Discuss Evolutionary explanations of aggression.

(8+16)

AO1 Cuckoldry& Mate retention strategies

Evolutionary psychologists argue that reproductive challenged faced by our ancestors can explain aggressive behaviour. A man can never be certain that he is the father of his wife’s child unless he prevents her from having relationships with any other men. This can explain why male sexual jealousy is often cited as a cause of domestic violence. Subsequently if a man’s partner is unfaithful and has a relationship with another man, the man runs the risk of cuckoldry and would therefore invest resources into rearing children. Male sexual jealous may therefore have evolve to prevent infidelity and reduce the risk of cuckoldry.

Buss also suggests that we have developed a number of strategies for mate retention. These include direct guarding by which our male ancestors would have been able to deter rivals from gaining access to their mates. A modern example of direct guarding is vigilance e.g. restricting partners movements by not letting her socialise or coming home early unexpectedly to see what the female partner is up to. Men also use a strategy called negative inducements by offering threats for any infidelity. Sexual jealous is a primary cause of violence against women, therefore those who are perceived by their partner threatening infidelity are more at risk of violence than those who are not.

AO2

There is empirical research support rom Buss and Shakleford to support the evolutionary explanation of mate retention. They found that men who suspected their wives might be unfaithful over the next year, exacted greater punishment for known or suspected infidelity than men who dint anticipate future infidelities. This finding is consistent with the claim that mate retention strategies are evoked only when a particular adaptive problem is faced, in this case the belief of infidelity.

Further research by Dobash and Dobash found that in studies of battered women, in the majority of cases women claims that extreme jealousy is a major cause of the violence.

IDA

An important implication of the research into sexual jealous and violence is that mate retention techniques such as direct guarding and negative inducement can be early indicators of violence against a female partner. Educating people in these danger signs/indicators can reduce the likelihood of this violence as well as prevention of the violence.

IDA

Most studies of infidelity have focused solely on the males mate retention strategies and men’s violence towards women. However women have also been found to engage in aggression and mate retention tactics and also behaving violently towards their partners. Research by Archer suggests that women initiate and carry out physical assaults towards their partners as often as men. This demonstrates there is a great deal of gender bias with this theory as it a solely claim that men are innately prone to aggressive because of jealousy. Therefore this theory should not neglect the role of other factors impacting aggression of both genders, such as the social learning factors, which suggests that aggression is learned rather than innate.

AO1 Uxorocide

Uxorocide (wife killing) is also another explanation of aggression. According o Daly and Wilson the death of a partner from physical violence may be an unintended outcome of an evolutionary adaptation that was designed for control rather than death.

AO2 

However Shakleford et al challenged this theory by analyzing half a million homicides and selecting 13,670 cases where a man had killed his wife. However a startling finding was that they were younger women and had a greater risk of uxorocide. However this contradicts evolutionary logic as these women were at the age of when they are most reproductively valuable.

AO2 

Duntley and Buss however offer an adjusted explanation, that the uxorocide is not an unintended outcome but intended as a partners infidelity carries a double loss for the male.  Not only does h lose a partner decreasing his reproductive success but also another man gains a partner and increases his own success. Therefore by killing his wife he at least prevents a competitor from gaining reproductive success.

IDA

A criticism is that there inconsistencies that evolutionary perspective cannot account for example, it fails to explain why individuals might react in such different ways when faced with the same infidelity situations, may it be homicide, getting drunk or forgiving the infidelity. This decreases the validity of the approach in explaining aggression.

IDA

Another criticism is that the evolutionary perspective fails to explain why aggression in response to infidelity and jealously is not universal as shown by the !Kung San tribe of the Kalahari desert in which aggressive behaviour is devalued and is rare. The social learning theory does a better job at explaining this as it argues that aggression is learned rather than innate.