Evolutionary

• Adaptive nature of aggression

  Aggression can be seen as a useful evolutionary adaptation that helped our ancestors survive by allowing them to acquire resources, attract partners, and deter or punish those who were unfaithful.
• Evolutionary explanation of male sexual jealousy

  Sexual jealousy in males can be explained through evolutionary psychology as a response to the risk of cuckoldry—raising offspring that are not genetically theirs. In ancestral environments, males who could prevent their mates from reproducing with others increased their chances of passing on their own genes, avoiding the misallocation of resources to unrelated offspring.
• Aggression in females

  From an evolutionary perspective, sexual jealousy in females arises from the risk of losing a mate’s resources, time, and parental investment due to emotional infidelity. While females are not concerned with paternity certainty, a partner’s affair threatens the stability of support for their offspring. This can lead to behaviors like mate guarding or aggression toward rivals, aimed at protecting the partnership and ensuring resource provision.
• Mate retention strategies(|)

  According to Margo Wilson and Martin Daly (1996), mate retention strategies involve the use of aggression and violence to keep a partner from leaving. These strategies include direct guarding, such as monitoring a partner’s behavior and controlling their whereabouts, and negative inducements, such as threatening harm if infidelity occurs.
• Mate retention strategies (||)

  Wilson et al. (1995) found a link between mate retention strategies and physical violence against partners. When women were asked to report on the mate retention strategies used by their partners, those who agreed with statements such as ‘He insists on knowing who you are with and where you are at all times’ were twice as likely to experience physical violence. Among these women, 73% required medical attention, and 53% reported fear for their lives, supporting the connection between mate retention strategies and violence.
• The evolutionary explanation for bullying

  Bullying stems from a power imbalance where a stronger individual repeatedly targets a weaker one. Traditionally viewed as harmful behavior linked to poor social skills or abuse, bullying may also have evolutionary benefits. It could enhance survival and reproductive success by promoting dominance, resource control, and strength, traits found attractive by females (Volk et al., 2012). Bullying can also reduce stress and protect health by establishing a reputation that deters aggression, as dominant individuals often face less stress (Sapolsky, 2004).
• Limitation - Cultural differences in aggression

  Elizabeth Thomas (1958) found that some cultures, such as the Kung San people of western Botswana, have almost no aggression. She referred to them as the ‘Harmless People’ as they strongly discourage aggressive behavior in both boys and girls, leading to its rarity. Aggression negatively affects one’s status and reputation in this community. Social and cultural norms strongly impact aggressive behavior in this society, implying that it may not always be an adaptive behavior.
• Strength - Controversy surrounding the Kung

  Kung’s reputation as a ‘harmless’ group is heavily debated. Richard Lee (1979) found a surprisingly high rate of homicide among them, despite their peaceful reputation. The conflict in the findings may be due to observer bias; expectations and the sample observed can impact what is perceived. As a result, observations made by outsiders may lack validity and be unreliable.
• Limitation - Deterministic


  The evolutionary explanation of aggression suggests aggression is innate and instinctive which is a deterministic view. This ignores the role of free will in whether or not to behave aggressively to attract and keep a partner. Humans possess higher-order thinking that animals do not i.e know that acts of aggression are not moral