ethological explanation

• the ethological explanation is part of the evolutionary explanation

  • it suggests that aggression has evolved through natural selection because it is an adaptive behaviour
  • although the ethological explanation explores human aggression by looking at aggression in other species
• according to the ethological explanation, aggression is ritualistic

  • this means that its used to threaten other members of the same species, but not done to seriously harm or kill
  • it is done as a means of gaining access to resources such as food or reproductive partners
• aggression is a fixed action pattern

  • when an animal displays a fixed set of innate behaviours in response to specific sign stimuli
  • the set of neurons involved in bringing about the fixed action pattern is called the innate releasing mechanism
• Tinbergen and the stickleback fish

  • tinbergen observed that when male stickleback fish saw what appeared to be another male stickleback, they would display the same fixed action pattern
  • he successfully tried this with multiple wooden models of different shapes, each with a red spot on the belly (the sign stimulus)
  • tinbergen found that as long as the sign stimulus was present, sticklebacks would perform the aggressive fixed action pattern
• Jane Goodall - aggression is not always ritualistic

  • found that chimpanzees will fight and KILL others
  • which is not seen as adaptive or ritualistic as it involves harming other members of the same species
• Nisbett investigated aggression throughout the United States

  • found that males in the southern states tended to be more aggressive than those in the north
  • which is most likely due to cultural differences
  • in which the ethological explanation for aggression does not take into account cultural factors that also affect levels of aggression
• one major issue with the ethological explanation of aggression is that it is based on non-human animal studies

  which makes it difficult to generalise findings to humans, since we have different biological and cultural differences to other animals.