SALMON: Study And Learning Materials ONline
Two opposing views of aggression
SALMON: Study And Learning Materials ONline
'A Harvest of Death', photograph taken after Battle of Gettysburg, July, 1863
"Aggression is in our nature"
"Aggression is in our nurture"
Nature |
Genetic
James Watson |
Inheritance of behavioral capacity for aggression. Behavioural genetics |
Physiological
Frank Beach |
Control of aggression by brain, blood and hormones. Physiological psychology | |
Organism
Konrad Lorenz |
Interaction between genetic and physiological factors. Ethology - animal behaviour | |
Nurture |
Organism
Fred Skinner |
Psychology of learning.
|
Society
Stephen Rose |
Cultural and political determinants of aggression
|
Action specific energy accumulates in a reservoir until released by the appropriate stimulus, represented by weights on a scale pan, or until the pressure on the valve causes an action pattern to occur spontaneously (vacuum activity).
The consummatory response or fixed action pattern(s) released vary depending upon how much action specific energy is released from the valve.
Here is amy YouTube video explaining Lorenz's model.
A photo taken during the Viet Nam war titled 'You-VC'
The next diagram illustrates the main concept behind the Lorenz model and the relationship between external sign stimuli, accumulating action specific energy and behaviour. In the diagram:
The person in this picture would eat ice-cream even if it was presented shortly after a meal, but wouldn't eat any of the other foods. But if 10 hours had passed since their last meal they would eat a beefburger if it was the only food available!
According to Lorenz's theory the degree of consummatory response is a function of the amount of accumulated action specific energy and the sign stimuli to which the animal is exposed.
Baerends and his colleagues have provided an elegant demonstration of this principle.
Male guppies exhibit several patterns of courtship behaviour. The external markings of a male guppy vary with its readiness to show courtship. In terms of Lorenz's model, the external markings are an indication of the level of action specific energy for courtship. The sign stimulus value of the female increases with her size. Baerends conducted experiments in which males with different external markings were exposed to females of various sizes. The results of these tests are shown below and indicate that for each pattern of male courtship behaviour, the size of the female needed to elicit the pattern was less the greater the readiness of the male to court.
According to Lorenz's theory the degree of consummatory response is a function of the amount of accumulated action specific energy and the sign stimuli to which the animal is exposed. Baerends and his colleagues have provided an elegant demonstration of this principle. Male guppies exhibit several patterns of courtship behaviour. The external markings of a male guppy vary with its readiness to show courtship. In terms of Lorenz's model, the external markings are an indication of the level of action specific energy for courtship. The sign stimulus value of the female increases with her size. Baerends conducted experiments in which males with different external markings were exposed to females of various sizes. The results of these tests are shown below and indicate that for each pattern of male courtship behaviour, the size of the female needed to elicit the pattern was less the greater the readiness of the male to court.
The picture shows the influence of the strength of external stimulation (measured by the size of the female) and the internal state (measured by the colour pattern of the male) in determining the courtship behaviour of male guppies.
Each curve represents the combination of external stimulus and internal state that produces the sigmoid courtship patterns of increasing intensity P, Si, S(After Baerends et al, 1955). Note how internal state and external stimulation have been operationally defined in this experiment
The recommended textbook (Manning, An Introduction to Animal Behaviour) gives a very good account of the strengths and weaknesses of these two models of motivation. Deutsch's model addresses a fundamental weakness of Lorenz' Hydraulic mode. It includes a feed-back link from the environment to the Analyser component which signals to the animal that its goal has been achieved. In turn the receptor system inhibits the Central link (shown in blue) and thereby the Motor link which is responsible for triggering behaviour is switched off.
Over 80% of homicides are committed by men . Most of the victims are also men. The most common cause of homicide is due to the escalation of a relatively trivial disagreement over status that starts with words and escalates into lethal violence. It seems that men resort to violence to protect or gain status and honour.
This sex difference is found across all cultures. Criminal violence is most likely between the ages of 14 and 24.
Traditional psychologists argue that boys are trained to be aggressive and girls learn to be passive. However, Dyson-Hudson (1995) found that 'low-conflict societies' with affectionate socialization and aversion to inter-personal confrontation (e.g. Inuit, !Kung Bushmen, Gebusi of lowland New Guinea) have high rates of violent death. In contrast, Turkana pastoralists (East Africa) are taught to fight as children; and most men reported having participated in inter- personal fights intended to cause injury, having engaged in recreational within-group fighting mimicking warfare, and having taken part in raids on the neighboring Pokot. Yet demographic data indicate that within- group homicide rates among the 'violent' Turkana are lower than those reported for the 'low-conflict' societies.
It may be that Turkana rules which require bystander intervention and adjudication by elders, are effective in preventing within-group aggression and violence from escalating into lethal fights.
