7 Key excerpts on "Ethological Explanations of Aggression"

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  eBook - ePub

  The Social Psychology of Aggression

  3rd Edition

  • Barbara Krahé(Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  The early instinct-related views entail a pessimistic view because they conceptualise aggression as an inevitable part of human nature. However, there is now a consensus that a deterministic view of aggression is not appropriate. Even though evolutionary principles may be applied to understanding aggressive behaviour, and genetic make-up as well as physiological processes can explain variability in aggressive behaviour, it is clear that individual learning, thinking, and feeling play a major role in shaping social behaviour, including aggression. As Berkowitz (1993, p. 387) pointed out, “people have a capacity for aggression and violence, but not a biological urge to attack and destroy others that is continually building up inside them.” This view is supported by theories that emphasise the mediating role of cognitions and learning as well as decision-making processes. By highlighting how aggressive behaviour is acquired, these approaches also generate knowledge about strengthening the inhibitory forces against aggression, and they acknowledge the individual’s freedom to decide against acting aggressively in favour of alternative courses of action. Summary • Theoretical explanations of aggressive behaviour include both biological and psychological lines of thinking and research. • Biological models refer to evolutionary and genetic principles and the role of hormones in explaining aggression. The ethological perspective regards the manifestation of overt aggression as a function of an internal aggressive energy that is released by aggression-related external cues, but it cannot conclusively explain aggressive behaviour in humans. The sociobiological approach postulates that aggression has developed as an adaptive form of social behaviour in the process of evolution. Evidence from the field of behaviour genetics suggests that the propensity to act aggressively is at least partly influenced by genetic dispositions

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  Working with Aggression and Resistance in Social Work

  • Brian J. Taylor(Author)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • Learning Matters

    (Publisher)

  However, as you will see, there is a degree of overlap between these three zones, for example the frustration-aggression (F-A) hypothesis is a theory of aggression related to how humans respond to stimuli and experience. Yet the F-A hypothesis evolved in response to research, to encompass aspects of cognitive appraisal and attribution theory: theories related to how we think and learn. As you will see, theory is not set in stone; as scientific endeavour continues unabated, theories go in and out of fashion, or disappear altogether, depending on the evidence available.

  Theories of aggression related to human biology, instinct and evolution

  These theories consider aggression primarily from biological and evolutionary perspectives, but they also encompass psychodynamic theory in the form of Freud’s work on instinct and drives. There has been a trend in recent years to dismiss Freudian approaches as irrelevant and even to denigrate psychoanalytic theory as oppressive, unethical and sexist; however, Freud’s contribution to understanding human behaviour, particularly in terms of defence mechanisms and the influence of childhood experience, cannot be overestimated. While this chapter will confer upon Freud some of the recognition and criticism he deserves, it will begin with the basics: where human anger and aggression come from, and what they look like.

  Physiological and neurobiological approaches to understanding anger and aggression

  Indications of anger and aggression are usually expressed physically in our facial expressions, before they are acted on, so understanding the internal and external manifestations of these emotional responses can help to anticipate and deal with them both as practitioners and individuals. Biological research can help us to understand the nature of anger and aggression from a physiological perspective, by offering insight into the role biochemical, genetic and hormonal make-up plays in how we experience, manage and convey emotions.

  An extremely simplistic way to understand the structure of the human brain is to divide it into three parts: the brain stem, the limbic system and the cerebral cortex. In evolutionary terms, the brain stem is the original part of the brain and is where all the automatic biological functions necessary for life reside. These are the psychological and physical operations that occur unconsciously (such as breathing, our blood pumping, our heart beating, and our muscles contracting). The next part of the brain to evolve was the limbic system; this surrounds the brain stem, controls our endocrine system and our automatic nervous system. Neurobiologists believe that the six basic emotions, including anger, originate in this very primitive area of the brain.

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  Social Psychology: A Complete Introduction: Teach Yourself

  • Paul Seager(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Teach Yourself

    (Publisher)

  Having looked at some of the issues to be resolved when studying aggression systematically, it is now possible to look at two general approaches – biological explanations (nature) vs. learning explanations (nurture) – which have attempted to account for why people behave aggressively.

  Biological explanations for aggression

  This approach takes the form of ‘instinct theories’ of aggression which explain why humans have an innate need to aggress. According to Freud, aggression is inevitable, and his early psychodynamic theory suggested that it was a reaction to frustration experienced in pursuit of pleasure and the satisfaction of the libido. He later modified his idea to allege that, alongside the desire for self-preservation, referred to as Eros (the life instinct), there was a second instinct more focused on destruction, referred to as Thanatos (the death instinct). He claimed that this destructive aggressive energy needed to be continually turned away from the individual towards the outside, in order to prevent self-destruction: aggressive behaviour thus serves as an outlet when Eros and Thanatos are in conflict. This is sometimes referred to as a hydraulic model – aggression is a way of dissipating the build-up of pressure. From Freud’s model we get the idea of catharsis, whereby hostility and aggression are diffused in a non-destructive way.

