Deck 5: War and Human Nature

Question 1

An "appeasement gesture" often involves

A)an intensification of violence.
B)pseudo-specification.
C)lethal aggression.
D)no further escalation of violence.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

All acts of lethal violence among humans can be seen as acts of aggression.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

The presence of peaceful societies contradicts the expectations of human nature theories.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Only non-lethal animals have developed inhibiting mechanisms and appeasement gestures.

Question 5

Distinguishing between aggression and violence

A)allows some to argue that war is an unrelated instinctual aggression.
B)is essential to linking war with aggressive instincts.
C)was Konrad Lorenz's most important contribution.
D)helps establish the connection between war and instinctual aggression.

Question 6

That some societies have managed to go generations without being involved in war

A)suggests that Konrad Lorenz was correct.
B)is a myth.
C)suggests that war may not be an inevitable result of human nature.
D)undermines social learning theories of war.

Question 7

According to ethologists, aggression is

A)generally a harmful instinct.
B)generally a beneficial instinct.
C)not an instinct.
D)unique to humans.

Question 8

Inhibiting mechanisms

A)help explain why democracies do not fight each other.
B)are essential elements of collective security.
C)help prevent the escalation of violence among lethal animals.
D)are absent in peaceful societies.

Question 9

Cultural theories of war assume it is a manifestation of aggression.

Question 10

Konrad Lorenz thought that war reflected

A)culturally condition views of violence.
B)gender bias.
C)an aggressive instinct.
D)collective egoism.

Question 11

Aggression and violence are the same thing.

Question 12

Pseudo-specification entails

A)viewing other species as inferior.
B)non-lethal animals becoming lethal by developing weapons.
C)viewing other humans as non-human.
D)the ability of human to kill from great distances.

Question 13

Peaceful societies

A)are extremely common.
B)have never existed.
C)are consistent with cultural/learning theories of war.
D)lend credence to instinctual theories of war.

Question 14

Those who accept instinctual theories of aggression and war would be most inclined to

A)liberalism.
B)constructivism.
C)feminism.
D)realism.

Question 15

Human beings are different from most animals in that we

A)kill members of our own species in large numbers.
B)form social groups.
C)form social hierarchies.
D)are territorial creatures.

Question 16

In trying to understand the causes of war in human society, Konrad Lorenz began by dividing the various species into

A)territorial and nonterritorial animals.
B)meat eaters and plant eaters.
C)lethal and nonlethal animals.
D)mammals and amphibians.

Question 17

The phenomenon of "nonfirers" is often cited

A)by Konrad Lorenz.
B)to support democratic peace theory.
C)to undermine instinctual theories of war.
D)to require pseudo-specification.

Question 18

Instrumental violence results from aggressive instincts.

Question 19

Konrad Lorenz argues that aggression is a harmful instinct in most animals.

Question 20

Human beings are among the few creatures that fight with members of their own species.

Question 21

The tendency for lethal aggression to be accompanied by attempts to view one's victims as less than human is often used to support instinctual theories of war.

Question 22

The anthropologist Margaret Mead argued that war is a ____________________.

Question 23

According to Konrad Lorenz, what makes war such a puzzle and how does he solve (i.e., explain) it?

Question 24

Are instinctual and learning theories of war mutually exclusive or can/should they complement each other? Explain.

Question 25

Ethologists such as Konrad Lorenz argue that aggression is an_____________________ in humans as in other animals.

Question 26

Instinctual theories of aggression and war resonate most closely with a __________________ perspective on international relations.

Question 27

Lorenz claims that potentially lethal animals rarely fight beyond the point where the defeated creature signals submission through some _________________________.

Question 28

Make the strongest case you can in favor of the proposition that war is a cultural/social phenomenon, not an instinctual behavior.

Question 29

Despite their rarity, the existence of peaceful societies is often cited as evidence against ____________________theories of war.

Question 30

Rather than being a manifestation of aggression, some suggest war is better seen as __________________________.

Question 31

According to social learning theory, human behavior is shaped through a process of ___________________ and __________________.

Question 32

Konrad Lorenz divides the animal kingdom into two groups: ______________ and __________________.

Question 33

S.L.A.Marshall's controversial study of _________________ is sometimes cited to undermine instinctual theories of war.

Question 34

The prevalence of ____________________ in war imagery and propaganda suggests that humans may have some inner resistance to killing other humans.

Question 35

What sorts of evidence/patterns can we look for as indications of whether war is the inevitable result of some instinct or a social/cultural practice?

Question 36

Arguments about whether war is instinctual or learned behavior are just another example of the common ________________________ debate we find in many areas of human behavior.

Question 37

According to Lorenz, the rapid development of _______________ has upset the balance between our ability to kill and our inhibitions against doing so.

Question 38

Pseudo-specification makes it more difficult for people to kill each other.

Question 39

Pseudo-specification makes it easier for people to kill other people.

Question 40

What is pseudo-specification? What might it tell us about instinctual theories of war?