evolutionary explanations

• the evolutionary explanation suggests that aggression is an adaptive behaviour to help with survival and reproduction

  and so through natural selection, we have evolved to display aggression
• aggression was adaptive to men for 3 main reasons

  • gain and maintain access to mates and resources
  • helped to gain respect and dominance
  • helped to prevent infidelity
• according to the evolutionary explanation, women did not face competition for reproductive partners and so havent evolved to be aggressive

  instead, their priority was to protect their offspring

  for which they would have wanted an aggressive man for
• sexual jealousy is a motivator of aggressive behaviour in males

  this occurs because men want to avoid infidelity and cuckoldry and ensure paternity

  An investment in offspring that do not carry his genes is a waste of his resources
• sexual jealousy often drives mate retention strategies
• mate retention strategies involves:

  • direct guarding: vigilance over a partner's behaviour
  • negative inducements: threats of dire consequence for infidelity "ill kill myself if you leave me"
• Wilson et al looked into the correlation between mate retention studies and physical violence

  • asked women to report mate retention strategies
  • women who did agree were twice as likely to have experienced physical violence at the hands of their partner
  • of which the majority needed medical attention
  • this supports the view that mate retention strategies are correlated to physical violence
• Buss et al

  • hypothetical situation and questionnaire based study to determine if men or women are more upset by sexual or emotional infidelity
  • found men were more likely to be upset by sexual infidelity than women
  • which supports the idea of aggression due to sexual infidelity
  • HOWEVER this was a hypothetical situation, so participants may have answered differently to how they would have in real life
• the evolutionary explanation ignores environmental factors

  • for example, some psychologists argue that sex differences in aggression are caused by differences in social norms
  • aggression is usually discouraged from girls as it is seen as 'unlady-like'
• may suffer from alpha gender bias

  • the explanation may exaggerate differences between men and women
  • makes strong claims about aggression in men and lack of aggression in women
  • this can be challenged by Buss et al's study where almost half of the men in the study reported that they would be more upset by emotional infidelity rather than sexual jealousy
• The evolutionary explanation for aggression has ethical issues

  • being a biologically determinist explanation, people may use it to justify violent and abusive behaviour