evolutionary explanations of aggression

• the evolutionary explanation of aggression argues that aggressive behaviour has evolved as it has helped solve challenges faced by our distant ancestors and so it has become more widespread in the gene pool through natural and sexual selection.
• Aggression is adaptive, therefore beneficial for survival and reproductive success -> example: acquiring and defending resources, eliminating male rivals for females and deterring mates from sexual infidelity.
• Sexual competition

  Intra-sexual competition -> ancestral males competing with with each other to seek access to females.
• • one way to eliminate this competition is through aggression
  • the successful individual increases their social status
  • and is therefore more successful in acquiring and protecting their mates from competing males
  • -> they are more successful in passing their genes to offspring
  • ->led to development of genetically transmitted tendency for males to be more aggressive
• Sexual jealousy

  • can be used to explain aggressive behaviour in males
  • males are unsure if their child is theirs (paternal uncertainty) -> Archer (2013)
  • therefore are at risk of cuckoldry ( when a man is deceived into raising and taking care of a child that is not his, thus aiding survival of genes that are not his )
  • Buss (1988) argued that males have evolved a number of strategies specifically for the purpose of keeping a mate
  • these include violence and threats of violence to prevent mate from straying and to threaten a perceived love rival
• P: Research support

  E: Crime data, male sexual jealousy is claimed to be the most common explanation for killings in domestic disputes in America according to Daly et al (1982), furthermore sexual jealousy is claimed to account for 17% case of murder in the UK by Dell (1984).

  E: suggests that there is lots of evidence from criminal statistics that support the link between sexual infidelity and increased aggression and jealousy in males,

  L: strength as research support increases validity of explanation
• P: Limitation - Biologically determinist

  E: Evolutionary explanations argue that an increased risk of aggression is "hard-wired" into our genetic make-up, humans are "pre-programmed" to be aggressive

  E: and therefore have no free will to control their aggressive behaviour.

  L: problem as it may be seen as wrong for legal system to punish individuals for their aggressive behaviour if they had no free will over it.
• P: limitation - explanation may be gender biased

  E: explanation may be gender bias in terms of alpha bias where in which the explanation exaggerates differences in terms of levels of aggression expressed by males and females

  E: evidence for this comes from Archer (2000) who carried out a study regarding family conflict and found that there were equal rates of aggressive assaults between women and men

  L: limitation as explanation views males as more likely to be aggressive, when this may not be the case
• P: Research support link between extreme violence and perceived infidelity

  E: Shields and Hanneke (1983) found that female victims of sexual coercion were more likely to report engage in extra marital sex than women who were not raped by their partner

  E: suggests that men are responding to risks of cuckoldry by aggression

  L: However, this does not show a causal relationship, and drawing general conclusions from this research risks the blame being put on women in cases of domestic violence
• P: Strength - explanation explains gender differences

  E: Males often engage more often than females in aggressive acts, especially physical aggression

  E: Campbell (1999) argues that aggression in females risks her own survival but also risks the survival of her own offspring , so a more adaptive strategy is to use verbal aggression to retain a partner who provides resources,

  L: The fact that the evolutionary explanation can explain such differences in aggression and predict them in research increases the validity of this approach