Evolutionary explanation for infidelity and sexual jealousy leading to aggression

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What is sexual jealousy?
a state of fear caused by a real or imagined threat to someones status as an exclusive sexual partner.
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Who show greater sexual jealousy and why?
Men, they have no way of knowing the child is theirs.
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What type of response is sexual jealousy?
sexual jealousy is an adaptive response
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What does this adaptive response lead to?
mate retention behaviours
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what are some examples of mate retention behaviours?
holding hands in public, wearing a wedding ring, threatened or real violence.
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Why is retaining a mate so important to males?
they need a faithful mate in order to bear and raise their children, without a faithful mate the chances of his genes being passed on are reduced.
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What is a suitable IDA point for the explanation?
Approaches
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What are two bad points about the evolutionary approach? (IDA)
it doesnt explain how killing your sexual partner through sexual jealousy makes evolutionary sense. it is also impossible to prove as you cannot go back in time and see how aggresion as a result of sexual jealousy/infidelity has evolved.
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What might be a better approach to use instead of the evolutionary approach? (IDA)
the cognitive approach, more convincing evidence.
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Name two pieces of evidence for the explanation
Buss, Day and Wilson
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What did Buss find?
found that males thought sexual infidelity was more distressing than emotional infidelity but they found that women thought emotional infidelity was more distressing.
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Does the research by Buss support the theory and if so why?
yes, according to the theory men show greater signs of sexual jealousy as they can never be 100% sure the child is theirs. but women know the child is theirs but need emotional support when raising the child.
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What did the research by Day and Wilson find?
when they looked at murders within marriages they found 44/80 victims were male,most of the conflicts were started by the males and 29% were caused by sexual jealousy.
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Does this research by Day and Wilson support the theory and if so why?
it partially supports the theory, it shows men are more sexually jealous however there were more male victims than female which contradicts the theory that males are generally more aggressive than females. also 71% of the murders werent caused by S.J
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What is bad about both of these studies? (AO3)
neither of them can prove that this behaviour has evolved, it can only prove a link between aggression and sexual jealousy.
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What is the most valid piece of research and why? (AO3)
the Buss research, it included 37 different cultures world-wide making the results a cultural universal.
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What is a wider evaluation point?
Socially sensitive
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Why is the explanation socially sensitive?
it suggests that men are likely to be unfaithful sexual partners, their aim is simply to continue their genes. it also gives excuses for domestic abuse within couples, which is a growing problem in many cultures. "its in my nature to be aggressive"
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

Who show greater sexual jealousy and why?

Back

Men, they have no way of knowing the child is theirs.

Card 3

Front

What type of response is sexual jealousy?

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

What does this adaptive response lead to?

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

what are some examples of mate retention behaviours?

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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