Psychology essays human aggression violence

It is a science which is based on human behavior, mental health and human psyche. Psychology is a very vast field and offers a huge range of sub-fields, such as clinical psychology, developmental psychology, child psychology, industrial psychology and social psychology.

The Psychology of Mob Mentality and Violence | Dr. Wendy James, Ph.D.

Sexual jealousy is often the reason for aggression as males experience paternal uncertainty, thus do not want to unwittingly invest resources in offspring that are not his own.

The adaptive functions of aggression in sexual jealousy are to deter women from sexual infidelity and minimise the risk of cuckoldry.

Daly and Wilson established a link between sexual jealousy and aggression.

They found that 58 out of murders had sexual jealousy as an underlying cause, mostly 2 men fighting over one female.

Supporting evidence comes from research into animals. Bertram found that lions killed the offspring of other males to ensure a higher likelihood of his own offspring surviving and his genes being passed on. This act of aggression strongly favours an evolutionary purpose because lions perform aggressive acts to ensure the survival of the fittest out of their own nature.

In addition, mate retention strategies are commonly used by males. Sexual jealousy as an evolutionary response has significant practical applications for society.

This suggests that awareness of mate retention strategies can alert friends and family member of the danger signs that might follow. Therefore, help can be offered before sexual aggression caused by sexual jealousy ever occurs.

However, much research of infidelity is alpha biased by maximising the differences between male and female behaviour in sexual jealousy. Women also practice mate retention strategies and engage in violence against their partner.

For instance, Felson examined 2, murders in the US and found that women were twice as likely to murder out of jealousy for men; this is still relevant to an evolutionary explanation because female need males to bring resources and shelter and would be sexually jealous if males devoted these things to another female.

This suggests that much of the research into male aggressive tendencies provides a limited view of what actually happens outside the stereotypical image.

Sexual assaults on a female are directly linked to the perceived risk of her infidelity. Female victims of partner rap are likely to have engaged in extra-marital sex Shields et al.

In addition, Camilleri also found that men convicted of raping their partners were more likely to have experienced cuckoldry risks prior to their offence compared to men convicted on non-sexual partner abuse. The evolutionary theory of aggression can be argued to be a reductionist explanation because it suggests we have evolved to harness this adaptive behaviour due to an organic cause.

This completely excludes psychological explanations, such as the Social learning theory of observation. This is further emphasised by individual differences which the evolutionary theory cannot account for, such as why males react differently with the same adaptive problem. For example, it is now common for males to adopt a child, even though it has no adaptive advantage for them because their genes are not being passed on, but they are committing cuckoldry.

Lastly, the explanation can also be criticised as a deterministic explanation.

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This is because the evolutionary explanation says we have little or no control over our behaviour, rather we are being controlled by biological factors. This is supported by Takehashi who showed neural responses in men and women in reaction to scenes depicting sexual jealousy.

Men had higher activity in the hypothalamus and amygdala. By accepting this view we have a clearer indication as to why gender differences exist in the behaviours of men and women.Aggression Revision: Exam essay plans Q1.

Outline and evaluate two social psychological theories of aggression (e.g. social learning theory, deindividuation) Theory 1. • Social learning theory= originated from work of Gabriel Tarde () Learning= relatively permanent change in behaviour due to experience.

From a psychoanalytic perspective, unconscious motives and instincts dictate human behavior, such that violence can be seen as an acting out of the natural human instinct of aggression. Lastly, the sociocultural perspective sees social and cultural forces as major motivators of behavior.

Psychology of Violence is a multidisciplinary research journal devoted to violence and extreme aggression, including identifying the causes of violence from a psychological framework, finding ways to prevent or reduce violence, and developing practical interventions and treatments.

Just Give Me the Answers! is the ultimate guide to answering the Human Relationships extended response essay questions and is your ultimate advantage when it comes to sitting the Paper 2 IB Psychology examination.

It is a science which is based on human behavior, mental health and human psyche. Psychology is a very vast field and offers a huge range of sub-fields, such as clinical psychology, developmental psychology, child psychology, industrial psychology and social psychology. - Nature of Aggression Aggression is the quintessential basis for all sociopathic behavior, and a primary concern in the fields of behavioral, developmental, social, and clinical psychology, and is covered to some extent in nearly every other field of psychology.