the role of the hormone testosterone

Question 1

what are hormones?

Answer 1

• chemical messengers that transmit information around the body through the blood stream.
• they are involved in the regulation pf our physiology and behaviour, including breathing, temperature and metabolic rate.
• they are produced and excreted by glands and this system if glands is called the endocrine system.

Question 2

what is testosterone?

Answer 2

• it is a male sex hormone secreted by the adrenal glands and testes.
  it his needed to produce sperm, develop male reproductive organs, facial hair and deep voice. women also have testosterone but males produce a lot more.

Question 3

testosterone and agression

Answer 3

• during the critical period immediately following birth, testosterone sensitises certain neural circuits. it stimulates cell growth in areas of the hypothalamus and amygdala, which have a role in the perception and reaction to environmental threats which included aggressive responses.

Question 4

evidence: animal experiments

Answer 4

• male rodents castrated which stops the production of testosterone.
• their behaviour is compared to control rodents eg under control conditions like threat and competition for mates.
• castrated rodents show little or no aggression however their testosterone is replaced by injection then they will show typical aggression again.

conclusion:
- testosterone levels around the time of birth seem to be particularly important in determining aggression
- supports the idea that testosterone may sensitise the brain to aggression

Question 5

evidence: studies using humans

Answer 5

• Hawke 1951
  he looked at case studies of convicted sex offenders who had been castrated.
  he found there was a removal of aggression and loss of sex drive.
  this suggests testosterone may be causing aggression in these individuals.
  eval = lack of no control group

Question 6

S/W

Answer 6

• reductionist as it assumes aggression can be broken down to hormones and does take into account other factors
  CA- that said it is useful to be reductionist as it allows researchers to isolate variables such as hormones which are related to aggression which can lead to treatment.

+ the impact of testosterone on aggression can be measured under a scientific framework using objective tools such as saliva. this therefore gives some credibility to the explanation.

Question 7

application

Answer 7

+ drug treatment for offenders
for example if aggression is chemically controlled then we can produce a drug treatment which influences the hormonal mechanism and reduces aggressive behaviours.
therefore can have positive application in society.

Question 8

alternative

Answer 8

• testosterone explanations do not take into account the role of nurture in the development of the behaviour.
  leanring theories suggest that how aggressive we are and other behaviours are a consequence of our learning experiences such as upbringing, peers, culture, the medias.
  social learning theory would suggest that…
  this highlights the difficulty in reducing complex behaviours to simple explanations.

conc= a hormonal explanation of behaviour/ aggression is reductionist because it oversimplifies the complex array of factors that determine how we behave, including the situation we are in.