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Sex-Specific Link Between Self-Esteem and Mate Value

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Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science
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Synonyms

Romantic desirability; Self-worth

Definition

Self-esteem is an individual’s overall evaluation of their worth. It includes both attitudinal and affective components.

Mate value refers to the desirability of an individual as a long- or short-term sexual partner, relative to intrasexual competitors.

Introduction

In their extension of sociometer theory, Kirkpatrick and Ellis (2004) posit the existence of a specific system, the mating sociometer, which functions to monitor and regulate short- and long-term sexual relationships. They suggest that relational status, experiences of romantic acceptance or rejection, and self-evaluations of mate value and its components all influence self-esteem, which then motivates adaptive behavioral responses. There are well-established differences in the determinants of mate value between sexes (Buss 1989), and thus the mating sociometer perspective would predict that there should be sex differences in relationships between specific...

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References

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Correspondence to Christopher Bale .

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Bale, C. (2016). Sex-Specific Link Between Self-Esteem and Mate Value. In: Weekes-Shackelford, V., Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1455-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1455-1

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