Evolutionary Explanation

• What is the Evolutionary Explanation of Aggression?

  • An account of the changes in species over millions of years.
  • Characteristics that enhance survival and reproduction are naturally selected
• What is the evolutionary explanations of Sexual Jealousy?

  • Sexual jealousy is greater in men because it evolved as a defence against cuckoldry, it drives aggressive strategies to retain mates
  • Men who could avoid cuckoldry were more reproductively successful
  • Therefore psychological mechanisms have evolved to increase anti-cuckoldry behaviours in males than females
• What is Cuckoldry?

  A threat that men face of raising a child that is not genetically theirs
• Who proposed the idea of Mate Retention Strategies?

  Wilson and Daly
• What are the two Mate Retention Strategies?

  • Direct Guarding
  • Negative Inducements
• What is Direct Guarding?

  Male vigilance over a partner's behaviour e.g. keeping tabs on them, checking who they have been seeing and tracking them
• What are Negative Inducements?

  Behaviours such as issuing threats of dire consequences for infidelity
• What was the Procedure of Shackleford's Study?

  • Studied intimate partner violence
  • 107 married couples who had been married less than one year completed different questionnaires
  • Men - Mate Retention Strategies
  • Women - Spouse Influence Report (extent of violence)
• What were the Finding's of Shackleford's Study?

  Strong positive correlation between men's reports of mate retention behaviours and women's reports of partner's physical violence
• Limitations of Shackleford's Study:

  • Only studied married couples of one year - Ignored unmarried couples and partners who have been married for longer so ungeneralisable
  • Small sample size - Ungeneralisable
  • Correlation - Can't establish causation
• What is the Evolutionary Explanation of Bullying?

  • Bullying is an adaptive behaviour as it consists of behaviour that would aid survival in the EEA (Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness)
  • E.g. Shows dominance, strength, acquisition of resources and warding off potential rivals
• Key study on Evolutionary Explanation of Bullying:

  • Volk et al (2012)
  • Characteristics associated with bullying behaviour are attractive to the opposite sex
  • Males - suggests dominance, acquisition of resources and warding off potential rivals = access to more females plus minimal threat from other males - greater reproductive success, therefore naturally selected
• Evolutionary Explanation of Bullying - Female

  • Females bullying in relationships is seen as a means of controlling a partner's infidelity so that they continue to devote resources to them and their offspring in the future
  • This behaviour would be naturally selected because of enhances reproductive success
• Limitation of the Evolutionary Explanation of Aggression:

  • Gender differences
  • Women using physical aggression risk offspring's survival so use verbal aggression to retain resource providing partner
  • Campbell
• Strength of the Evolutionary Explanation of Aggression:

  • Real world application
  • Bullying is advantageous for the bully so 'meaningful roles' approach increases costs and rewards of prosocial alternatives
  • Ellis et al
• Evaluation of the Evolutionary Explanation of Aggression:

  • Determinism Vs Free Will
  • The evolutionary argument suggests aggression is inevitable
  • But the humanistic approach argues that aggression is about free will, plus cognitive and social factors involved