Elaine Hatfield

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Elaine Catherine Hatfield (born October 22, 1937 in Detroit ) is an American psychologist and sexologist.

Life

Elaine Hatfield studied English and psychology at the University of Michigan , from which she graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1959. She received her PhD from Stanford University in 1963 . Then she was Associate Professor at the Universities of Minnesota and Rochester , from 1967 to 1981 at the University of Wisconsin . In 1972 she was a visiting scholar at the University of Mannheim .

Since 1981 she has been a professor at the University of Hawaii . In 1998/99 she was President of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sex (SSSS). She has received numerous awards for her research and publications. She is married to the historian and psychotherapist Richard Rapson (* 1937).

In addition to her scientific publications, she also has, e. Partly published together with her husband, novels, short stories and poems.

research

In the late 1960s Hatfield researched together with Ellen Berscheid in the field of interpersonal attractiveness.

Her experiment, carried out jointly with Russell Clark in 1978 and 1982 at the University of Florida on "Gender differences in willingness to accept sexual offers", the results of which were published in 1989, attracted particular attention . Students at a psychology seminar, who were rated as about average attractive, acted as decoys and spoke to students of the opposite sex who were walking across the campus; they used three different questions. They all started with the following sentences: "I noticed you here on campus. I find you very attractive." Then one of the questions followed: 1. "Would you like to go out with me?", 2. "Would you like to come to my apartment", 3. "Would you like to go to bed with me?".

While 53% of women and 50% of men answered yes to question 1, the results of questions 2 and 3 were very different for men and women. Of the men, 69% were ready to come to the apartment, 72% to go to bed with the female decoy. Only 3% of the women wanted to come to the apartment, not a single one wanted to go to bed with the male decoy. In addition to the clear difference between men and women in their willingness to have spontaneous sex with strangers, it is noticeable that it is obviously easier for a woman to get a man to bed than to motivate him to go out together. Clark and Hatfield did not commit themselves to an interpretation of these results as a result of biological or cultural differences. Other authors have interpreted these gender differences in the sense of evolutionary psychology as predominantly biologically conditioned: men could have additional children through sexual contact with unfamiliar women, for women the number of children they can have is limited, so that they can choose their sexual partners well have to.

Since the mid-1980s, she and her husband Richard Rapson have been researching topics such as the cultural influence on love relationships and the changes within long-term love relationships. Hatfield's other research areas are feelings and equity theory .

Works

The following list contains only a small selection from the more than 200 publications by E. Hatfield. A complete list can be found on their homepage (see below).

  • E. Berscheid et al. E. Hatfield: Interpersonal attraction , 1969, 2nd ed. 1978 ( ISBN 0-201-00569-7 ).
  • E. Hatfield, M. Utne, et al. J. Traupmann: Equity theory and intimate social relationships . in: G. Mikula u. W. Stroebe (ed.), Sympathy, Friendship, and Marriage: Psychological Foundations of Interpersonal Relationships , 1977 ( ISBN 3-456-80391-5 )
  • E. Hatfield et al. G. Walster, The social psychology of jealousy , in: G. Clanton u. L. Smith (ed.), Jealousy , 1977.
  • E. Hatfield et al. G. Walster, A new look at love , 1978 ( ISBN 0-8191-4957-8 ).
  • E. Hatfield, S. Sprecher et al. J. Traupmann, Men's and women's reactions to sexually expilicit films , in: Archives of Sexual Behavior , 2.1978, pp. 583-592.
  • J. Houston, H. Bee, E. Hatfield, et al. D. Rimm (ed.), Introduction to psychology , 1979.
  • W. Austin et al. E. Hatfield: Equity Theory, Power, and Social Justice . in: G. Mikula (ed.), Justice and Social Interaction , 1980.
  • R. Fogel, E. Hatfield, S. Kiesler, et al. E. Shanas (ed.), Aging: Stability and change in the family , 1981.
  • E. Hatfield, What do women and men want from love and sex? , in: E. Allgeier u. N. McCormick (ed.), Changing boundaries: Gender roles and sexual behavior , 1982.
  • W. Griffitt et al. E. Hatfield, Human sexual behavior , 1984 ( ISBN 0-673-15057-7 ).
  • E. Hatfield, Passionate and companionate love , in: R. Sternberg et al. M. Barnes (ed.), The psychology of love , 1985.
  • E. Hatfield et al. S. Sprecher, Mirror, mirror: The importance of looks in everyday life , 1986 ( ISBN 0-88706-124-9 ).
  • E. Hatfield et al. R. Rapson, Gender differences in love and intimacy: The fantasy vs. the reality , in: W. Ricketts et al. H. Gochros (ed.), Intimate relationships: some social work perspectives on love , 1987.
  • R. Clark et al. E. Hatfield: Gender differences in receptivity to sexual offers , in: Journal of Psychology and Human Sexuality, 2.1989, pp. 39-55.
  • E. Hatfield et al. R. Rapson, Love, sex, and intimacy: Their psychology, biology, and history , 1993 ( ISBN 0-06-500702-6 ).
  • E. Hatfield et al. R. Rapson, Love and sex: Cross-cultural perspectives , 1996 ( ISBN 0-205-16103-0 ).
  • D. Lieberman et al. E. Hatfield, Passionate love, sexual desire, and mate selection: Evolutionary and cross-cultural perspectives , in: P. Noller u. J. Feeney (ed.), Close Relationships. Functions, forms and processes , 2006 ( ISBN 1-84169-427-4 )

literature

  • Richard J. Martin, Fleecing the science of love: William Proxmire , Elaine Hatfield, and the politics of gender in the 1970s , Diss. Univ. Hawaii, 2012 ( abstract and online version )
  • Harry T. Reis et al .: Ellen Berscheid, Elaine Hatfield, and the emergence of relationship science , in: Perspectives on Psychological Science , vol. 8.2013, pp. 558-572 ( abstract )

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ The questions served as the basis for the text of the song "Would You?" , which the British acid jazz band Touch and Go released in 1998.
  2. ↑ cf. Catherine Salmon et al. Donald Symons , Warrior Lovers. Erotic fiction, evolution and female sexuality , 2001 ( ISBN 0-297-64701-6 ), pp. 44-47.
personal data
SURNAME Hatfield, Elaine
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hatfield, Elaine Catherine (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American psychologist and sex researcher
DATE OF BIRTH October 22, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Detroit , Michigan , USA