Ethological Explanations of Aggression

Question 1

What does the ethological explanation of aggression suggest?

Answer 1

Aggression is instinctive in all species and is adaptive. The animals that are ‘defeated’ are rarely killed but forced to live elsewhere; encouraging population spread.

Question 2

What is another adaptive function of aggression?

Answer 2

Establish dominance hierarchies giving access to territory and other resources. All of which are traits that would be naturally selected as they aid survival.

Question 3

Who argued that the principles of aggression were the same in humans and animals?

Answer 3

Lorenz described aggression as the, ‘fighting instinct in breast and man which is directed against members of the same species’. Humans and animals are governed by the same laws of natural selection.

Question 4

Define ritualistic aggression.

Answer 4

A series of behaviours displayed with aggressive intention. Rather than physical, they take the form of threat displays and appeasement gestures.

Question 5

What is an innate releasing mechanism?

Answer 5

An IRM is a psychological process or structure that controls our drives/motifs such as aggressive behaviour.

Question 6

What are fixed action patterns?

Answer 6

Fixed Action Patters (FAPs) are a fixed sequence of behaviours triggered by the innate releasing mechanism (IRM).

Question 7

Define each of the 5 types of Fixed Action Pattern (FAP).

Answer 7

• Stereotyped - behaviour always takes the same form.
• Universal - found throughout the species.
• Independent of individual experience - not learned (innate)
• Ballistic - cannot be changed
• Specific triggers - only used in one context

Question 8

Outline Tinburgen’s study.

Answer 8

• Studied stickleback fish.
• Males were aggressive to anything with the colour red on it. Regardless of whether the shape resembled a fish or not.
• Fish would even try to attack stimuli that were not within the tank.
• If red was removed, the fish would continue to attack - supporting the ballistic FAP.

Question 9

Give an advantage of the ethological explanation for aggression.

Answer 9

• Supporting evidence of fixed action patters - Tinburgen et al. - sticklebacks study - he found that, when red was removed, the fish continued to attack - shows support for the ballistic fixed action pattern - animal study - difficulty extrapolating.

Question 10

Give two disadvantages of the ethological explanations of aggression.

Answer 10

Disadvantages;
- Cultural differences in aggressive behaviour - Nisbett et al. - found differences in aggression between white males in the north and south of the US - challenging the idea that aggression is innate and found uniformly throughout humans.

• Evidence to suggest not all aggression is ritualistic - Goodall - male chimps systematically slaughtered those of another group even when the other group offered appeasement and defenceless signals - challenging the proposition made by the ethological approach that argues aggression has evolved into a harmless behaviour.