Transcript Evolutionary Psychology Workshop 9: Female Aggression. Learning Outcomes.  1. Conduct a small-scale study assessing possible sex differences in aggression.

Evolutionary Psychology Workshop 9:
Female Aggression.
Learning Outcomes.
 1. Conduct a small-scale study assessing possible sex
differences in aggression. You should test 2 males and 2
females.
 2. Collate the results from the whole group and discuss the
findings in relation to the relevant literature.
 3. Critically discuss the methodology in such a technique.
 4. Discuss issues raised by a paper concerning sex
differences in aggression.
Background.
 Female aggression has been viewed as a genderincongruent aberration.
 Campbell (1999) however argued that certain aspects of
female aggression are just as adaptive as certain kinds of
male aggression.
 Females face the brunt of childrearing and so the survival
of the mother is of major importance to the wellbeing of
the child (particularly in infancy).
 Eg in the Ache of Paraguay where the mother dies in the
first year of the infants life, the subsequent mortality rate is
100% (Hill & Hurtado, 1996).
 Females therefore have a greater tendency than males to
protect their own lives and this will have enhanced their
reproductive success.
Evidence:
 Females display more 'anxious' behaviour particularly with
regards health and personal welfare issues.
 Certain phobias (animals, dangerous places) are more
common in women.
 Women are less likely to engage in sensation-seeking
behaviours.
 Women have lower rates of accidental injury.
 Women are less likely to take drugs.
 Women report higher levels of fear of crime.
 Women rate the importance of health higher than men,
know more about health issues and are more likely to adopt
preventative care.
 Women overestimate the dangers of a potential aggressive
encounter.
Resources.
 Campbell (2001) argued that while males compete with one
another for dominance and its rewards, females compete with
one another for resources (ie other males) which can directly
enhance their reproductive success.
 We would thus expect the severity of competition to be
related to the availability of resource-rich males - where
males are few then female competition and aggression should
be higher.
 This also influences female mating strategy - when males are
scarce (and much in demand) then females have little option
but to engage in short-term relationships.
 Where well-resourced males are abundant, female
competition will take the form of epigamic display (advertising of qualities considered desirable by the opposite
sex).
Female Aggression in Context.
 Women are significantly more likely to be attacked by
another woman (generally an acquaintance) than a man.
 In the USA, Campbell et al., (1998) found that out of 297
female-female fights, 121 were concerned with men and 67
were about subsistence concerns (food, money, domestic
goods etc).
 Normally though, the fear of direct physical assault means
that females are less likely to form dominance hierarchies
which would entail direct physical aggression to develop
and maintain.
 They are thus much more likely to form small co-operative
groups (often with other female relatives).
Evidence.
 When placed into groups girls cooperate whilst boys
compete.
 Girls who show strong competitive or dominance
behaviours are rejected by their peer group.
 Boys use direct commands while girls use polite persuasion.
 Girls are very concerned to develop cohesion and shared
norms within the group.
 Collaborative interchanges are more common in female
groups while domineering exchanges are more common in
male groups.
 Males are more likely to adopt an autocratic leadership role
and accentuate differences between individuals and
groups.
Female Aggression is Indirect.
 Males are more likely to favour direct physical or verbal
aggression.
 Such aggression would not be adaptive for females as they
may get injured.
 Female aggression is therefore more likely to be 'indirect',
ie it takes the form of social manipulation where the
'attacker' may hide their identity by:
 Spreading nasty gossip.
 Shunning other members of the group.
 Using any influence in the group to get other members
ostracised.
Evidence.
 Girls are much more likely to exclude newcomers than are
boys.
 Girls are more likely to destroy an adversary's property or
tell tales on them.
 Girls are more likely to use social ostracism and
manipulation of others opinions.
 Girls who bully other girls are more likely to use indirect
aggression rather than direct aggression.
Does This Explain the Following?
 Female criminal behaviour comes close to that of males
only
in
larceny/theft,
particularly
where
direct
confrontations are absent (ie credit card fraud as opposed
to mugging).
 Where female-female physical violence does occur, it is
most often triggered by competition over scarce resources
(usually men) and is most common between current
wife/girlfriend and ex wife/girlfriend.
 In areas where adequate males are scarce (in prison,
unemployed or drug-addicted) females will choose males
who display their resources or their dominance (expensive
cars, flashy clothes, jewellery, gun possession.
 Female-female homicide is very rare and women are much
less likely to use weapons when aggressing.
Female-Female Aggression.
 According to Campbell et al., (1998), female-female
aggression occurs most often in lower-class females aged
15-24 who generally know one another.
 The most frequent trigger for female-female aggression is
competition for the attention of men and triggered by
insults that slight the others sexual reputation.
 In their study they addressed 2 questions:
 1. Is intra-female aggression most common at younger
ages?
 2. Is intra-female aggression linked to mate shortage and
male resource scarcity?
Campbell et al., (1998) Study.
 They analysed female-female assaults in Massachusetts
during 1994 (482 in total). They found the following:
 The majority of these cases were committed by females
<24 years old.
 The number of female-female assaults rose with increased
dependency on welfare.
 Male unemployment was unrelated to female-female
aggression.
 Women committed more property crime (fraud, shoplifting)
and were more likely to engage in prostitution.
Task.
 Give out the Buss & Perry (1992) aggression questionnaire to
2 males and 2 females.
 We will collect data from the whole group and compare our
data with the standardised scores.
 While you are waiting to input your data you may wish to
complete
2
questionnaires
related
to
aggression
(assertiveness and arguing style) on-line:
 http://discoveryhealth.queendom.com/access_assertiveness.html
 http://discoveryhealth.queendom.com/access_arguing_style.html
Data From Our Study.
Male
Reported
Average
Female
Reported
Average
Physical aggression 24.3
Male
(N=41)
Observed
Average
27.0
17.9
Female
(N=41)
Observed
Average
20.4
Verbal aggression
15.2
15.3
13.5
13.4
Anger
17.0
19.1
16.7
18.7
Hostility
21.3
21.5
20.2
19.6
Total
77.8
83.0
68.2
72.1
References.
 Buss, A.H., & Perry, M. (1992). The aggression
questionnaire.
Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 63: 452-459.
 Campbell, A. (1999). Staying alive: evolution, culture, and
women's intrasexual aggression. Behavioural and Brain
Sciences, 22: 203-252.
 Campbell, A. (2001). Women and crime an evolutionary
approach. Aggression and Violent Behaviour, 6: 481-497.
 Campbell, A., Muncer, S., & Bibel, D. (1998). Female-female
criminal assault: an evolutionary perspective. Journal of
Research in Crime and Delinquency, 35: 413-428.
 Hill, K., & Hurtado, A.M. (1996). Ache Life History. Aldine de
Gruyter.