AGGRESSION- evolutionary explanation of human aggression e.g infidelity and jealousy Flashcards
what do evoluntionary psychologists argue?
reproductive challenges faced by our ancestors can explain the aggressive b seen in people today
what can a man never be certain of?
that he is the father of his wifes children unless prevents her having rels with other men
what can this explain?
why male sexual jealousy is often citied as cause of domestic violence
what is many countries is seen acceptable?
acceptable to murder an adulterous wife or her lover
example of murder on adulterous wife?
among nuer people of east africa a man who commits adultery likely to be killed by lovers husband
what is according to daly & wilson?
men have evolved different strategies to deter their partners from committing adultery ranging from vigilance, watching their every move etc
what are all these a result of?
male jealousy and paternal uncetainty
if a mans partner is unfaithful what does this run a risk of?
cuckoldry
why has male sexual jealousy evolved?
to prevent infidelity by women and reduce risk of cuckoldry
what did buss et al argue?
males have developed strategies for mate retention
what do these include (buss et al)?
direct guarding of female and negative inducements to prevent her straying e.g financial control threat of violence etc
what did wilson et al found a support link for?
btw sexual jealous mate retention and violence
what happened in the quesitonnaire (wilson et al)?
women who indicated that their partners jealous and did not like them talking to other men twice as likely to have experience violence 72% needing medical attention
what is an important implication of research into sexual jealousy and violence?
mate retention techniques can be the early signs of a violent man educating people in these danger signs can reduce likelihood of women =victims
what if men can prevent female infidelity by giving positive benefits to stay?
less likely to be violent
what if men unable to give positive benefits?
more likely to be jealous and violent
what did daly & wilson propose?
unintended outcome of an evolutionary adaption that was intended for control rather than death
what does murder represent?
most extreme form of aggression and statstics across the world show that majority killers = men
what does one exp of this suggest?
lack of resources may lead to increase ale to male aggression as females believed to be attached to males who have vast resources thus increasing the chances of murder to eliminate rivals
what does supporting for this come from ( murder)?
murder statistics in detroit with 43% v being male and 41% perpertrators being unemployed
what is another explanation to homicide?
threat to male status
what are one of the key reasons for male to male killings?
through the defence of status within social groups
what is possible exp for this (male 2 male)?
humans evolved in small groups and loss of ones could have led to problems for survival and reporduction. such b is maladaptive in modern world hw such mechanisms may still continue to operate and be triggered by events that may have activated in past also
what is sexual jealousy?
another possible reason for homicide due to link btw infidelity and cuckoldry with men bein biggest victims and perpertators of murder
what did daly and wilson summarise data from?
8 studies involving love triangles and found 92% murders involved males killing males and 7%involed females with females supporting explanation
what is problem with daly & wilson fro sexual jealousy study?
methodological prob as small sample so generalisation difficult
research for this?
shackelton et al
shackleford et al
what happened in schackleton et al?
demonstrated link btw male retention jealousy and violence
what did schackleton et al do?
surveyed 461 men and 560 women who were in rels. men answered qs about use of male retention techniques and women asked about use of their partners tingand how violent.
what was found in schackleton et al?
positive correlation retention and violence also men used emotional manipulation and also positive correlation in jealous partners and violence
what happened in shackleford et al?
challenged unintentional nature of uxoridcide outlined by daly and wilson
what did schackleford et al do?
analysing 13670 uxoricodies and found that younger women were most at risk as women were in reporductive prime= prblem for them being unintentionally killed
what are the issues and debates?
methodological problem-deterministic- gender bias -reductionist-cultural differnces
why is it a methodological problem?
with animal studies is that their findings cannot always be generalised to humans due to diff species- humans not determined as animal insticits
why is it a deterministic problem?
to suggest we have such ancestral traits is determintis and ignores role of free will
why is it gender bias?
most of infidelity focused on males and their straterfies but women also found to have aggression and male retention tactics too. e.g archer - suggests women initate and carry out physical assaults on partners as often as men and family condlict studies have found equal rates of assualt btw make and females
why is it reductionist?
evo exp of infidelity and jealousy suggest aggression down to eveolved response and genes which reduction and oversimpfly human b and ignores other factors and role of free will - proving aggression down to evolution is difficult in itself making theory flawed
