evolutionary explanations

• Evolutionary explanation

  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.

  Solving these problems made reproduction and survival more likely and would lead to these "mental modules" being spread across the gene pool. Mental modules have evolved in response to selection pressures faced by ancestral humans. They tell us what to do in order to deal with situations similar to those of our ancestral humans.

  Sexual competition, sexual jealousy and bullying
• Sexual competition

  Caused by ancestral males seeking access to females, whilst competing with other males.

  One way of eliminating the competition would have been through aggression. Being successful here would lead to greater success in acquiring mates and therefore passing their genes to offspring.

  This would then lead to a genetically transmitted tendency for males to be aggressive towards other males.

  An example could be male aggression when resources are in short supply as females may find this attractive and an indication that they are able to provide for their offspring.
• Sexual jealousy

  Major motivator of male aggression and can be explained by evolution as men can never be totally sure about whether they have truly fathered the child.

  As a result, males are always at the risk of cuckoldry which is the reproductive cost inflicted on the male as a result of his partner's infidelity.

  Any investment in offspring that do not share the males genes is a waste of resources. This may lead to direct guarding involving male vigilance over a partners behaviour for example tracking their whereabouts or reading a partners text messages. It could also lead to negative inducements such as "I will kill myself if you leave me"
• Bullying

  Bullying occurs due to a power imbalance i.e. a more powerful individual uses aggression deliberately and repeatedly against a weaker person. Our evolutionary ancestors may have used bullying to increase their chances of survival by promoting self-preservation and creating opportunities for reproduction.
• Shackelford (2005) - AO3 strength

  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
• Strength of evolutionary theory

  Support for sexual competition is provided by anthropological evidence demonstrating that the male jaw bone is thicker than in females with the suggestion that this is the result of males being more likely to fight each other. Thickest bone man survives and passes on their genes to the next generation supporting the evolutionary explanation for aggression.
• Limitations of evolutionary theory

  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.