aggression: ethological explanation

• what are the 3 parts

  1. adaptive function
  2. fixed action patterns and innate releasing mechanism
  3. ritualistic aggression
• what are the parts involved in adaptive function

  • sign stimulus
  • adaptive aggression
  • natural selection
• what is a sign stimulus

  environmental trigger
• what is adaptive aggression

  characteristics change to adapt to situations
• what is natural selection

  • reproduce aggressive behaviour
  • most aggressive male reproduce = 'aggressive genes'
• what is a fixed action pattern

  • innate behaviour
  • occur in specific conditions
  • caused by IRM
• who did a key study on FAP and IRM

  tinbergen
• explain the procedure of tinbergen's study

  • red bellied stickleback fish
  • models with red belly or not
  • regardless of shape = red belly = attack
  • sign stimulus = red belly
• who proposed ritualistic aggression

  lorenz
• what are the 4 parts to ritualistic aggression

  1. innate survival mechanism
  2. ritualisation of aggression
  3. inhibition to lethal aggression
  4. breakdown in rituals for human aggression
• what is an innate survival mechanism

  • behaviour important on the survival of species
  • not always destructive
  • protecting territory
• what is ritualisation of aggression

  • symbolic actions
  • establish dominance
• what is inhibition towards lethal aggression

  prevent escalation to death
• what is the breakdown of ritualistic aggression in humans

  • modern technology and weapons
  • bypass evolutionary safeguards
• what are the AO3 points

  • cultural differences
  • difficulty generalising
  • research support
  • co species killing
• what are the cultural differences

  • nisbett et al
  • murder ratings in US
  • more common in white males in south than north
  • culture of honour
  • lab experiment = white south male more aggressive to insult
• why is it difficult to generalise

  • tinbergen = not higher mammals
  • lorenz - single individuals
  • applied to whole countries
  • cannot explain real world = war
• what is the research support

  • anthropological evidence
  • ritualised aggression to prevent physical aggression
  • chagnon = yanomami = chest pounding
  • hoebel = eskimos = song duels
• why can it not explain cospecies killing

  • goodall = chimpanzees in tanzania
  • one community systematically slaughter another group
  • despite distress signal
  • lions kill cubs of other males
  • doubt