Christine Harris, a psychologist at UCSD’s Center for Brain and Cognition, recently published a research paper casting doubts on previously held beliefs on gender differences pertaining to feelings of jealousy.
The theory espoused by evolutionary psychologists has held that men tend to care more about sexual infidelity and women tend to care more about emotional infidelity, attributing such differences to natural selection.
According to evolutionary psychologists’ theories, women are shaped by evolution to be more jealous over a partner’s emotional infidelity because it could result in the loss of the mate’s resources for her and her offspring, while men should be primarily jealous over a mate’s sexual infidelity because it could result in offspring that they did not father.
Harris’ research, however, argues that more men and women seem to view sexual and emotional jealousy in the same light.
Harris examined four types of data most commonly cited in support of the former theory of gender differences in jealousy, including self-report data, physiological data, sociological data and cases of pathological jealousy. Harris’ research pointed out numerous flaws in research methods.
Harris cited the “”forced-choice”” method as a prime example. This method, used in many jealousy studies, showed large differences among American men and women; but, as Harris pointed out, equal discrepancies are found among American and European men, with even greater discrepancies among Asian men.
Harris also drew her findings from self-report studies and people’s reports of their actual experiences with infidelity, rather than hypothetical cases of infidelity. The results showed that men and women did not differ in how much they focused on emotional versus sexual aspects of a partner’s affair.
Harris’ report was published in the May issue of Personality and Social Psychology Review.
Business plan competition to take place May 31
A UCSD business plan competition will take place on May 31 with keynote speaker Michael Robertson, founder of Lindows, MP3.com and Reef. The competition will be hosted by Venture Forth.
Robertson is a graduate of UCSD with a bachelor’s degree in cognitive science. Robertson has also been consulted in many high-tech organizations, including the San Diego Supercomputer Center, and has worked in the music industry with such labels as Hollywood Records, Mercury Records and Warner Bros. Records.
At UCSD, Robertson also completed an undergraduate independent study with renowned cognitive scientist Donald Norman.
Robert Sullivan, Dean of UCSD’s School of Management, will also be speaking.
Three student start-up companies will be judged by a panel of San Diego business leaders.
The competition will take place from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Robinson Auditorium in the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies.
UCSD professor awarded Qualcomm Chair
Rajesh Gupta, a professor in the Jacobs School of Engineering’s Computer Science and Engineering Department, will be the first holder of the Qualcomm Endowed Chair in Embedded Microsystems at UCSD.
The new chair is funded by QUALCOMM Incorporated at the Jacobs School through its corporate commitment to California Institute of Telecommunications and Information Technology.
Gupta is an expert in embedded systems and mobile computing. Gupta’s research areas include wireless systems on chip, computer-aided design for embedded portable systems, embedded software and algorithms for the automation of very large-scale integration circuit design.
Gupta earned a doctorate in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1993 and went on to teach at UC Irvine and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign before coming to the Jacobs School in November 2002.
Gupta is the author and co-author of three patents and more than 120 research articles on various aspects of embedded systems. He is also the author of the book “”Co-Synthesis of Hardware and Software for Digital Embedded Systems,”” published in 1995.
Through Cal-(IT)2, QUALCOMM Incorporated has pledged endowments for three more Jacobs School chairs, in addition to those for the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies. Gupta is the Jacobs School’s twentieth chair recipient and the second of eleven new chairs pledged by Cal-(IT)2’s industrial partners.
