3.1.6 - Hormones

Question 1

Hormones

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Answer 1

• hormones are chemical messengers in the body that impact behaviour based on when they are released, how they are received and how concentrated they are
• They work by binding to the receptor proteins in target cells and changing cell function. The cells respond in a particular way to hormones. Hormone secretion can be triggered by other hormones or by activity - The environment can also affect the release of hormones
• Testosterone is an androgen – males have higher levels and there is a correlation between increased levels of testosterone and increased levels of aggression
• Female aggressive behaviour may still be enhanced with testosterone explaining differences between hormone levels in females
• High levels of testosterone reduces activity in the orbital frontal cortex which means in an emotional situation there could be a heightened emotionally aggressive response

Question 2

Serotonin – aggression hypothesis

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Answer 2

• Duke at al carried out a meta-analysis on the role of serotonin, a Neurotransmitter, and aggression. They found that there was an inverse relationship between serotonin and aggression as aggression is a feel good neurotransmitter, it makes sense that lower levels lead to aggressive response.
• Testosterone also influences the activity of serotonin and can reduce serotoninergic activity. Therefore testosterone doesn’t just have an effect in isolation but can mediate the effects of other biochemicals too
• However the meta-analysis showed that there are not always definite conclusions e.g. they found environmental and personality factors and complexity and how serotonin affects brain functioning

Question 3

Hormones - AO3x2

Strengths

Answer 3

• Research by Barzman et al found that the amount of cortisol in saliva correlated with aggressive incidents. This was also shown by Dabbs at al, finding links to aggression and testosterone in violent prisoners. Therefore they can support each other and find a link between cortisol and testosterone and aggression giving credibility and reliability to the findings
• Adelson showed that rats showing activity in the aggression systems of their brain also showed a hormonal stress response. Raising stress hormones went with raised stimulation of the aggression centre in the brain. Therefore this suggests why stress in humans can lead to aggression and why aggression in humans can lead to stress

Question 4

Hormones - AO3x2

Weaknesses

Answer 4

• However, many studies like Adelson used animals so it’s hard to generalize the rats findings to humans as we share differences in motivation and planning in our brains. These animals were also tested in a unnatural environment so therefore a stressor in the environment could have caused the release of hormones. Therefore it may not be linked to aggression as we don’t know how hormones would react in every day life in a natural environment
• In humans, data tends to be correlation data which means cause-and-effect conclusions can’t be drawn because a relationship is found e.g. it is not known whether a variable other than stress, cortisol and aggression causes both stress and aggression. Therefore it may be a factor like the environment or personality that influence stress and aggression, It is also not known whether stress causes aggression or aggression causes stress.