Psychology - Aggression evolutionary

• sexual competition

  • describes how male ancestors had to compete for access to females
  • aggression used to eliminate competition
  • those who used more aggression were more successful in gaining mates and passing genes to offspring
  • creates genetic tendency for aggression in males
• PUTS

  male traits suggest male ancestors did compete with one another. anthropologists found males have thicker jawbones. believed this is result of men hitting each other and those with thickest jawbones survive and pass this trait to their offspring
• Sexual Jealousy

  • major motivator of aggression in males
  • jealousy links back to cuckoldry and paternal certainty
  • males cant be sure they are the true father to their child so would result in investing time and resources into caring for a child that will not contribute to genetic survival of that male
  • men who avoid cuckoldry are reproductively more successful
  • men employ mate retention strategies to prevent female infidelity
• direct gurading strategies

  • checking who they are seeing
  • checking partners location
• negative inducement

  • threats of dire consequences for infidelity
• Shackleford et al

  A: to study intimate partner violence in heterosexual couples

  P: 107 married couples completed different questionnaires. males completed mate retention inventory and women complete spouse influence report measuring extent of partner violence

  F: positive correlation between men's report and women's report. men who used guarding or negative inducement more likely to be physically violent

  C: mate retention behaviours can be used to predict violence against wives
• bullying

  • occurs due to power imbalance
  • bullying used to be seen as maladaptive but now it may be adaptive for ancestors to survive and reproduce
• Volk et al

  F: behaviours associated with bullying are attractive to the opposite sex. in males it suggests they are in control and can acquire resources. enables more access to females whilst reducing threat from competition. greater reproductive success
• female bullying happens in relationships as a method of control

  to secure partner's fidelity so partner can continue to provide for offspring

  behaviour is naturally selected for reproductive success
• A03: Strength - gender differences

  males shown to be more aggressive than females.

  CAMPBELL: not adaptive for females as her survival and offspring survival is at risk.

  BUSS ET SHACKLEFORD: verbal aggression more adaptive for females because they can retain partner to provide resources.
• AO3: Limitation Counterpoint

  gender differences may be better explained by socialisation.

  PRINZ: differences in aggression due to different socialisation experiences.

  for example, SMETANA found boys more likely to be physically punished for bad behaviour but girls parent more likely to explain their behaviour.

  suggests this could increase male physical violence girls learn they have less power than boys so may adopt other social forms of aggression
• AO3: Limitation - Cultural differences

  THOMAS: studied kung san people often seen as the harmless people. negative attitudes towards aggression. those who use aggression suffer a bad reputation in the community

  HOWEVER there is conflicting evidence on how harmless the people are.

  LEE: have a high homicide rate. there may be observer bias.
• AO3: Limitation - methodology

  difficult to test hypotheses about evolution of behaviours to solve problems in our evolutionary past.

  most research only correlational so method does not allow to draw cause and effect conclusions