Outline and Evaluate the Ethological Explanation of Aggression PDF

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Outline and Evaluate the Ethological Explanation of Aggression The ethological explanation says that aggression is beneficial to survival, as it reduces mate competition and establishes dominance. Lorenz proposed that it is a ritualistic, and adaptive process which is used to gain resources, and females. He says it has come around through evolution as a built up drive which needs to be released. The innate releasing mechanism is a built in structure which identifies stimuli, made up of neural circuits in the brain which prevent the release of aggression until there are the right environmental cues. The fixed action pattern is the behaviour that follows. It is made of a sequence of automatic behaviours which occur throughout species, and are started by the IRM. This is universal, and innate in each species. FAPs are supported by evidence from Tinbergen who experimented with male sticklebacks. The species develop a red spot during mating season. It was found that they will attack another male that enters their territory, during this time. He believed the spot was an IRM and thus he presented the fish with wooden models with or without a red spot. When presented with those that had a spot, the fish would attack, but if there was no spot, there would be no reaction and no aggression would be displayed. This supports the idea that it is universal for species to have a FAP, and suggests aggression is used to prevent other gaining resources, in this case females. This also supports Lorenz’s hypothesis, and suggests aggression is biological. However, some evidence shows that learning and environmental factors can cause variations in fixed action patterns. Thus, it may be better to say that behaviours are cause by instincts, but differ within species. For example, some dogs chase cats and some do not. Thus, implying the behaviour may be due to other factors such as selective breeding of characteristics. This decreases the validity of the explanation. Furthermore, the explanation is limited by evidence from the animal kingdom which shows that aggression is not always ritualistic. Goodall’s study on chimpanzee behaviour, involving observations, showed one group attacking another, killing all of the members. The risk of injury on the attacking group is high, and thus the ethological explanation would say they would not attack. However, results show a stronger group slaughtering a weaker one. The results go against the idea that it would be beneficial to survival, and thus suggests aggression is not an adaptive process. In addition, the theory suggests aggression is innate, and some parts are universally found. However, evidence from Nisbett shows cultural bias in the ideas; they found that south American males were more likely to respond aggressively to insults, than north American males, despite being in the same conditions. This suggests cultural differences between aggression, lowering the validity of the theory. Furthermore, the idea that aggression is innate suggests an aspect of biological determinism in the theory, which undermines the effect of individual differences, reducing the application to real life aggression....