  Key idea: Eros and Thanatos

  According to psychodynamic theory, to protect Eros (the life instinct) within an individual, the destructive energies of Thanatos (the death instinct) must be continually deflected away, and this manifests outwardly as aggression.

  Another biological theory of aggression, similar to Freud’s theory in as much that it is a hydraulic model, comes from Lorenz, who believed that aggression has a species serving function. Lorenz claimed that aggression is an innate behavioural disposition which derives from the idea of natural selection, and increases the species’ chance of survival. The potential for conflict leads to geographical dispersion which has the effect of ensuring that members of the same species have sufficient resources to survive and flourish. Applying an animal model to humans, he claimed that hierarchies developed and fights between rivals ensured selection of the strongest and healthiest to lead. Ultimately, aggression builds up and needs to be released in a socially acceptable way (hence it is referred to as a hydraulic model). In animals this is done through threat displays and the ritualization of aggression; very rarely do fights lead to permanent injury or death due to their use of appeasement gestures. It is questionable whether this model can really be applied to humans, who have developed weapons that can kill from a distance.

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  Psychology and Policing

  • Peter Ainsworth(Author)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • Willan

    (Publisher)

  Some appear to support Freud’s viewpoint by suggesting that aggression is an innate driving force in the sense that it has some survival value. To put it bluntly, humans who are unable to defend themselves against physical threats are unlikely to live long enough to be able to procreate. In other words whilst aggressive tendencies may lead to the killing of large numbers of others, they may also ensure the survival of the species as a whole. For example, Lore and Schultz (1993) have suggested that aggression is a common feature in the lives of most animal species for the simple reason that it has some survival value.

  A similar view has been expressed by Buss and Kenrick (1998), who offer some support for this sociobiological perspective on aggression. However, even writers such as these agree that most animals have also developed mechanisms that enable them to suppress such aggressive instincts when it is in their interests to do so. For example if we are threatened by an extremely large and aggressive-looking man carrying a gun, it may be in our interests to suppress our desire to behave aggressively towards this person. Thus it is suggested that, even in the most violent species, aggression remains an option rather than an automatic response as Freud had originally suggested. Most commentators would agree that while approaches such as those of the sociobiologists may shed some light on the biological underpinnings of aggression, they are in themselves insufficient to explain the myriad aggressive behaviours of which humans are capable.

  Aggression as a response to external stimuli

  Earlier in this chapter we suggested that in many cases aggression arises as a result of provocation. There are, however, other events or situations that might trigger the aggressive response. One of these is the experience of frustration. Such a suggestion was first made by Dollard and his colleagues more than 60 years ago when they developed the frustration aggression hypothesis (Dollard et al

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  Aggression and Violence

  A Social Psychological Perspective

  • Brad J. Bushman, Brad J. Bushman(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  It is commonly accepted in biology that, throughout the animal kingdom, aggression is one of the most widespread and functional forms of social behavior that ultimately contributes to fitness (procreation) and survival of individuals. Clearly, aggression is the behavioral weapon of choice for both animals and humans to defend themselves and their offspring, secure food and mates, compete for limited resources, and maintain social status/hierarchies. Although most individuals engage in social conflicts with appropriate and well-controlled (functional) forms of aggressive behavior, a relatively small fraction of individuals can become violent. However, this small percentage of violent individuals is a major source of death and injury, and they constitute one of the most significant problems for public health, medical institutions, and criminal justice systems. Violent individuals inflict a terrible burden on human societies. These violent, hostile, and presumably less adaptive forms of aggression observed in our human society and clinically, comorbid across a wide spectrum of DSM-defined psychiatric and neurological disorders, have motivated much of the scientific interest in aggressive behavior in animals. In particular, there is a need to understand these problematic behaviors in terms of their underlying causal mechanisms and modulating factors. In general, animal models are essential to obtain experimental support of the causal nature of physiological and environmental factors. As a matter of fact, a considerable part of our current knowledge on the ethology, etiology, neurobiology, genetics, and pharmacology of this behavior is based on experimental and laboratory studies of aggressive behaviors in a wide variety of animals (e.g., fruit flies, honeybees, ants, crickets, zebra fish, songbirds, mice, rats, hamsters, prairie voles, dogs, cats, monkeys).