Redrawn from Wagner et al (1980)
In male mice
- castration reduces aggression
- testosterone restores aggression in castrated mice
- androgens have an organizational effect on aggression in infancy
- exposure to androgens in infancy increases the sensitivity of the adult brain to androgen
There is evidence that high levels of testosterone are necessary but not sufficient to trigger aggression. There are individual differences in the aggressive behaviour of mice. In one experiment male mice were rated as aggressive or non-aggressive. They were then castrated which reduced their aggression. When they were given testosterone replacement therapy, only those mice who were initially rated as aggressive showed a restoration of aggressive behaviour. In other words testosterone is necessary for aggressive mice to exhibit aggression, but injecting testosterone is not sufficient to turn a previously non-aggressive mouse into an aggressive mouse.
Can you think of an explanation for this finding based on the idea that early exposure to testosterone organizes the brain?
The mind of a killer.A neurologist who studies murderers' brains talks about factors that make someone kill, the difficulty of predicting violence and why most murderers can never be rehabilitated.
Crime Times is an online resource which contains research reviews and
information on biological causes of criminal, violent and psychopathic
behaviour
Follow this link to the Index of Crime Timesand search for articles on research into the links between aggression and the hormone testosterone, and aggression and the neurotransmitter serotonin. Here are some useful articles I found useful in 'Crime Times' :
In a provocative article (
Science,
Biology, and
Conflict )Keith Webb from the University of Kent argues for a total rejection of
biological explanations of human aggression. Be warned this is a very long
and scholarly article. We do not require you to read it as part of this
module, but you may find it interesting if you are interested in the tensions
within the social sciences arising from different philosophical approaches
to the study of human behaviour
Here is his concluding section which gives a flavour of the intensity
of his argument:
The conclusion of this paper is a wholehearted rejection of any consideration
of biological, genetic, or evolutionary factors in the explanation or analysis
of conflict. While a number of different arguments are presented, and it
is admitted in some cases that the outcome is not conclusive, the net consequence
of these arguments is in favour of the rejection of biology and the acceptance
of social explanations based on human openness and what have been described
as the essential features of man. But this has been said before: the proper
study of man is man.
But we can, perhaps, go further than this. The biological interpretation
of the world is not just a description of the world, but like all social
theory has prescriptions embedded within it. These prescriptions are profoundly
reactionary and operate to justify the existing social order. Thus Shaw
and Wong (1989: 195-209) attack 'top-down' and 'bottom-up' approaches to
peace, as well as functional or world society approaches (e.g., Banks,
1984) as approaches which do not recognise the essential nature of man.
Their own scheme for peace is no more convincing than that of Lorenz before
them - educational efforts, a redefinition of inclusive fitness, and a
voluntaristic change in attitudes and beliefs. But, in terms of their own
theory, such hopes are utopian; rather, they should accept the dismal consequences
of their own ideas and recognise that peace is unattainable. The real message
of biological arguments is that the human race will forever be embroiled
in violent confrontations and thus arms races, nuclear deterrence, balances
of power, and military alliances, are the best means of attaining our security.
Given the weakness of biological arguments, however, there is no need to
accept these conclusions, and hence no good reason to succumb to a mindless
fatalism.
Here is a much more accessible article Violence in Sportsby Ismat Abdal-Haqq which may be of interest to some of you sports fans!
Here are several articles provided by an Internat magazine called Psychiatric Timesthat are concerned with the practical aspects of dealing with aggression:
Study And Learning Materials ONline (SALMON) was developed and is maintained by Dr Paul Kenyon who graduated from Queens University Belfast in 1969 with a B.Sc. (Hons) in Psychology. In 1976 he was awarded a Ph.D. by the University of Reading. He lectured on the Biological Bases of Behaviour, Behavioural Neuroscience and Evolutionary Psychology in the Department of Psychology, University of Plymouth from 1973 to 2006. He has published papers in psychopharmacology, psychoteratology, physiological psychology and laboratory computing.
Paul started work on SALMON in 1994 to support his 1st, 2nd and 3rd year undergraduate students studying Evolutionary Psychology, Biological Bases of Behaviour and Psychobiology
SALMON won the 1998 Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association (UCISA) Teaching and Learning Awardfor demonstrating innovative or exemplary use of the Web and was a finalist at EASA98 held at the University of Oxford in September 1998.
SALMON was a finalist at the European Academic Software Awards (EASA)held in Oxford in 1998
Paul retired from his university post in 2006 and devotes more time than is reasonable to maintaining this website and his lifelong love of all things associated with trout and rivers. He and his colleague Geoff Stephens now operate Fly Fishing Devonwhich offers fly fishing instruction and guiding on Dartmoor and in South Devon, UK.