Ethological and Evolutionary explanations of aggression Flashcards
What is Ethology and why is it used in this context
-Ethology is the scientific study of animal behaviour
-Studying reasons why animals display aggression can help us to better understand aspects of human aggression
Why is animal aggression important
-Animal aggression is thought to provide an evolutionary advantage
-it helps to protect them from threats and attract mates
Ritualistic nature of aggression
-Animal Aggression is highly ritualistic: members of the same species respond with the same set of behaviours to threats/ stimuli i.e growling, showing teeth or showing signs of submission
Innate Releasing Mechanisms
-Innate releasing mechanisms are inherited neural circuits that are triggered by environmental stimuli and respond by initiating a fixed action pattern which is a set sequence of behaviours
Fixed Action Pattern (FAP)
-Innate releasing mechanisms are triggered by environmental stimuli
-This causes the animal to display a predictable set of aggressive behaviours known as the fixed action pattern (6 stages)
-FAP’s are thought to be innate as all members of the species will display the same set of behaviour, without learnining it from other members of the species
Tinbergen Stickleback experiment (AO3 strength)
Tinbergen found that male sticklebacks show a highly ritualistic attack pattern to other male sticklebacks.
They presented a male stickleback with a highly realistic model of a male stickleback, without its distinctive red underbelly, and an unrealistic wooden model with a red underside
-Researchers found that the male stickleback only attacked the wooden model with the red underbelly
-This suggests that the male sticklebacks do have an innate releasing mechanism that is triggered by the red under side on other male sticklebacks and causes a fixed action pattern of aggressive behaviour
Animal Studies (A03 strength + weakness)
-Animal studies are useful to separate the biological and socio-cultural processes within aggression
-This can help us to better understand the biological origin of aggression
-However, human aggression is often premeditated rather than instinctual (like in animals) for example in warfare
Evolutionary explanation
-Evolutionary theory of aggression suggests that individuals born with a survival advantage are more likely to reproduce and pass on their genes to the next generation
gene mutations
-genes can mutate and these mutations can cause an increase in aggressive behaviour
-Increase in reproductive success means that there are an increased number of offspring with these aggressive genes (survival of the fittest)
male sexual jealousy
-The evolutionary explanation of aggression can be used to explain male sexual jealousy
-males cannot be as certain about paternity as females can be about maternity
-males may exhibit increased aggression towards their partners as an attempt to ensure faithfulness and certainty that their partner is investing their resources into the children
why is human aggression beneficial
-Human aggression was beneficial to the reproductive success of our ancestors
-aggression helped them to avoid predators and to compete for food and resources
mate retention strategies
males may also use psychologically aggressive mate retention strategies such as mate guarding (limiting the movements of your partner)
A03 Weakness of the evolutionary explanations of aggression (women rating)
-Researchers conducted a study where they asked females to rate descriptions of high vs low dominance, aggressive and domineering men.
-Researchers found that the women found the high dominance low aggression description as the most attractive, but the domineering and aggressive one the lowest, saying that he is more likely to be promiscuous
-This goes against the theory that aggressive behavior is beneficial to reproductive success
A03 weakness (ethical implications)
-This theory may have ethical implications as it suggests that male aggression is innate; this could provide justification for male abusers of women
-These men may claim that they have no control over their aggressive responses
A03 strength (Infanticide with step parents)
-Researchers found that infants are 100 times more likely to be killed when living with one or more step-parents
-Evolutionary theory suggests that this is because they gain no evolutionary advantage from raising a child that is not their own
