Evolutionary explanations of human aggression

Evolutionary explanations of human aggression

1. A01

   • Early- males feared losing their mate to another male =sexual jealousy - fear to their status. Male jealousy = caused through females infedility - having a child with other mate or leaving existing P for new P = must be avoided. Sexual jealous adaptive response- adaptive mate-retntion B.
     • Cuckoldry and Jealousy- Cuckoldry = F deceives M P into investing into offspring produced by another M. ET- M evolved strategies to avoid being cuckolded. M retention driven by sexual jealousy
       • A02 Cuckolded men= loss of resources + reproductive opp.- Platek + Shackelford (2006)
       • A02- Battered women - majority - describe extreme sexual jealous that their MP as the key cause of violence against them. Dobash + Dobash (1984)
       • S Ev- mate-retention Shackelford et al (2005)- survey method -test predictions of the use of M- retention strats. P's q's on their use of M-retention strats + assessed on how often they used diff types of violence against F P. Findings = consistent with evo predictions - M retention strats- threats pos corr with violence scores against W - emotional manip - kill selves predicted partner violence. F- trend -m retention also reported more M initiated violence
         • A03 - M probs - M retention Shackelford - noticed limitation of research data- only correlational - can't establish cause and effect- couldnt definitely say there is a relationship between M retention + violence aginst W.
         • A03- survey method-sensitive area- social desirability bias- to be viewed favourably by others- underporting B= lack of accuracey = less reliable not trye results
   • Cuckoldry risk Hypothesis Camilleri (2004)
     • M- more willing to use - sexully coercive taactics- P rape - when risk of cuckoldry is high - suspect infedility or prev infidelity.
       • A02 -Lalumiere et al (2005) P rape - decrease paternity uncertianity- more chance of passing on geness - offspring
       • A02- Thornhill + Thornhill (1992) W refuse sex- signalling to MP that she has been sexually unfaithful = increase in M sexual jealousy + cuckoldry fear.
       • A02 - S Ev- Sexual coercion- adaptive response to infidelity - Camilleri (2004) = risk of Infidelity= predicted likelihood - sexual coercion in M NOT W.- Bc M risk cuckolded NOT W. Goetz + Shackelford (2006)= W reported sexual coercion-more likely to admit to being unfaithful
   • Mate retention + Violence
     • A02- Buss + Shackelford (1997) examined mate- retention tactics in married couples. Findings- M vs F reported signif higher use of intrasexual threats- beating up another man. W greater use of verbal possession signals - indicating to other W her man is 'taken'. Men- younger WP- greater effort to mate-retention tactics- violence against rival M + threats against MP

2. A01

   • The evolution of murder- Evo Theory eveloved only if it was associated with greater reporoductive success + competeing strategies
     • A02 Buss + Duntley (2006) adapatations- evolved specifically through- natural selection -to produce murder- back then benefits of murder-outweighed costs
   • Murder-adaptive response - Buss + Duntley - ancestors murder solved problems: *preventing harm from others,-injury or killing them first, *reputation management-not avoid being perceived as exploited or injured by others, *protecting resources-territory food,+mates
   • Predisposing factors for murder - A02- Daly + Watson (1988) men majority- murders- more likely kill m- sexual rivals, challenge position- dominance hierarchy
     • A01- Common predisposing factors- *sexual jealous- indelity+ cuckoldry= majority M killed +killing *lack of resoucres- Wilson + daly (1985)- lack ing resouces= male-male comp-murder-bc sexual selection -Wattracted to m ith resoucres* threats to male status - Daly + Watson F attracted to M with dominance = m eveolved seek status-murdering prevent losing status.
     • A03- Costs of murder- - killing victim in self defence = success rate of murder- lower- attempting to kill- dangerous for killer= natural selection favoured more covert trats- conceal the killing = minimise anti murder defences of 'victim'.
     • A03- Support for - evo explanation of murder- evidence from cross-cultural research -supports incidents male-mlae killing- concequence of sexual jealousy- Daly + Watson common them esexual jealousy initiated by trivial comments about attractiveness of another M's wife.
     • A03 - Limitations of Ev Explanations of murder- Buss + Shackelford- state the evo idea cant explain why P's act in diff ways when in same adapative prob- inefidelity- intrasexual aggression or debasemnet- asking her not to leave him. Therefore can't account for individual diffs- less reliable theory beacsue it can't be generalized to all cases of aggressive B.