Ethological Explanation

Question 1

What is ethology?

Answer 1

The study of animal behaviour

Question 2

How can the study of animals help us to understand human aggression?

Answer 2

• it helps define aggression and looks at how it occurs
• looks at animals in a natural setting which means we can understand the way it has helped the evolutionary process and this is more difficult with humans
• animal are studied in lab settings so the conditions can be highly controlled

Question 3

What are innate releasing mechanisms?

Answer 3

They are specific neural circuits which monitor drives such as aggression. They respond to a specific stimuli by triggering a fixed action pattern

Question 4

What did Lorenz suggest?

Answer 4

Animals had an innate mechanism for aggression and that aggressive behaviour acted as a release. This drive is then built up until the next aggressive act was performed

Question 5

What is a fixed action pattern?

Answer 5

It is used to describe a sequence of behaviours that occur throughout the species. All members of the same species act this way so it is universal to the species

Question 6

What is an example of a fixed action pattern?

Answer 6

The sight of other male sticklebacks (red spot) cause the innate releasing mechanism to activate causing the fixed action pattern of attacking the other male

Question 7

Who conducted the first study to support the idea that fixed action patterns are innate and aid survival and what did they do and find?

Answer 7

Tinbergen. He used models crafted to resemble male sticklebacks (red bellies) and female sticklebacks (swollen bellies). All male sticklebacks attacked the model designed to look like a male stickleback. This shows that all males do it and it is a strong argument for the behaviour being innate

Question 8

Who conducted the second study to support fixed action pattern a small what did they do and find?

Answer 8

Cooper. Researched aggression in vipers and found that when they have bitten their prey both lizards and snakes use a chemical signal to help them locate the body later. This means that aggression acts as a way to aid survival which supports the idea that it is innate and evolutionarily adaptive

Question 9

Who conducted the third study to support fixed action patterns and what did they do and find?

Answer 9

Sackett. Reared monkeys into isolation and gave them pictures of monkeys playing, exploring and in threatening poses. As the babies matured they displayed reactions to the pictures of baby monkeys and threatening stimuli. This suggests that there is an innate mechanism to detect threat and this can lead to aggression to aid survival

Question 10

What are four limitations with the ethnological explanation of aggression?

Answer 10

• problematic generalising from animal research
• behaviour is universal to the species but this is clearly not the case for humans
• it may not have an evolutionary advantage as females may not want an aggressive partner
• lacks validity as animals can’t communicate how they feel

Question 11

How does the ethnological explanation relate to issues and debates?

Answer 11

• nature as FAPs are innate
• deterministic as no control over aggression as innate
• reductionist as reduces aggression just to it being innate