Ploeger's Theory Of Evolutionary Psychology

When an infant is born, whether it be a newborn human or a newborn animal, a mother will defend it against harm, but is this behavior naturally occurring? Firm believers of evolutionary psychology assert that, “evolution by natural selection, is at present, the only viable scientific explanation of the existence of complex biological and psychological mechanisms.” (Ploeger et el 2008) These beliefs are highly debatable and only serve as a theory as to why violence occurs. From, “Evolutionary Psychology,” many human behavior ecologists defend the theory of evolutionary psychology. However, this does not appeal to many psychologists in today’s day in age. (Downes 2014) So do all mothers, for example, become naturally aggressive in the defense
182) For example, if you touch a hot stove and get burned, you might learn to become anxious and nervous each time you are around a stove in the future. Conditioning is, “the process of learning associations between environmental events and behavioral responses.” (p. 182) For example, if you own a dog and it gets excited every time you shake a box of dog treats, the dog knows that a reward might be in store. The dog has made an association between the sound of the box shaking and the reward. Even though some people believe that behaviors such as violence and aggression are biologically set in an organism. (Wood 2010) From an article by Sarah Duman and Gayla Margolin, there is proof that learning and conditioning can influence behaviors such as aggression and violence.(Duman & Margolin 2007) Imitation of a behavior will likely occur if the observed behavior is performed by someone who has control over your life, such as a parent. From the famous Bobo Doll Experiment developed by psychologist Albert Bandura. (1965) The theory stated that “most human behavior is acquired through observational learning.” Bandura (1965) showed children a video of adult figures acting aggressively and documented the children imitating that same behavior. This concluded that children who observe aggressive behaviors
Naturally, we are not made for violence such as killing. From the article, The Biological Effects of Childhood Trauma, “we learn violence and it is sometimes even conditioned at an early age in the stages of development. If children observe acts of violence and aggression, the child‘s psychosocial aspects will be affected in the future.” (De Bellis 2014) Violent and aggressive behaviors are learned and therefore influence many aspects of the human life. However, violence and aggression does not have to be just a physical act, such as murder or assault. These behaviors can be categorized with emotional and verbal abuse such as discrimination, prejudice, and segregation as