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Ethological Perspective. Chapter 10, pp.439-440. Ethological Perspective. Ethologists focus on the study of animal behaviour as it occurs in the natural habitat (environment). Founded by Konrad Lorenz who devoted many years to the research of aggressive behaviour.
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Ethological Perspective Chapter 10, pp.439-440
Ethological Perspective • Ethologists focus on the study of animal behaviour as it occurs in the natural habitat (environment). • Founded by Konrad Lorenz who devoted many years to the research of aggressive behaviour. • Lorenz viewed aggression as an instinctive behaviour. He defined aggression as ‘a fighting instinct… that is directed against members of the same species’. • Lorenz asserts that all humans have the same instinctual aggressive behaviour regardless of culture and individual background. • The aggression instinct has evolved over many generations to help animals survive in their natural environments and ensures the survival of the species.
Aggressive Instinct • Serves the purposes of: • Defending the young. • Protecting resources and territories. • Establishing a social hierarchy. • Humans have no natural weapons to use in aggression, so they have needed to use their high intelligence to develop artificial weapons such as guns.
Ethological Perspective • Lorenz agreed with the Psychodynamic theory that aggression can be re-directed and released in socially acceptable ways, such as competitive sport etc. • However, there is little scientific evidence in the field of Ethology and it does not take into account the role of learning and cultural influences on aggression.
Activity 1. Table Analysis • Look at the Table on Page 441 of the textbook which shows the frequency of murders across varying countries. • In your workbooks write an explanation as to why the ethological perspective of aggression fails to address the differences in committed murders between countries.
Social Learning Perspective on Aggression Chapter 10: pp. 445-446
Social Learning Perspective • Focus on how we learn aggression through our interactions with others in daily life. • According to the Social Learning Perspective, one of the main ways we learn aggression is from watching other people being aggressive and then copying their behaviour.
Observational Learning or Modelling • Observational Learning occurs by watching someone else’s behaviour and the consequences of their behaviour, then modelling or imitating the behaviour. • The people we observe and imitate are the models. E.g. Parents, TV Characters etc.
Modelling Behaviour • More likely to imitate the behaviour of someone who matters to us or someone whom we can relate to. • If we observe positive, desirable consequences from our models behaviour then we are more likely to imitate the behaviour. • However, if we observe negative, undesirable consequences, such as punishment then we are less likely to imitate.
Activity 1.- Children See. Children Do. • The Australian Government supports the Social Learning Perspective on Aggressive Behaviour, Used this to promote positive parenting. • Australian Government Children See. Children Do. Advertisement.
Albert Bandura (1977, 1973) • Applied Social Learning theory and Observational Learning to the explanation of human aggression. • 4 Conditions necessary for Observational Learning to occur. • You must pay Attention to the model’s behaviour. • You must Remember the model’s behaviour. • You must have the ability to Reproduce, or imitate the observed behaviour. • You must be Motivated to perform the behaviour.
Bandura’s BoBo Doll Experiment (1965) Three groups of pre-school children watched a film of an aggressive adult modelwho was punching, hitting, kicking and verbally abusing an inflatable doll named BoBo the Clown. In the first version the adult models aggressive behaviour was rewarded with lollies, praise and soft drink. In the second version the adult models aggressive behaviour was punished with a spanking and being told off by another adult. In the third version their were no consequencesfor the adult models aggressive behaviour. The children were then placed individually in a room with the inflatable doll and other toys and they were observed through a one way mirror.
BoBo Doll Experiment • Results: • The children who observed the model being rewarded for their aggressive behaviour were more aggressive in their play that other children who had seen different versions of the film. • The children who had observed the adult model being punished for their aggressive behaviour displayed less aggression, but they had still learned something. • Later, when these children were offered rewards for all the aggressive acts they could perform, these children performed as many aggressive acts as the other children who had seen the adult models being rewarded for aggressive behaviour. • Bandura concluded that aggressive behaviour can be learned through the process of observational learning.
Activity 4. Applying Bandura’s Theory • A number of Children in the Bandura (1965) experiment modelled aggressive behaviour. • Explain why this occurred in terms of Bandura’s 4 conditions that are necessary for observational learning to occur.
Aggression and the Media • Over 100 Psychological studies have established a cause and effect relationship between observing violence in the media (TV, Video Games, DVD’s) and later performance of violent acts. • This may be because people who engage with violent media types are more prone to violence or the individual background and socio-cultural factors could increase the impact of media and the performance of violent acts. • Or it could be due to Social Learning and Observational Learning theory.
Activity 3. The Dark Knight Rises Massacre • Read through the Dark Knight Rises Massacre as a class. • Answer Key Questions in your workbooks. • Discuss answers as a class.
Reflections • What are the major differences between the Ethological and Social Learning Perspectives of aggression?
