role of hormones in human behaviour

Question 1

where are hormones secreted ?

Answer 1

in the bloodstream (endocrine system)

Question 2

what are the ‘fight or flight’ hormones ? where are they secreted ?

Answer 2

adrenaline and noradrenaline - from the adrenal gland

Question 3

what do the ‘fight or flight’ hormones do to the body ?

Answer 3

they increase the heart rate and breathing rate to deal with the threat

Question 4

what is testosterone ?

Answer 4

sex hormone (determines male sex)

Question 5

what does testosterone do ?

Answer 5

1) influences social behaviour

2) makes men more aggressive than females

Question 6

what is cortisol ?

Answer 6

the ‘stress’ hormone

Question 7

what is the dual-hormone hypothesis ?

Answer 7

• interaction between the systems responsible for regulating aggression and stress response
• carré and Mehta (2011) claim that high levels of testosterone lead to aggressive behaviour only when levels of cortisol are low; when cortisol is high, testosterone’s influence on aggression is blocked.

Question 8

(evaluation) what is the supporting evidence for this theory ?

Answer 8

• Dabbs and Hargrove took saliva swabs of female inmates and found link between higher levels of testosterone and aggression
• (competing argument) - correlation, cannot be 100% proven that this is true (cause+effect)

Question 9

(evaluation) what is an application of this theory ?

Answer 9

• Maletzky found that you remove aggression from men by giving them birth control (reduces testosterone)
• he gave it to sex offenders - it reduced their high levels of sexual aggression
• used for male homosexuals (chemical castration)
• glammanco et al. (2005) - neutered rats (castrated) - really aggressive rats became less aggressive once it had happened

Question 10

what is a criticism of the theory ?

Answer 10

• difficult to measure testosterone levels
• psychologists distinguish between ‘baseline’ and ‘fluctuating’ testosterone - Carré et al. (2011) argue that ‘baseline’ testosterone plays less of a role in human aggression than it does in animals, however, ‘baseline’ is often used in human studies. this means that the baseline measure used in many studies may not provide a valid indicator of testosterone levels in relation to aggression

Question 11

what did carré and Mehta (2011) find ?

Answer 11

claim that high levels of testosterone lead to aggressive behaviour only when levels of cortisol are low; when cortisol is high, testosterone’s influence on aggression is blocked.

Question 12

what did glammanco et al. (2005) do and find ?

Answer 12

neutered rats (castrated) - really aggressive rats became less aggressive once it had happened

Question 13

what did Carré et al. (2011) find ?

Answer 13

argue that ‘baseline’ testosterone plays less of a role in human aggression than it does in animals, however, ‘baseline’ is often used in human studies. this means that the baseline measure used in many studies may not provide a valid indicator of testosterone levels in relation to aggression