Ethological explanations of aggression
- Created by: Thunder1107
- Created on: 24-01-18 16:27
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- Ethological Explanations of Aggression
- Hydraulic model
- Each FAP has a reservoir of action-specific energy (ASE)
- Once the FAP has been performed the reservoir is empty and must build up before the behaviour can repeat
- Sign stimuli cause the IRM to release this energy by performing the FAP
- potential for aggression may be innate + aggressive behaviour is triggered by stimuli
- Aggression is adaptive and promotes survival
- FAP's and IRM's
- All members of a species have innate behaviours which occur in certain conditions (Fixed
Action Patterns)
- Characteristic of FAPs
- 1.The behaviour occurs in the same way
- 4.Once triggered, the behaviour can't be stop
- 5.Each FAP has a specific trigger
- 2.The behaviour is present in all conspecifics
- 3.The behaviour is innate
- Characteristic of FAPs
- FAPs are produced by neural mechanisms (Innate Releasing Mechanism)
- Which are triggered by a sign stimulus
- All members of a species have innate behaviours which occur in certain conditions (Fixed
Action Patterns)
- Tinbergen (1951) showed that male
sticklebacks produce an aggressive FAP when
another male arrives
- The sign stimulus is the red stomach. (covered=no attack)
- Aggressive behaviour may be ritualised displays which assess strength + may prevent injury
- Lorenz (52) claimed that species evolve fearsome weapons have inhibitions not to use these against their species.
- A fighting wolf will expose its neck on submission and the fight stops so this must be instinctive
- Doves are non-hunters and so haven’t developed inhibitions but fly away
- Evaluation
- Lehrman (53) believed that Lorenz under-estimated environmental factors.
- There are also variations between aggression in the same species suggesting it’s fixed
- Eibl-Eibesfeldt (72) suggests FAPs include smiling and ‘eyebrow flash’ but that aggressive FAPs are not adaptive now
- Human behaviour is more varied + less predictable than non-human species so we don’t respond the same
- If inhibitions prevent the killing of own species then it killing should happen due to accident but male lions kill systematically
- The Yanomamo of South America use chest pounding and club fighting to settle fights
- Hoebel (67) found that Inuit eskimos use song duels to settle disputes
- Hydraulic model
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