Outline and Evaluate Evolutionary Explanations of Human Aggression (Infidelity and Jealousy)

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Outline and evaluate evolutionary explanations of human aggression (infidelity and jealousy) [8+16 marks] The evolutionary theory states that a human’s main aims are to survive long enough to pass on their genes, and to ensure that those genes live on in their children. If the desire to achieve these goals is not met, or is threatened; humans can become aggressive. Evolutionary explanations can explain aggression in many ways, including infidelity and jealousy. In both males and females infidelity, whether it is real or imagined, causes jealousy and therefore aggression. The jealousy is seen by evolutionary psychologists as an adaptive response and it is therefore useful. Similarly, the jealous individual in the relationship could also cause their partner to commit an infidelity. It is noted that men are more likely to experience jealousy because of their fear of cuckoldry. Women, on the other hand, are worried about sharing or losing their investments and resources. Both men and women have evolved retention strategies to deter mates from infidelity. On the females behalf his includes threats to the other woman for example, bad mouthing. Verbal possession signals; these indicate to other women that the man us taken. Crying is also used as a mate retention strategy as it makes the male return thus encouraging proximity and protection. Speaking in terms of the male, he exhibits behaviour such as direct guarding, in which a male is especially vigilant to their mate in order to restrict her sexual autonomy. Retention strategies can also include violence against the woman either in physical or verbal form. In extreme cases, an unintended consequence of this evolutionary behaviour may be her death (uxoricide). The explanation of uxoricide as being a consequence of jealousy cannot account for the fact that younger women are at much greater risk of
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