire of courtship signals which were observed and described in several setting, either in sexual contexts (i.e. single’s bars, laboratory conditions) or non-sexual contexts, such as waiting room experiments and client-therapist interactions; most the studies indicate similarities in the behavioral manifestations of females in the presence of male strangers, including “come-on” types of signals (Grammer et al., 2000; Moore, 1985). Moore (1985) has produced an an index of 52 behavioral elements (courtship behavior), which were positively correlated with male approaches in a single's bar, but he could not find indicators of direct prediction of female sexual interest in men. The display of courtship behavior elements by women without clear prediction of sexual interest towards the male actors has stimulated further investigations of the potential function of female seductive-like expressivity in intergender encounters with no clear sexual connotation, such as waiting room situations (Grammer et al., 2000). This exploration has started from the evolutionarily supported idea that, compared to men, women are much better in encoding and decoding non-verbal behavioral cues. From the earliest childhood, females exhibit more and more expressive, non-verbal behavior than males do, such as facial expressions and touching, empathy-related behaviors etc. (Grammer et al., 2000). Putting together this ontogenetic-based abilities of females with the logic of asymmetric investment theory, i.e. the adaptive costs of sexual bad decision making are higher for women than for men, one can predict that the possibility of male deception in an initial encounter when the goals are unknown (e.g. waiting room situations), the possibility of deception should play a more important role for women than for men (Buss, 1992; Grammer et al., 2000).
The protean strategy and communication ambiguity: Seductive signals in non-sexual contexts
Evolutionary psychology literature indicates that males attempt to deceive women with symbols related to their socio-economic status (ability to provide resources), while females tend to deceit regarding their physical attributes (indicators of fertility and reproductive abilities; Buss, 1992). Hence, it appears that men, even in non-sexual contests, are continuously testing for opportunities to reduce investment and pursue women. As a consequence, one should expect that women should have evolved psychological mechanisms that motivate manipulation of men to reveal information about their intentions, from the very first encounter. In this light, Sabini & Silver (1982) states that the essence of initial opposite-sex encounters should be creation of
In the dynamic process of the interpersonal communication, the subject manifests these non-verbal behaviors in order to convey actions, intentions, conditions, emotions, information and cues related to personality traits (Dittrich, Troscianko, Lea, & Morgan, 1996; Pollick, Paterson, Bruderlin, & Sanford, 2001; Troje, 2002). A question we raise here is whether the non-verbal seductive signals displayed by women in non-sexual contexts are related or not with the individual evolutionary fitness ability (i.e. abilities for survival and reproduction). The strategies by which an organism is able to produce descendants (i.e., direct fitness) are usually framed within the
The prison-based environment, by being a closed environment in terms of social alternatives (i.e. coalition formation and finding sexual partners), might stimulate the female prisoners to use at maximum capacity their phylogenetic acquired skills in order to survive (Andelin, & Rusu, 2015). It is generally acknowledged that interpersonal communication skills and the level of emotional intelligence are key factors of individual adaptation to new environments, such as prison. In prison, apart from having to cope with the physical specificity of the environment, new people who are submitted might unconsciously assess the physical attributes of individuals with whom they have contacts inside the penitentiaries, including the personnel. In our study we address the primary psychological evaluation in prison in terms of the interaction between convict (female) – psychologist (male) (i.e. non-sexual context similar to waiting room situation), aiming to indentify elements of seductive non-verbal behavior (seductive behavioral indicators; SBI) and to investigate the association of seductive behavioral indicators with the evolutionary individual fitness value. Hence, our objective is to investigate whether in a field non-sexual situation (primary psychological interview), female detainees will display a protean strategy towards the male psychologist they are encounter for the first time (display of seductive behavior elements) and whether the seductive signals are related to their individual fitness scores.
Methodology
Content analysis of recorded videos of 33 primary psychological interviews (based on informed consent) of newly convicted women (N = 33, age between 22-65 years) to Arad Maximum Security Penitentiary, Romania, during January 2013 to May 2014. The women were convicted for a wide variety of reasons, such as robbery, burglary, fraud, homicide, drug dealing and prostitution. The subjects were initially informed about the activity conducted. Recording was done with a Sony HDR-CX 190 video camera. The interview took place in a room at the Maximum Security Prison Arad, Romania. The subjects were seated and the video-camera was placed at about 40-50 cm in front of them. The interviews last between 25 and 50 minutes / session. The first 20 minutes of interviews were taken into consideration for the behavioral content analysis. Several data such as demographic information and scores at standardized psychological instruments (a standard version of psychological screening for inmates) were available for each individual.
Results
Females detainees were divided into two categories regarding the identification of the seductive behavioral indicators: expressive (N= 14) and non-expressive women (N=19), based on indicators of seductive behavior. Slight differences, but not statistically significant, were found between the two categories of women in terms of fitness values (t test for independent samples, NS, expressive women: m = 13.8, SD = 2.6, non-expressive women: m = 12.8, SD = 3.02), with the expressive women having a higher average value of individual fitness scores. It is important to mention that all the five women that had suicidal attempts before detention fit into the category of non-expressive ones (Table
Discussion and conclusions
Even though without statistical significance, our data on the seductive Romanian female detainees indicate a slight differences in individual fitness scores between the seductively expressive and non-expressive detainees in the non-sexual context of primary psychological interview in prison (female detainees – male psychologist). A larger sample and further investigations are definitely needed to reveal the connection between the individual fitness and the protean strategy of sending seductive signals in this specific type of non-sexual setting, i.e. the prison environment. It is important to mention that all the women with suicidal attempts before detention did fit within the non-expressive category, meaning that no seductive behavioral indicators were recorded during the primary interviews in their cases. Being fully aware about the small size of the sample (N=5 suicidal detainees), we suggest that our findings on the lack of seductive non-verbal behavior in the case of the suicidal women regardless their medium fitness scores, should stimulate a reconsideration of fitness assessment in the case of individuals who had already committed suicide attempts, in terms of assigning a low value on the fitness scales, or at least zero values on the dimensions of risk consideration and health. If we assign zero values to the dimensions of risk consideration and health for the five suicidal detainees in our sample, the fitness differences between the expressive and non-expressive females become significant.
