evolutionary explanations

• aggression is for survival

  adaptive - effective for solving survival and reproductive issues for early humans - e.g. acquiring and defending resources and deterring mates from sexual infidelity
• sexual competition

  males compete with other males for access to females (intra sexual selection) - aggression way of eliminating competition - successful male increased social status, more successful protecting mates and passing on gees to offspring
• sexual jealousy

  result of paternal uncertainty - men can never be entirely sure they are the father of their children - at risk of cuckoldry (man deceived into raising offspring that isn't his and aiding survival of genes that aren't his) - Buss - males have strategies evolved to keep a mate like violence or threats of violence to prevent her from straying and violence towards perceived love rival
• EVOLUTIONARY EVALUATION - plausible account of gender differences

  Campbell - female with offspring motivated to be less aggressive as behaviour would put her and child at risk - would explain why women are more likely to use verbal aggression or non aggressive methods of addressing conflict and resolving disputes - can explain why males engage more than females in aggressive acts
• EVOLUTIONARY EVALUATION - gender differences better explained by socialisation

  Smetana - parents more likely to physically punish boys for bad conduct - when girls misbehave parents tend to explain why actions are wrong - may increase male physical violence and girls learn they're less powerful than boys leading to girls adopting other more social forms of aggression - brings doubt that males have evolved aggression
• EVOLUTIONARY EVALUATION - crime data

  male sexual jealousy claimed to be single most common motivation for killings in domestic disputes in America - sexual jealousy reported to account for 17% of cases of murder in the uk - link between sexual infidelity, jealousy and increased aggression
• EVOLUTIONARY EVALUATION - determinist

  argues that aggression in males is hard wired into genetic makeup - may be seen as somehow justifying violence
• EVOLUTIONARY EVALUATION - gender biased

  explanations may exaggerate differences between males and females (alpha bias) in terms of level of aggression shown in relationships - Archer - conducted family conflict studies to find equal rates of aggressive assaults by women as there were men - research viewed males as more likely aggressors which may not be true