evolutionary theory of aggression

• what does the theory suggest

  certain behaviours have developed due to evolution
• what do evolutionary psychologists look at, why

  fossil records, to understand the EEA to find what type of behaviour may have been adaptive so they can match them to current behaviour
• why do they say certain behaviours will have survived

  in the EEA aggression ,ay have been an important trait for humans have in order to survive so this trait allowed reproduction and survival so it has been passed on to the modern day
• what is natural selection

  the process in which organisms that are better adapted to their environment are healthier so love longer and reproduce more
• what is sexual selection

  a form of natural selection where individuals that are successful in attracting a mate, out-reproduce others in the population
• what is evolution


  the changes in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations
• example 1 of a reason we developed aggression

  gaining territory and resources - would have been a limited resource in EEA = those who were more aggressive and so fought for their food and shelter successfully were more likely to survive so reproduce and pass down the trait
• example 2 of why we have developed aggression

  mate selection - successful females chose mates who provided good genes = aggressive males more likely to be selected = competition for mates has driven masculine aggression
• why does this give a reason for higher aggression in men and lower in women

  they needed to protect their family and fight for resources so needed to be aggressive, aggression would have been an evolutionary disadvantage to women as they needed to be loving and nurturing for their offspring
• why is the evolutionary theory a valid explanation

  we can see these physical differences in the structure/chemistry between men and women today
• evidence strength


  brendgen found there were gender differences between males and females - boys ranked more physically aggressive by both peers and teachers = supports evolutionary explanations
• evidence weakness


  this can only be compared to past research which would have used different methods - evidence has practical issues as is difficult to measure evolutionary mechanisms behind aggression as would have to be done over generations = harder to establish cause and effect
• evidence so what


  some evidence to show proof however the evidence is stand alone and so s hard to establish a direct cause and effect of evolution on development of aggression
• application


  - helps explain gender differences in rates of aggressive crimes committed

  - intervention activities can be put in place in primary schools to allow boys to let aggression out in a safe way
• shortcoming + CA


  reductionist as only looks at genetics and not other factors eg unconscious drives and nurture

  CA = allows researches to focus on isolated variables leading to understanding aggression in depth
• strength + CA


  explains individual differences (gender) in aggression

  CA = doesn't explain why some females are physically more aggressive and why some males aren't
• alternative


  doesn't account for role of nurture so alternative = social learning theory as it suggests we learn from role models

  . means this theory is somewhat incomplete