Ethnological Explanations Of Aggression Flashcards
What is the ethological explanation?
It seeks to understand the innate behaviour of animals (including humans) by studying then in their natural environment. The focus is to try and account for behaviour in terms of its active value to the specific species. Ethnologists also believe that by looking at animal behaviour w can understand human behaviour
What is aggression seen as through the ethothological approach
Aggression is also seen as providing an adaptive function. It is seen in all animals and thought to be innate and if a behaviour is innate it is seen by evolutionary psychologists to be beneficial to the organism. Aggression as a behaviour can help survival, through protection, getting resources and establish dominance.
What did Lorenz propose about agggression
He proposed that aggression in animals is often ritualistic. He argued this is more adaptive than direct aggression as this would ensure the organism was not harmed in the process. If organism was harmed in the process of aggression, it could result in its inability to reproduce or even death. Therefore ritualistic aggression, such as teeth bearing, would have the effect of deterring an opponent without any physical harm
What does the ethological approach say about biological process
It proposes that aggression can be the result of an evolved automatic biological response in the brain. It is believed that animals have a built in neural structure which, when exposed to specific stimuli such as facial expressions, will cause the release of an automatic behavioural response
This automatic biological response is the Innate releasing mechanism - a network of neurons in the brain. An environmental stimulus tiggers IRM which then triggers a specific sequence of behaviours which is called fixed action pattern (FAP)
Strengths
Tinbergen (1951) undertook an experiment with male sticklebacks. This species of fish is very territorial and aggressive. In the mating season they develop a red spot on their underside. Tinbergen observed that at this time male sticklebacks will attack another male stickleback that enters their territory. He theorised that the red spot on their underside was acting as an innate releasing mechanism and when one stickleback observed another stickleback with this red spot they would initiate the aggressive attack behaviour which is an example of a fixed action pattern. To test this out he presented male sticklebacks with a wooden model; if the wooden model had a red spot, then the male stickleback would attack. However, without the red spot the male stickleback would not react, and there was no aggression displayed.
Weakness
An ethological explanation assumes that behaviour is innate; therefore, it should be uniform across all cultures. However, Nisbett (1996) found that in a laboratory experiment when South American white males were insulted they were more likely to respond aggressively than white North American males under the same conditions. This research demonstrates cultural differences that would be problematic for the ethological explanation to account for, as there was a high variation in aggressive responses.
There is evidence from the animal kingdom that aggression is not always ritualistic, Goodall (2010) studied chimpanzee behaviour for over fifty years. As part of her research, she observed groups of chimpanzees that waged a brutal war against neighbouring groups of chimpanzees, slaughtering all members of the group. Goodall (2010) referred to this type of gang behaviour as the systematic slaughtering of one group by another stronger group. This aggression is hard to explain from an ethological standpoint as the risk of injury to the attacking group is high and thus does not appear to be an adaptive behaviour.
Not all fixed action patterns are fixed. There is some evidence that learning and environmental factors can create variation within a species. Therefore, it may be more appropriate to discuss modal action patterns rather than fixed action patterns. Modal action patterns are behaviours that are instinctual such as the desire to chase in dogs (the prey drive), but that differ from one individual within the species compared to others. For example, some dogs may chase cats but some dogs do not. The differences in behaviour may be down to training, or may be down to species differentiation as a result of selective breeding of characteristics.
what are the 6 FAPS
1) Stereotyped, or relatively unchanging sequences of behaviours;
2) Universal, because the same behaviour is found in every individual of its species;
3) Unaffected by learning, the same for every individual regardless of experience;
4) ‘Ballistic’ once the behaviour is triggered it follows an inevitable course and cannot be altered before it is completed;
5) Single-purpose, the behaviour only occurs in a specific situation and not in any other
6) A response to an identifiable specific sign stimulus (or, if it involves communication between members of the same species, it is known as a releaser
