Aggression- evolutionary explanations

Question 1

What are the 3 components of the evolutionary explanation?

Answer 1

-Sexual jealousy
-Sexual competition
-Aggression in warfare

Question 2

Define sexual jealousy

Answer 2

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

Question 3

Define Infidelity

Answer 3

Engaging in a relationship (usually sexual)

Question 4

What does Kato argue?

Answer 4

Anecdotal and research evidence suggests that males are more prone to sexual jealousy than females but females are more concerned about emotional infidelity

Question 5

Why is sexual jealousy adaptive?

Answer 5

To ensure that the male can protect his genetic line/ pass on genes to the offspring

Question 6

Why does sexual jealousy arise?

Answer 6

Parental uncertainty

Question 7

What is parental uncertainty?

Answer 7

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

Question 8

What is Cuckoldry?

Answer 8

When a man has to raise offspring that are not his own.

Question 9

What is the consequence of Cuckoldry?

Answer 9

The man might not be aware he is investing his resources in something that is not his own

Question 10

What are the strategies employed by males to ensure that a female partner does not stray according to Wilson & Daly (1996)?

Answer 10

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)

Question 11

What percentage of murder cases are caused by sexual jealousy?

Answer 11

17%

Question 12

Why does sexual competition occur?

Answer 12

You have to compete with other males to gain access to females

Question 13

Why does aggression link to sexual competition?

Answer 13

Can eliminate the competition through aggression- physical competition

Question 14

What are the reasons for engaging in warfare?

Answer 14

-Displays of aggressiveness and bravery are attractive to females
-Higher status
-Intragroup bonds

Question 15

What is the evolutionary explanation?

Answer 15

Focus on the adaptive nature of behaviour because of solved challenges (selection pressures) to our ancestors so become more widespread in the gene pool

Question 16

In summary, what does the evolutionary explanation argue are the main reasons for aggression?

Answer 16

-Gaining resources (territory, mates, food)
-Intimidating/eliminating male rivals
-Detering mates from sexual infidelity

Question 17

What does Buss argue?

Answer 17

Sexual jealousy is a basic emotion which has evolved because it solves adaptive problems of mating

Question 18

Is this a socially sensitive topic?

Answer 18

Yes

Question 19

What issues and debates does the evolutionary explanation link to?

Answer 19

-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

Question 20

Give an evaluation point (Real-world application)

Answer 20

-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

Question 21

Give an evaluation point (Gender bias)

Answer 21

-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.

Question 22

Give an evaluation point (physiological evidence)

Answer 22

-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

Question 23

Give an evaluation point (Recent conflicts)

Answer 23

-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