  Most neurobehavioral and pharmacological studies of aggressive behavior in the laboratory setting are performed in rodent species (rats, voles, and mice) that can show high levels of territorial aggression characteristic of their generally dispersive social structure under low population densities in their natural habitats. Therefore, much of the preclinical aggression research is conducted in territorial male resident rats/mice confronting an intruder of the same species (called a “conspecific”). This so-called resident-intruder paradigm allows the spontaneous and natural expression of both offensive aggression and defensive behavior in laboratory rodents in a semi-natural laboratory setting. By recording the frequencies, durations, latencies, and temporal and sequential patterns of all the observed behavioral acts and postures in the combatants during these confrontations, a detailed quantitative picture (ethogram) of offensive (resident) and defensive (intruder) aggression is obtained. The resident-intruder paradigm brings this natural form of behavior into the laboratory, allowing controlled studies of both the resident aggressor and the intruder victim (Koolhaas et al., 2013). The paradigm is strongly based on the fact that an adult male rat will establish a territory when given sufficient living space. Territoriality is significantly enhanced in the presence of females and/or sexual experiences. As a consequence of territoriality, the resident will attack unfamiliar males intruding in its home cage. The intruder in turn will show defensive behavior in response to the offensive attack by the resident. Although typical patterns of aggressive behavior differ between species, there are several concordances in the ethology and neurobiology of aggression among rodents, primates, and humans.

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  Love and Hate

  The Natural History of Behavior Patterns

  • Irenaus Eibl-Eibesfeldt(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  5 The Ethologist’s View of Aggression

  Advantages of Intolerance

  Animals of very many species fight their own kind, and man is no exception to this. On the contrary, his whole history is, among other things, a history of acts of violence, and this aggressive trait characterizes our own time. Even if we were to make a case for the view put forward in the first chapter of the social, friendly nature of man, we must not overlook his inclination toward antisocial behavior and intolerance; it is a fact we must come to grips with. We shall be solely concerned here with intraspecific aggression, that is, the remarkable fact that animals of a given species do fight their conspecifics. There is also aggression between species—predators attack their prey—but this we will leave aside for the moment. We shall confine ourselves to emphasizing implicitly that the two forms must be clearly distinguished. Intra-and interspecific often employ quite different motor sequences: a cat attacking a mouse behaves quite differently from when it is attacking a rival. These two basically different behavior patterns can be activated through electric stimulation of quite different parts of the brain.

  We emphasize the need to make this distinction because intra-and interspecific aggression are sometimes uncritically treated as the same, as for example in the discussion of Y. Z. Kuo (127 ), who succeeded in bringing up cats and mice to live peaceably together and who concludes from this that a harmonious communal life among men is possible. R. Dart (34 ) has attempted to explain the aggressiveness of modern man through the predatory way of life of his australopithecine ancestors. These apemen, who lived about 1.7 million years ago, killed their prey with antelope bones: it is this "aggressiveness" which is said to be the root of man's aggressiveness. Robert Ardrey (8 ) follows Dart's arguments. What both of them overlook is the fact that herbivores are by no means more peaceable than predators. Bulls attack other bulls. Cocks have even become symbols of aggressiveness.*

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  Political Violence, Crises and Revolutions (Routledge Revivals)

  Theories and Research

  • Ekkart Zimmermann(Author)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Chapter 3

  Experimental Studies of Aggressive Behavior: A Brief Overview

       

  One of the basic concepts in research on political violence is the frustration-aggression nexus. “The frustration-aggression mechanism is in this sense analogous to the law of gravity: men who are frustrated have an innate disposition to do violence to its source in proportion to the intensity of their frustration, just as objects are attracted to one another in direct proportion to their relative masses and inverse proportion to their distance” (GURR 1970a:37). GURR overstates the point somewhat, as will become clear. Besides frustrations there are other classes of variables which can lead to aggressive behavior. We shall enumerate certain variables which experimental research on human aggressive behavior has shown to be important. These variables should be integrated into research on political violence, although it may at times be difficult to find appropriate indicators for some of them. Of the various experimental approaches to the study of aggression, we will consider here only the frustration-aggression approaches and the social learning approach. Ethological research on aggression (e.g., LORENZ 1966; JOHNSON 1972; SCOTT 1975; for an excellent summary of the devastating criticism of LORENZ's theoretical position see NELSON 1974;1 see also the essays in MONTAGU 1973 and BOICE 1976), psychoanalytic concepts (e.g., FREUD; for a critique see BERKOWITZ 1962:8–12; FROMM 1973),2 personality studies (cf. BUSS 1961:160–82; SELG/MEES 1974 for a summary), physiological (cf. M0YER 1969, 1971a) as well as genetic 3

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