Aggression- evolutionary explanations Flashcards
What are the 3 components of the evolutionary explanation?
-Sexual jealousy
-Sexual competition
-Aggression in warfare
Define sexual jealousy
the emotions and behaviours involved with the perception (real or imagined) that one partner is engaging in infidelity/ may be attracted to other males/females
Define Infidelity
Engaging in a relationship (usually sexual)
What does Kato argue?
Anecdotal and research evidence suggests that males are more prone to sexual jealousy than females but females are more concerned about emotional infidelity
Why is sexual jealousy adaptive?
To ensure that the male can protect his genetic line/ pass on genes to the offspring
Why does sexual jealousy arise?
Parental uncertainty
What is parental uncertainty?
A woman is always 100% sure that the child she is carrying is hers but her male partner (short of a DNA test) can never share that certainty
What is Cuckoldry?
When a man has to raise offspring that are not his own.
What is the consequence of Cuckoldry?
The man might not be aware he is investing his resources in something that is not his own
What are the strategies employed by males to ensure that a female partner does not stray according to Wilson & Daly (1996)?
Direct guarding - checking or even tracking her phone, watching for signs of interest in other men, asking her where she’s been, coming home at unusual times to see if she can be ‘caught’ engaging in suspicious behaviour
Negative inducements - letting her know the potential consequences of her leaving him (e.g. I’ll kill you/myself/the children if you leave me) which may (and, sadly, inevitably do) lead to physical violence (intimate partner violence, IPV)
What percentage of murder cases are caused by sexual jealousy?
17%
Why does sexual competition occur?
You have to compete with other males to gain access to females
Why does aggression link to sexual competition?
Can eliminate the competition through aggression- physical competition
What are the reasons for engaging in warfare?
-Displays of aggressiveness and bravery are attractive to females
-Higher status
-Intragroup bonds
What is the evolutionary explanation?
Focus on the adaptive nature of behaviour because of solved challenges (selection pressures) to our ancestors so become more widespread in the gene pool
In summary, what does the evolutionary explanation argue are the main reasons for aggression?
-Gaining resources (territory, mates, food)
-Intimidating/eliminating male rivals
-Detering mates from sexual infidelity
What does Buss argue?
Sexual jealousy is a basic emotion which has evolved because it solves adaptive problems of mating
Is this a socially sensitive topic?
Yes
What issues and debates does the evolutionary explanation link to?
-Alpha bias by suggesting (or even outright stating) that there are huge differences in male and female behaviour in terms of sexual jealousy and bullying. While it is true that males are more likely to be prone to these negative behaviours, they are by no means alone in this: females also commit IPV, feel jealous and act in a bullying manner but there is less research which supports female aggression using an evolutionary perspective.
-The assumption that women are not aggressive is a deterministic view of human beings i.e. it does not allow women to express themselves using free will (stigmatisation)
-Nature/nurture debate i.e. men are just naturally aggressive, it’s innate; women are just naturally caring, it’s innate
Give an evaluation point (Real-world application)
-Real-world application
-Research in this area has real-life applications where the use of retention strategies can be used as an early indicator of potential partner violence
-Direct guarding - checking or even tracking her phone, watching for signs of interest in other men, asking her where she’s been, coming home at unusual times to see if she can be ‘caught’ engaging in suspicious behaviour and Negative inducements - letting her know the potential consequences of her leaving him (e.g. I’ll kill you/myself/the children if you leave me) which may (and, sadly, inevitably do) lead to physical violence (intimate partner violence, IPV) are not normal
-This can help develop early prevention methods by allowing individuals to recognise the signs and intervene
Give an evaluation point (Gender bias)
-This theory does not account for individual differences
-Gender differences, Alpha bias by suggesting (or even outright stating) that there are huge differences in male and female behaviour in terms of sexual jealousy and bullying. While it is true that males are more likely to be prone to these negative behaviours, they are by no means alone in this: females also commit IPV, feel jealous and act in a bullying manner but there is less research which supports female aggression using an evolutionary perspective.
Give an evaluation point (physiological evidence)
-Physiological support for jealousy and aggression as an evolved response to infidelity
-Takahashi
-Participnats imagined scene depicting their partners infedelity and scences that would arouse emotional jelousy, such as there partner falling in love with someone else
-Found that men showed greater activiation in the amygdala and hypothalamus
Give an evaluation point (Recent conflicts)
-Explanations of aggression that are based on mating success, sexual jealousy or the acquisition of status in warfare fail to explain the astonishing levels of cruelty that are found in human conflicts yet are not evident among non-human species
-Does not explain the wide-scale slaughter of whole groups such as the Rwandan genocide in 1994 or the holocaust 1933-45 (persecution of the Jews)
-Does not tell us why humans torture or mutilate their opponents when they have already been defeated and no longer pose a threat
