Evolutionary Explanations of Aggression

Question 1

The evolutionary explanation of aggression says that…

Answer 1

Bthrough the process of natural selection we have evolved to display aggression.

Cin the age of prehistoric man, aggression was an adaptive behaviour that helped us survive and reproduce.

Question 2

A first advantage of aggression for early men was that

Answer 2

Cit helped men gain access to women.

Ait helped men gain access to resources, like food.

Question 3

A second advantage of aggression for early men was that…

Answer 3

Dit helped men gain dominance over other men.

Question 4

A third advantage of aggression for early men was that…

Answer 4

Cit helped men prevent infidelity.

Question 5

According to the evolutionary explanation, aggression was adaptive for early men for 3 reasons:

Answer 5

Cit helped men prevent infidelity.

Ait helped men gain dominance over other men.

Hit helped men gain access to resources like food, and also to women.

Question 6

According to the evolutionary explanation, cavewomen are likely to select…

Answer 6

Amore aggressive cavemen, because they can provide the resources that they need to keep their babies alive.

Question 7

According to Lorenz and his friends…

Answer 7

aggression is a behaviour that has evolved through natural selection.

Question 8

We’ve now seen that the ethological explanation of aggression…

Answer 8

Eattempts to understand aggression in humans by looking at aggression in other species, when they’re in their natural habitat.

Bis also an evolutionary explanation

Question 9

According to the ethological explanation, aggression helps animals…

Answer 9

Cgain or maintain access to reproductive partners.

Dprotect their territory.

Egain or maintain access to food.

Question 10

According to the ethological explanation of aggression, the purpose of aggression is…

Answer 10

Ato enable animals to gain access to resources.

Britualistic.

Cto help animals find a mate.

Question 11

A fixed action pattern…

Answer 11

Eoccurs in response to specific sign stimuli.

Ais an innate, fixed set of behaviours.

Question 12

Neurons in our brains produce fixed action patterns by sending signals to parts of the brain involved in motor control, like the…

Answer 12

Bmotor cortex

Question 13

Aggression only occurs in response to triggers in the environment, called…

Answer 13

sign stimulus

Question 14

Which of these is the innate releasing mechanism in this example?

Answer 14

Cthe set of neurons which produces the goose’s egg-rolling action

Question 15

The innate releasing mechanism is…

Answer 15

Athe specific set of neurons that produces a fixed action pattern

Question 16

Outline the ethological explanation of aggression.

Answer 16

The ethological explanation attempts to understand aggression by looking at aggression in other species, when they’re in their natural habitat. It is similar to the evolutionary explanation as it says that aggression is adaptive and has evolved. This explanation also says that aggression is ritualistic and is a fixed action pattern, in response to particular stimuli in the environment.

Question 17

What is a fixed action pattern and when does it occur?

Answer 17

Aggression is a fixed action pattern, which is an innate, fixed set of behaviours that occur in response to specific sign stimuli

Question 18

Which of the following statements is true about the innate releasing mechanisms?

Answer 18

They work by sending signals to parts of the brain involved in motor control, like the motor cortex

They are specific neurons in our brains that produce fixed action patterns in response to specific sign stimuli.

Question 19

The male stickleback’s aggressive behaviour is a…

Answer 19

fixed action pattern

Question 20

It is triggered by the appearance of a big red circle, which is a…

Answer 20

sign stimulus

Question 21

Tinbergen’s study supports

Answer 21

CTinbergen found that, whenever male sticklebacks see a big red circle, they display the same fixed set of aggressive behaviours.

ATinbergen’s study of sticklebacks supports the ethological explanation of aggression.

FTinbergen’s study supports the idea that aggression is a fixed action pattern triggered by sign stimuli.

Question 22

Aggression that leads to fights isn’t an

Answer 22

Aggression that leads to fights isn’t an adaptive behaviour

Question 23

One limitation of the ethological explanation of aggression is that evidence indicates that…

Jane Goodall found that…

Answer 23

Dchimpanzees will fight and kill chimpanzees from neighbouring groups.

Question 24

This is a problem for the ethological explanation because…
kill

Answer 24

Cit shows that aggression isn’t always adaptive.

Question 25

According to the ethological explanation, aggression is…

Answer 25

D   a fixed action pattern.     B   innate.

Question 26

Which of the following statements are true? | Select all that apply.     A   Nisbett investigated

Answer 26

B   Nisbett investigated aggression in white males from the Northern states and the Southern states.     C   He got a fellow researcher to insult the participants, and observed their reaction.

Question 27

How is this a problem nibsett for evoulationtion and ethical

Answer 27

It is a problem because both of these explanation see aggression as biologically determined and doesn’t not account for cultural differences

Question 28

Tinbergen studied aggression in…

Answer 28

Tinbergen studied aggression in stickleback fish.

Question 29

A problem with animal studies is that they can lack

Answer 29

A problem with animal studies is that they can lack generalisability to humans.

Question 30

Complex behaviour in humans is usually due to an interaction between what two kinds of factor?

Answer 30

You needed to say the following: Genetic. You also needed to say the following: Environmental.

Question 31

A third limitation of the ethological explanation is that

Answer 31

because it is based on animal studies, it may lack generalisability.

Question 32

Aggression in fish vs humans

Answer 32

More complex in humans than in fish, stickleback always attacked red spot would be the same in humans it is likely that in humans it is a mixture of the enviromengt and genetic. Human brain vs fishes Brian

Question 33

Which of the following statements are true about Tinbergen’s methodology?

Answer 33

E   He introduced fake stickleback fish to the tank to test the fishes aggressive reactions to them.     A   He observed aggression in stickleback fish.

Question 34

How does Tinbergen’s study support the ethological explanation?

Answer 34

E   It shows that aggression is triggered by specific sign stimuli.     C   It shows that aggression is a fixed action pattern

Question 35

Jane Goodall’s research suggested that aggression...

Answer 35

E   isn’t always adaptive.     C   isn’t always ritualistic     A   isn’t always due to natural selection.

Question 36

Outline Nisbett’s findings from his research comparing

Answer 36

Nisbett found that white American men from Southern states were more prone to aggressive behaviour than American men from Northern states, which indicates that there are cultural differences in aggression. Therefore, Nisbett’s study can be seen as evidence against the ethological explanation of aggression, which says that aggression is evolutionarily determined, and not influenced by culture.

Question 37

: Due to the ethological explanation being based on animals studies, it may lack…

Answer 37

Because humans are very different, and more complex, than many animals, what we learn from animals may not help us to understand human behaviours. This means that the results of animal studies may not be generalisable to humans.