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Sex Differences. There are significant sex differences in the areas of aggression, risk taking, self esteem, status seeking, and group formation that can be explained by only the males need to compete for mates, not the female's.
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Sex Differences • There are significant sex differences in the areas of aggression, risk taking, self esteem, status seeking, and group formation that can be explained by only the males need to compete for mates, not the female's. • Females naturally became the "default sex", meaning their psychology was determined by the fact that they were not masculinized. • Female competition was kept in balance by the mother's need to guarantee her own survival and her reproductive investment.
First Premise - Dominant Males Get The Biggest Prizes • The desire to mate with multiple females cause intense male competition. • The majority of men almost everywhere have monogamous marriages and relationships. • Monogamy can actually help ensure offspring survival, especially with females.
Second Premise - Male Competition Causes Men's Generalized Taste For Risk • Risk taking in general is higher in males than in females. • Men's precarious behavior comes from their lack of concern with their own well being, compared to that of women. • Female's lower risk taking resulted from a sex difference in the magnitude of what could be gained by aggression.
Third Premise - The Rewards Of Female Competition Are Low • Women's aggression is lower because they do not need to compete with each other in order to copulate. • Women's success depends on their capacity to provide their offspring with food. • Evolution has created women to survive longer than men. • This is because whichever sex provides the most parental care should be selected by nature for better longevity so they can protect their offspring to maturity
Women, competition and low risk-aggression • Fear is what keeps females at a less lethal level of competition than that of males. However, females still need to compete. • There are TWO forms of low-risk tactics that females use. • 1. An unwillingness to escalate to direct combat • 2. A preference for indirect rather than direct forms of aggression.
Meta Analysis • Meta analysis is a statistical technique that combines studies to estimate the magnitude of the sex differences based on thousand of subjects. • Meta-analysis confirms that the sex difference is greater for physical aggression than for verbal/psychological aggression. • Using meta-analysis it was found that the smallest sex difference for physical aggression was that 62 percent of men are more aggressive than the average woman, while the largest finds that 82 percent of men exceed the average woman. With verbal aggression it was found that there was no significant sex difference. It is suggested that 69 percent of men are more aggressive than the average woman
Meta Analysis • Using meta-analysis it was found that the smallest sex difference for physical aggression was that 62 percent of men are more aggressive than the average woman, while the largest finds that 82 percent of men exceed the average woman. With verbal aggression it was found that there was no significant sex difference. It is suggested that 69 percent of men are more aggressive than the average woman
Eagly and Steffan • They conducted an experiment and concluded that women have a general tendency to experience greater fear than men do in relation to anger-provoking situations. It was concluded that the greater the danger and anxiety the female feels the less likely she is to be aggressive. Men and women faced objectively the same situation and yet males showed less fear and more aggression.
Eagly and Steffan • For men, provocation raised their levels of aggression and it did so equally for verbal and physical aggression. For women, provocation had a much greater effect on their willingness to be verbally aggressive than on their willingness to risk physical aggression. • The ironic part is both men and women have anger, and it had been recorded that both sexes are angry six times a week. The sexes do not differ in the intensity of their anger that they feel. Women are reluctant to express their anger as an upright physical attack but there are other ways of competing
Types of aggression • Indirect aggression is one way that females compete, it is a form of social manipulation where the target is attacked indirectly and the aggressor can therefore remain unidentified. • Some examples of indirect aggression are shunning, stigmatizing, and gossiping. It excludes rivals and destroys their reputation without a head on confrontation and it is one form of aggression in which females exceed males
Types of aggression • Girls are more likely to exclude newcomers than are boys. This form of aggression starts in girls as they polish the social and verbal skills necessary for this invisible form of victimization. By the age of eleven girls are higher than boys on becoming friendly with someone as a way of revenge, gossiping, and a way to suggest shunning another. Studies of school bullying also report that girls employ indirect strategies of stigmatization and exclusion that often has a devastating effect upon the victim.
Types of aggression • This form of aggression continues into adulthood. Investigating victimization in the workplace found that women more than men use indirect forms of aggression such as spreading false rumors, and not speaking. An ethnographic study in Buenos Aires concluded that women are extremely competitive and envious of each other, and female competition is expressed through comparisons regarding clothing, and appearance.
