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the ethological explanation of aggression - Coggle Diagram
the ethological explanation of aggression
seeks to understand the innate behaviour of animals by studying them in their natural environment and helps us to understand human behaviour
fixed action pattern
A repertoire of stereotyped behaviours which occur in specific conditions (i.e. in response to specific triggers) and which do not require learning.
characteristics
Independent of individual experience – the behaviour is innate, with no learning involved
Ballistic – once triggered, the FAP cannot be changed or stopped
universal-the sam behaviour is found in every individual of a species
Specific triggers - each FAP has a specific trigger (sign stimulus)
stereotyped- behaviour always occurs in the same way
innate releasing mechanism
A hard wired neural network that responds to specific stimuli (signs or releasers) by initiating a fixed action pattern which are a set sequence of behaviours associated with that sign stimulus.
environmental (sign) stimuli
innate releasing mechanism
fixed action pattern
evaluation
supporting research
Tinberegen presented sticklebacks with a series of wooden models of different shapes. regardless of shape, if the model had a red spot the stickleback would attack it. if there was no red spot, there was no agression, even if the model looked realistically like a stickleback. Tinenberg also found that these agressive FAP's were unchanging from one encounter to another. once triggered, the FAP always ran its course to completion without any further stimulus. suggests that's FAP's are stereotyped and ballistic as suggested by the theory
limitation
makes unjustified generalisations to humans as Lorenz did not study high mammals such as primates, and tinenberg chose to to study the extreme destructive violence that is a feature of human agression. but they both made generalisations from animal agression to humans, including warfare. we should be cautious about making such generalisation, especially to a complex behaviour which is the outcome of many interacting influences