evolutionary explanations of aggression

Question 1

what do evolutionary explanations focus on?

Answer 1

• how behaviours that were adaptive to our ancestors are passed down from one generation to the next

Question 2

what is the evolutionary explanation of aggression?

Answer 2

• aggression would have helped people survive, via securing resources, food, territory and women. this allowed them to survive, reproduce and have offspring
• men had more chance of survival by displaying aggression to protect their mates, this would then be sexually selected for by females
• aggression also allowed ancestors to establish hierarchical dominance in a group, causing higher social status and consequently greater access to resources

Question 3

sexual jealousy

Answer 3

• men being aggressive would deter other men from trying to steal their females (females were a resource allowing transmission of genes to offspring)
• sexual jealousy is more likely in men as they can’t be sure of paternity
• the fear that men may invest their resources in another man’s child is cuckoldry
• psychologists suggest aggressive sexual jealousy is a way of avoiding cuckoldry, providing an adaptive function

Question 4

mate-retention strategies

Answer 4

daly and wilson (1966) suggest men have evolved mate-retention strategies to deter their mate from leaving or cheating:
- aggressive direct guarding = restricting her freedom to prevent men from gaining access
- intersexual negative inducements = issuing threats of physical violence if the woman is interested in other men

Question 5

give a strength of evolutionary explanations
1/2

Answer 5

dobash and dobash (2000) carried out case studies of 95 women who suffered violent abuse from their partners, they used structured and unstructured interviews. they found the main source of conflict that led to violence was the man’s possessiveness and jealousy. understanding these male mate retention strategies does have practical applications, such as alerting friends and family to the potential of future violence

Question 6

give a strength of evolutionary explanations
2/2

Answer 6

shackleford et al (2005) asked 107 married couples aged 17-41 to fill in a questionnaire to assess their mate-retention behaviours. the extent of them by the men was significantly correlated with the extent of male violence towards their partners. supports the explanation that aggressive male mate-retention strategies deter females from committing infidelity

Question 7

give a limitation of shackleford’s study
1/1

Answer 7

the study was purely correlational, we don’t know that violent aggression was due to the mate-retention strategies and not another variable. we also don’t know if these behaviours are evolved and therefore innate, they may be due to observation and learning.
the research also relied on self-report techniques, raising issues with social desirability bias as in some cultures it is socially acceptable for men to be aggressive

Question 8

give a limitation of evolutionary explanations
1/2

Answer 8

these explanations are accused of being ‘post hoc’, an explanation which is offered thousands of years after the behaviour would have been adaptive. since human evolution has taken over 10,000 years, we cannot directly observe is this aggressive sexual jealousy is adaptive

Question 9

give a limitation of evolutionary explanations
2/2

Answer 9

the lack of directly observable evidence means this explanation isn’t falsifiable