Types of aggression • Primate females also use indirect aggression. Females have been observed harassing other females for days or weeks and interrupting her when she is trying to rest, feed, or mate. This harassment takes its toll on the female by causing stress and can even cause abortion. These indirect tactics diminish the reproductive success of the victim; therefore there are more resources for the victor and her offspring.
Maternal aggression-a predictable paradox • There is one clear situation where the pay offs for aggression by females are much larger than that of males-saving her child's life. The life of her offspring has cost the mother much time, and effort. The cost for the male is a few minutes of his time and easily replaceable sperm. The cost of replacement for the mother is measured in years while the father is measured in minutes
Maternal aggression-a predictable paradox • Maternal aggression has been documented in many species, and it occurs when another animal approaches or interferes with one of a female’s offspring. The species in which it has been documented are those where male infanticide is a serious threat to female reproductive success. The mothers attack is ferocious and immediate, in these species the females are extremely sensitive to the presence of males near infants and when an infant shows distress a nearby male may be attacked even if he has displayed no aggression towards it.
Maternal aggression-a predictable paradox • Maternal aggression begins during pregnancy and continues through lactation, suggesting a strong hormonal component. The duration of maternal aggression corresponds with the period when the young are most vulnerable. It disappears when the pups are removed for five hours but it is restored five minutes after the pups are returned. If the pups are attacked or killed, maternal aggression switches off immediately. • The severity of maternal attack is directly related to the size of the litter that the female is protecting. In primates threats to the infant come from other females as well as infanticidal males.
Maternal aggression-a predictable paradox • Females will start pulling, rough handling, kidnapping and using direct aggression towards another females young. In these species females display a dominance hierarchy that is based on matrilines. High ranking females of course have little to fear from low ranking females. This leads to a distinct pattern of maternal protection of young that depends on the females standing in the group. Low ranking females protect their infants by restraining them, high ranking mothers give their offspring greater freedom because they have less fear from launching an attack on any low ranking female that tries to abuse them.
Type I Theorist • The first type are called the high-fear theorists who believe that it is extreme levels of fear that switch on the severe form of aggression used by mothers. • The high-fear theorists make a distinction between two forms of aggression. Offensive aggression is used by female rodents principally against other females and these attacks rarely cause severe injury. These attacks on females by females seems to be a warning to the female intruder to get away from the space she considers her own. These attacks involve a very low level of fear on the part of the aggressor. However, females show a very different response to a male intruder because they are far more likely to have infanticidal intent than females.
Type II Theorist • The second type are called the low-fear theorists who believe that it is a temporary reduction in fear that enables the mother to attack with such ferocity • Low-fear theorists see aggression as a straightforward continuum from mild to severe. they believe that the more fearful the animal is the less likely it is to launch a severe attack. It is there fearlessness that opens the door for aggression. It was found that mice from genetic lines that show high levels of aggression also show lower levels of anxiety, and a high level of anxiety is inversely related to the probability of showing maternal aggression
Oxytocin • Oxytocin is a neuropeptide made in the hypothalamus that stimulates the contractions that expel the infant from the uterus. It is responsible for the milk letdown and is triggered by the nipple stimulation of suckling • Oxytocin has been called the love and bonding hormone. It has a very special affect on mothering . Psychologically, oxytocin promotes a feeling of well being and tranquility. It enables the growing sense of love and attachment to the infant. The more the infant suck the more oxytocin is produced. • In mothers it increases their attachment to their infant, promoting the feeling of love, and makes her infant more valuable to her. It also suppresses the fear that would normally cause her to back off from threat.
Fear and fitness • The difference between men and women in their willingness to move from conflict to violence is tied to the reproductive strategies of the two sexes • With males physical aggression has brought rewards that outweighed the risks. Males are more concerned with reproducing rather than their own survival and well being, therefore they will risk their own life for a chance to reproduce. Physical aggression for males intimidated other males and in doing so, won the victor status. The more successful he was the greater freedom he had, not only to claim fertile females but also to monopolize over disputed resources and food.
Fear and Fitness • For females aggression has costs that males do not have to face. For females injury or death means the loss of her current offspring. For these reason females avoid unnecessary conflict and stay away from physical aggression-both threaten the huge investment that a woman had made in rearing her dependent young. • Anne Cambell believes that the mechanism that underlies the sex difference of aggression is fear.For males, low levels of fear open the door to extravagant displays of bravery and combat that can be used to achieve a reputation in the community. The prize is status and all the benefits that come with it.
Interesting/Confusing Point: • -Most men have monogamous marriages or relationships
