Lesson 4 - Ethological explanations of aggression Flashcards
What is an ethological explanation?
It tries to understand the innate behaviour of humans and animals, by studying their natural environment and how they adapted.
Aggression is a ________ behaviour in humans and animals
innate
How is aggression used in the animal kingdom?
Survival, protect resources, establish dominance hierarchies, and find mates.
What is an IRM and how does it work?
Innate releasing mechanism - These are a network of neurons in the brain. When an environmental stimulus is detected, IRM is triggered, when then releases a subsequent sequence of behaviours.
What is a FAP and how does it work?
Fixed action pattern - It is the subsequent aggressive behaviour that occurs after an IRM.
What are Lea’s six main features of FAP?
Stereotyped - relatively unchanging sequences of behaviours
Universal - Found among all individuals within that species
Unaffected by learning - Same for everyone regardless of experience
Ballistic - Once the behaviour is triggered it cannot be stopped
Single-Purpose - It only occurs in specific situations
A response - It has to happen in retaliation to a stimulus.
Evaluation of ethological explanations - Tinbergen
Tinbergen investigated male stickleback, a very territorial and aggressive species. In the mating season, they develop a red spot on their underside, and attack if another male enters their territory. He theorised that the red spot was an IRM. He tested this out with a wooden model (with a red spot) and the fish did attack. This proved his theory.
Evaluation of ethological explanations - Nisbett
This theory assumes that the aggressive behaviour should be uniform across all cultures. Nisbett found in a lab experiment, that South American white males, were more likely to react aggressively than North American white males when insulted. This demonstrates the cultural differences in aggression, which counters the ethological explanation.
Evaluation of ethological explanations - Goodall
Goodall studied chimpanzee behaviour for over fifty years. She observed that chimpanzees waged a brutal war against neighbouring factions. This type of gang behaviour was referred to as systematic slaughtering. This counters the ethological explanation as this is clearly pre meditated aggression against a group, where the risk of injury is high. This cannot be adaptive behaviour.
Evaluation of ethological explanations - Modal action patterns
Not all FAPs are fixed. There is large evidence that learning and environmental factors can create variation within a species. It is therefore more appropriate to discuss modal action patterns rather than FAPs. Modal action patterns are behaviours that are instinctual such as the desire to chase in dogs. However, these patterns differ between individuals within the species.