Another interesting aspect is that the regression analyses of age and the fitness individual scores, points towards the evolutionary predicted relation between fitness and age in the case of non-expressive females (Figure
The quality of non-verbal expressions is shaped and defined by contexts, in an adaptive manner. Hence, we can infer that in the prison environment where the communication relations are well defined (detainee and prison personnel); protean-type behavioral patterns might be activate in the direction of survival and optimal social functioning. Despite the small sample size, a strong point of our investigation is the field context of data collection, i.e. all the interviews were conducted in prison, at the very first encounter with the male psychologist. Also, the dimensions included in the psychological screening form allowed us to elaborate a fitness assessment form in accordance to the dimensions of the HKSS (Giosan, 2006), which is a commonly used instrument in the field of Evolutionary Psychology. The results of this analysis make clear that the concept of proteanism in social situations, especially the non-sexual ones, such as the primary psychological interviews in prison addressed in this study, might be useful in future research, clinical practice and every day interactions.
References
- Andelin, E. I., & Rusu, A. S. (2015). Identifying Non-verbal Seductive Behavior Indicators in the Context of Initial Psychological Evaluation in Prison–Analysis of Situational Type Interviews. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 209, 61-66.
- Bogaert, A. F., & Rushton, J. P. (1989). Sexuality, delinquency and r/K reproductive strategies: Data from a Canadian university sample. Personality and Individual Differences, 10(10), 1071-1077.
- Buss, D. M. (1992). Manipulation in close relationships: Five personality factors in interactional context. Journal of personality, 60(2), 477-499.
- Chance, M.R.A. (1957). The role of convulsions in behaviour. Behavioral Sciences, 2, 30-45.
- Dittrich, W. H., Troscianko, T., Lea, S. E., & Morgan, D. (1996). Perception of emotion from dynamic point-light displays represented in dance. Perception,25(6), 727-738.
- Figueredo, J. A., Vasquez, G., Brumbach, B. H., Schneider, S. M. R., Sefcek, J. A., Tal, et al. (2006). Consilience and life history theory: From genes to brain to reproductive strategy. Developmental Review, 26, 243-275.
- Garcia, S., Stinson, L., Ickes, W., & Bissonnette, V. (1991). Shyness and physical attractiveness in mixed sex dyads. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61, 35-49.
- Giosan, C. (2006). High-K Strategy Scale: A Measure of the High-K Independent Criterion of Fitness. Evolutionary Psychology, 4, 394-405.
- Grammer, K. (1990). Strangers meet: Laughter and nonverbal signs of interest in opposite-sex encounters. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 14(4), 209-236.
- Grammer, K., Fieder, M., & Filova, V. (1997). The communication paradox and possible solutions. In Atzwanger, K., Grammer, K., Schäfer, K., & Schmitt, A. (Eds.). (2007). New aspects of human ethology. Springer Science & Business Media
- Grammer, K., Fink, B., Renninger, L. (2002). Dynamic system and inferential information processing in human communication. Neuroendocrinology Letters, 23(4), 15-22.
- Grammer, K., Kruck, K., Juette, A., & Fink, B. (2000). Non-verbal behavior as courtship signals: the role of control and choice in selecting partners. Evolution and Human Behavior, 21, 371-390.
- Humphries, D.A., & Driver, P.M. (1970). Protean defence by prey animals. Oecologia, 5, 285-302.
- Magnusson, M. S. (2000). Discovering hidden time patterns in behaviour: T-patterns and their detection. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments & Computers, 32(1), 93-110.
- Miller, G.F. (1997). Protean primates: The evolution of adaptive unpredictability in competition and courtship. In A. Whiten, & R.W. Byrne (Eds.), Machiavellian intelligence: II. Extensions and evaluations (pp. 312-340). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Moore, M. M. (1985). Nonverbal courtship patterns in women: Context and consequences. Ethology and sociobiology, 6(4), 237-247.
- Pollick, F. E., Paterson, H. M., Bruderlin, A., & Sanford, A. J. (2001). Perceiving affect from arm movement. Cognition, 82(2), B51-B61.
- Rusthon, J. P. (1985). Differential K theory: The sociobiology of individual and group differences. Personality and Individual Differences, 6, 441-452.
- Sabini, J., & Silver, M. (1982). Moralities of everyday life. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Trivers, R. L. (1972). Parental investment and sexual selection. In B. Campbell, (Ed.). Sexual selection and the descent of man, pp.136-179. Chicago: Aldine.
- Troje, N. F. (2002). Decomposing biological motion: A framework for analysis and synthesis of human gait patterns. Journal of vision, 2(5), 2-2.
Copyright information
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
About this article
Publication Date
22 December 2016
Article Doi
eBook ISBN
978-1-80296-017-4
Publisher
Future Academy
Volume
18
Print ISBN (optional)
-
Edition Number
1st Edition
Pages
1-672
Subjects
Teacher, teacher training, teaching skills, teaching techniques, special education, children with special needs
Cite this article as:
Andelin, E. I., & Rusu, A. S. (2016). An Evolutionary Analysis of Seductive Behavior of Newly Convicted Females. In V. Chis, & I. Albulescu (Eds.), Education, Reflection, Development - ERD 2016, vol 18. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 27-34). Future Academy. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2016.12.4