Hormones + aggression. Flashcards
Introduction. Aggression? Testosterone + cortisol + actions on brain? Internal cause of aggression?
Aggression is a form of hostile behaviour which is usually inhibited by social norms.
This focuses on the internal cause of aggression rather than external and looks at testosterone + cortisol.
It is thought that testosterone increases aggression due to its impact on the brain.
It can be influenced from young adulthood + onwards due to its impact on the brain as the brain tries to control aggression.
Testosterone. Dabbs et al + salivary testosterone + violent/non violent animals?
Dabbs et al measured the salivary testosterone in violent and on violent criminals.
Those with higher levels of testosterone had a history of violent crimes whereas those with lower levels of testosterone had a history of non violent crimes.
Testosterone. Lindmen et al + aggressive males.
There has also been studies on non violent prison populations and similar trends have been found.
Lindmen et al found that young males who behaved aggressively had higher levels of testosterone than those who didn’t behave aggressively.
Wingfield et al + the challenge hypothesis? Monogamous species + testosterone baseline? Humans + aggressive situations.
Wingfield et al proposed the challenge hypothesis and said that, in monogamous species, the testosterone levels show only arise above the baseline in social challenges. (e.g. threat to status.)
Humans are also considered monogamous species so this hypothesis would predicts that male testosterone levels should only sharply increase when in aggressive situations.
Evaluation. Albert et al + inconsistent findings? No relationship + small population.
Albert et al said that despite the positive correlation within studies, there is still inconsistent findings and there is no relationship between aggression and testosterone.
The studies showing a positive correlation were only done on a small population (lack population validity?)
The studies are only done within prisons and you cannot generalise inmates to the real world, making the studies limited to their findings.
Evaluation. Gender biased. Study = women + high occupational status. Assertive?
Most studies only focus on males which makes it gender biased.
It can be found that the testosterone levels can also increase in a female and therefore cause aggression as well.
A study showed that women with higher testosterone had a higher occupational status and this can lead to them being more assertive.
It has also been shown that women respond to more challenging situations with aggressiveness.
Cortisol. Prefrontal cortex impact + high levels of cortisol inhibit testosterone levels + aggression.
This has been found to have a direct impact on the prefrontal as it appears to have a meditating effect on other aggression related symptoms such as testosterone.
High levels of cortisol is known to inhibit the testosterone and therefore inhibit the aggressive response.
In studies, there have been findings that low levels of cortisol are evident in violent offenders and violet school children.
Shows that low levels of cortisol play a part in aggressive behaviours.
Evaluation. McBurnett et al + cortisol levels + behavioural problems boys.
Studies boys with behavioural problems and found that those with low levels of cortisol began anti social behaviours at a younger age and had 3x the number of aggressive symptoms.
Concluded that cortisol levels were strong + inversely related to aggressive behaviours.
Evaluation. Universal scale + Individual differences failure?
However, the studies looking at cortisol levels fails to look at people on a universal scale so you wont be able to generalise the findings to a wider audience.
Study was also done mainly on males so it fails to take the individual differences into account as you cannot apply the findings to females.
