Group Displays Flashcards
What are group displays?
Group displays can be explained by evolutionary psychologists as the aggressive behaviour of a group to ensure survival
According to evolutionary theory..
Men evolved as hunter gatherers and women needed protection and therefore women needed to chose their mates carefully. This would suggest that there was at least some advantageous reasoning to explain why men engage in acts of high cost heroic bravery
Support for group displays
Steams claims that females may choose mates that exhibit bravery as these courageous genes will be advantageous to the group in the future as the produced offspring will be more successful in defending the group in times of need
Criticism of steams
However a risk taking mate could potentially threaten the survival of the female as their mate may be more likely to perish and therefore not be able to support them and their offspring
Supporting evidence for why there are group displays of aggression
Farthing surveys whether men and women desired physical risk takers as partners and the result was that if the risks were considered brave they were also considered desirable. Physical risks that were not considered brace were not a desired mate quality.
Criticisms of farthing
- survey. social desirability > low internal validity
Psychodynamic perspective
Freud = aggression is the result of pent up Thanatos, an innate energy that drives people to destruction. This energy is then redirected at another target, so warfare could be a collective release of aggression due to innate energies rather than an attempt to keep a mate.
Group aggression in sport may be due to..
Xenophobia which is a dislike and fear of that which is unknown or different from oneself (fear of strangers)
Shaw and Wong argue that
Suspicion towards strangers would have resulted in an increased chance of survival in the EEA. Such behaviour would have been favoured by natural selection and ensured survival
Competitive sport may be a need to..
Be a part of a group and to believe that is the best group.
Supporting study for competitive sport
Podaliri analysed Italian football crowds and found that xenophobic political organisations led to ant-Semitic chants and banners among football crowds. Supports idea of in group/out group
Criticism of competitive sport study
Perhaps people’s views weren’t as strong when the match finished?
Very difficult to measure
Contradicting study!
Marsh stages that what people may see as sporting aggression is simply highly ordered and ritual role play, that enables young males to feel as if they belong to a group and offers them an identity
Problems with group displays research
Gender bias
Deterministic
Reductionist
Strength of group displays research
Face validity because the concepts of theories such as groups of males compete against eachother and the female choosing the strongest male, makes sense.
