evolutionary explanations

• Evolutionary explanations of human aggression focus on specific areas where aggression is thought to be adaptive. These include acquiring and protecting resources such as food, territory and mates, and status within the group, especially in males.
• Sexual jealousy is regarded as an innate, adaptive form of aggression which has been used in evolutionary terms to secure males access to resources, mates and top of dominance hierarchies to ensure reproductive success
• there are two mate-retention strategies: direct guarding and negative inducements
• Direct guarding is where a male becomes vigilant over a female partner’s behaviour
• negative inducements is where they issue threats with dire consequences over infidelity to reduce cuckoldry.
• cuckoldry is the concept of bringing up other males offspring as one's own
• Aggressive behaviours to prevent straying and cuckoldry are deemed as beneficial
• Bullying is also deemed to have an evolutionary basis where in a power imbalance the more powerful individual uses aggression deliberately to secure resources and mates
• Shackelford (2005) carried out the intimate partner violence study with 107 heterosexual couples. The men completed the Mate Retention Inventory which assessed mate retention strategies like direct guarding, whereas the women completed the Spouse Influence Report, measuring partner violence in the relationship. This found a strong positive correlation between mate retention strategies and increased physical violence
• Shackelford's research can also be criticised for its socially sensitive nature and they would need to be mindful of this when analysing the results and offer couples the opportunity to withdraw their data if they were unhappy.
• As the sample size in Shackelford's study was relatively small (107 couples), this poses a problem of generalisability to other groups, decreasing its population validity. A further criticism of the sample was the use of heterosexual couples and other psychologists may question the generalisability to same sex couples.
•  If aggression was an innate evolutionary mechanism for survival, we would expect to see it displayed in all cultures. This is not the case.
• The Kung San tribe of the Kalahari have a negative view of aggression and discourage it. Those who do use it have their status removed.
• The Yanomamo of Venezuela are ‘fierce’. Aggression is an accepted part of their culture and a required behaviour to gain status
• Anne Campbell argues that a female with offspring is less likely to engage in physical aggressive behaviour as this may put the survival of the offspring at risk. They are more likely to use verbal aggression as a way of keeping a partner who provides resources. This explains why women are more likely to use non-aggressive methods to resolve disputes.
• An evolutionary understanding of bullying as an adaptive behaviour can help devise more effective anti-bullying interventions. This approach acknowledges bullying gains advantages for the bully so Volk et al proposed anti-bullying interventions need to increase the cost of bullying and the rewards of prosocial alternatives