Hormones and aggression

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  • Created by: 11pyoung
  • Created on: 18-04-17 11:17
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  • Hormones and aggression
    • What is a hormone?
      • Chemical messengers in the blood
      • Produced by Glands
      • Controlled by the Pituitary Gland
      • Testosterone
        • Androgen
          • Sex Hormone
          • Male hormone
        • Produced by Testes/Ovaries
        • Antenatal exposure to testosterone affects brain structure, spatial awareness is better and more aggressive behaviour is shown
          • Hypothalamus and Amygdala are larger than normal
          • Critical period
            • Controlled by genes
    • Evidence to support
      • Rats observed
        • Castrated vs control
          • Castrated rats systemically had testosterone injected into them
            • Aggression increased
          • Control group felt increased competition and aggression
      • Neonatal, female rats given testosterone
        • More sensitive to testosterone
          • Increased aggression
    • Human studies
      • Sex offenders
        • Castrated
          • Decreases aggression
      • Puberty
        • Boys
          • More aggressive than females
        • Strong correlation between increased age and aggression/fighting
          • Doesn't show cause
    • Evaluation
      • Direction of causality issues
        • Reciprocal model
          • Increased aggression increases testosterone
          • Environmental conditions changed testosterone levels
            • Marriage lowers testosterone
            • Divorce increases testosterone
          • Testosterone is an effect of dominance and not the cause of it
          • Mazur and Booth
            • Found individual testosterone levels varied across the lifespan according to environmental status
        • Basal model
          • Increased testosterone increases aggression
            • Males more likely to get into fights
          • Testosterone causes a change in a person's aggressive dominance as it is found that men with higher levels of testosterone were more likely to get arrested and use weapons in fights
      • Research on small animals
        • Limits generalisability of findings
          • Brain areas said to be affected by testosterone have different functions across species
            • The Cingulate Gyrus in Monkeys is associated with fear aggression, in Dogs and Cats it is associated with irritability

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