Amanda Guitar

Kennesaw State University, Psychology, Faculty Member

Binghamton University, Anthropology, Adjunct

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I am a Lecturer of Psychology at Kennesaw State University. I earned my PhD in Biocultural Medical Anthropology from the University of Alabama in 2024. My dissertation was a community-engaged research project focused on trans and gender-diverse health in Alabama.

I received a B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Theatre Arts from New Mexico State University (2010) and an M.A. in Psychology from SUNY New Paltz (2013). I also obtained an M.A. in Biological Anthropology (2015) and a Graduate Certificate in Evolutionary Studies (2017) from Binghamton University.

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Papers by Amanda Guitar

FROM ACCIDENTAL APE TO WALKING ON THE MOON: A NEW THEORY OF HUMAN UNIQUENESS

by Rachael Carmen and Amanda Guitar

Journal of Social, …, Jan 1, 2012

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Letter of Purpose of the Feminist Evolutionary Psychology Society

by T. Joel Wade and Amanda Guitar

Sexual and Emotional Aspects are Distinct Components of Infidelity and Unique Predictors of Anticipated Distress

by Maryanne L . Fisher, Daniel J. Kruger, Justin R. Garcia, and Amanda Guitar

Although there has been a tremendous amount of research attention on differences in reactions to ... more Although there has been a tremendous amount of research attention on differences in reactions to sexual infidelity and emotional infidelity, there is a lack of information available as to how the two constructs overlap with respect to actual behavior, how expectations for distress vary by behavior , and how sexual and emotional content influence expectations for distress. In order to address this issue, we asked participants to rate 50 behaviors on the extent to which each would constitute sexual infidelity and, separately, emotional infidelity. Participants also rated the degree to which they would be upset if their partner performed the behavior, which enabled us to determine the relationship between views of sexual infidelity, emotional infidelity, and anticipated distress. As predicted, ratings of sexual infidelity and emotional infidelity for the 50 behaviors were largely independent. In agreement with past research, ratings of emotional infidelity were stronger predictors of distress for women than for men, whereas ratings of sexual infidelity were overall stronger predictors of distress for men than for women. Furthermore, ratings of sexual infidelity were overall stronger predictors of distress than ratings of emotional infidelity for both women and men. However, ratings of sexual infidelity were overall stronger predictors of ratings of emotional infidelity for men than for women. The results generally support predictions derived from an evolutionary perspective, elaborating upon the existing understanding of sex differences in anticipated reactions to infidelity.

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Letter of Purpose of the Feminist Evolutionary Psychology Society

by T. Joel Wade, Amanda Guitar, Maryanne L . Fisher, and Rachael Carmen

It has been almost five years since the formation of the Feminist Evolutionary Psychology Society... more It has been almost five years since the formation of the Feminist Evolutionary Psychology Society (FEPS), which was created with the hopes of drawing attention to issues that influence women's role in evolution. In those years, FEPS has changed into a more structured society with clear aims. In this letter, we review the rationale for creating FEPS, as well as how we structured FEPS to be an effective organization. The majority of the letter pertains to four distinct goals of FEPS that we will continue to address in the future. These goals are to investigate the active role of women in human evolution, reexamine previous findings, highlight understudied topics, and call attention to diverse populations.

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Implicit attitudes towards sexually and reproductively relevant stimuli: do female attitudes vary based on sexual orientation, conception-risk, and hormonal contraceptive use?

format_quoteHigh-conception risk bisexual females showed the most positive attitudes towards pregnant images (M = .35), countering initial hypotheses about heterosexual women.format_quote

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The evolutionary psychology of small-scale versus large-scale politics: Ancestral conditions did not include large-scale politics

by Rachael Carmen and Amanda Guitar

The current research question sought to examine political psychology as it relates to evolutionar... more The current research question sought to examine political psychology as it relates to evolutionary mismatch. The basic hypothesis is that people will be more cognitively prepared to think about political situations that are relatively small in scale compared with political situations that are large in scale. This research also examined the effects of whether the political situation is highly relevant to oneself. To test these questions, 49 young adults were presented with four sets of instructions. They were asked to write paragraphs describing (i) a large-scale, self-relevant political situation, (ii) a large-scale non-self-relevant political situation, (iii) a small-scale self-relevant political situation, and (iv) a small-scale non-self-relevant political situation. Paragraphs generated by the participants were analyzed using Tyler’s (2013) Writing Sample Readability Analyzer. Results demonstrated that paragraphs designed for large-scale political situations had more sentences and were less readable than paragraphs designed for small-scale situations—while paragraphs designed for small-scale political situations were relatively readable and included more words per sentence, suggesting that, consistent with the core hypothesis, participants had an easier time processing information related to small-scale political situations than large-scale political situations. Implications for the nature of modern politics are discussed.

format_quoteParticipants produced more readable samples for small-scale political situations, indicating higher cognitive accessibility for these contexts.format_quote

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Facebook Frenemies and Selfie Promotion: Women and Competition in the Digital Age

by Rachael Carmen and Amanda Guitar

Human communication has been largely influenced by the global popularization of social network si... more Human communication has been largely influenced by the global popularization of social network sites such as Facebook over the past decade. From PCs to mobile phones, humans can now communicate in ways never before experienced during our history on Earth; moreover, sites like Facebook are providing a novel platform for engaging in female intrasexual competition. Through cyberbullying, selfies, and Facebook “stalking,” females are engaging in traditional strategies of intrasexual competition (i.e., self-promotion, rival derogation, mate manipulation, and competitor manipulation) in an evolutionarily novel social environment. This chapter examines what is new about social interactions that take place online and what is an artifact of our evolutionary heritage. Additionally, it argues that the self-promoting material that Facebook users post to the site is indicative of underlying fitness; therefore Facebook postings are an example of a modern-day extended phenotype.

Sexual and Emotional Aspects are Distinct Components of Infidelity and Unique Predictors of Anticipated Distress

by Daniel J. Kruger, Amanda Guitar, and Carey Fitzgerald

Although there has been a tremendous amount of research attention on differences in reactions to ... more Although there has been a tremendous amount of research attention on differences in reactions to sexual infidelity and emotional infidelity, there is a lack of information available as to how the two constructs overlap with respect to actual behavior, how expectations for distress vary by behavior, and how sexual and emotional content influence expectations for distress. In order to address this issue, we asked participants to rate 50 behaviors on the extent to which each would constitute sexual infidelity and, separately, emotional infidelity. Participants also rated the degree to which they would be upset if their partner performed the behavior, which enabled us to determine the relationship between views of sexual infidelity, emotional infidelity, and anticipated distress. As predicted, ratings of sexual infidelity and emotional infidelity for the 50 behaviors were largely independent. In agreement with past research, ratings of emotional infidelity were stronger predictors of distress for women than for men, whereas ratings of sexual infidelity were overall stronger predictors of distress for men than for women. Furthermore, ratings of sexual infidelity were overall stronger predictors of distress than ratings of emotional infidelity for both women and men. However, ratings of sexual infidelity were overall stronger predictors of ratings of emotional infidelity for men than for women. The results generally support predictions derived from an evolutionary perspective, elaborating upon the existing understanding of sex differences in anticipated reactions to infidelity.

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