Aggression 2 | Ethological and Evolutionary explanations of aggression Flashcards
AO1 What is the ethological explanation of aggression
The ethological explanation suggests that aggression is an innate instinctual behaviour that has evolved in animals including humans because it increases survival and reproductive success
AO1 What are innate releasing mechanisms in the ethological explanation
Innate releasing mechanisms are neural circuits or mechanisms that respond to specific stimuli in the environment triggering a fixed action pattern of behaviour such as aggression
AO1 What are fixed action patterns in the ethological explanation
Fixed action patterns are sequences of behaviours that are innate stereotyped universal within a species and once triggered by a specific stimulus are carried out to completion
AO1 What is an example of a fixed action pattern in animals
Tinbergen observed that male sticklebacks displayed aggressive behaviour towards anything with a red underbelly suggesting a fixed response to a sign stimulus
AO1 What is the evolutionary explanation of aggression
The evolutionary explanation argues that aggression has evolved as an adaptive response to increase chances of survival and reproductive success by deterring rivals and protecting mates and offspring
AO1 How does sexual jealousy relate to evolutionary explanations of aggression
Sexual jealousy is thought to trigger aggressive behaviours as a mate retention strategy to prevent infidelity and ensure paternal certainty thereby increasing reproductive fitness
AO1 What are mate retention strategies in the evolutionary explanation of aggression
Mate retention strategies include vigilance direct guarding and violence used particularly by males to prevent their partner from engaging in infidelity
AO1 What was the method of Buss et al 1992
Buss et al conducted a cross cultural survey of over 10000 participants in 37 cultures using questionnaires to investigate mate preferences and jealousy in men and women
AO1 What were the results of Buss et al 1992
Buss et al found that males were more distressed by sexual infidelity while females were more distressed by emotional infidelity suggesting sex differences in jealousy responses
AO1 What conclusion was drawn from Buss et al 1992
The study supports the evolutionary explanation that male jealousy and aggression evolved as a mechanism to ensure paternity certainty while female jealousy evolved to secure long term investment
AO3 What is a strength of Buss et al 1992
The study has high cross cultural validity as it included diverse cultures suggesting that sex differences in jealousy and aggression may have a biological evolutionary basis
AO3 What is a limitation of Buss et al 1992
The use of self report questionnaires may introduce social desirability bias and cultural norms may influence responses limiting the internal validity of the findings
AO3 What research supports fixed action patterns in the ethological explanation
Tinbergen found that male sticklebacks would attack any object with a red belly regardless of shape supporting the idea that aggression can be triggered by innate releasing mechanisms and fixed action patterns
AO3 What is a limitation of the ethological explanation in explaining human aggression
The ethological explanation struggles to account for the complexity and flexibility of human aggression which is influenced by learning culture and context rather than fixed automatic behaviours
AO3 What research supports evolutionary explanations of aggression
Daly and Wilson found that male aggression often stems from sexual jealousy and is linked to mate retention strategies supporting the idea that aggression has evolved to protect reproductive success
AO3 Why is the evolutionary explanation criticised for being unscientific
Evolutionary explanations are often post hoc and unfalsifiable because they rely on assumptions about ancient adaptive pressures that cannot be directly tested or observed
AO3 How do cultural differences challenge the evolutionary explanation of aggression
Some cultures such as the Kung San show low levels of aggression suggesting that aggression is not universal and is shaped by environmental and cultural influences not just biology
