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Biological Explanation 2: The Role of Hormones - Coggle Diagram
Biological Explanation 2: The Role of Hormones
Supporting Research
Dabbs et al
Studied the relationship between testosterone and violent crime in male prisoners.
He measured the testosterone in the saliva of 692 adult male prisoners and found that those who had committed crimes involving violence had higher testosterone levels than inmates who had committed crimes like burglary and theft.
. This supports the role of testosterone in aggression.
D'Andrade (1966)
Human studies support the link between testosterone and aggression: for example, boys on average are more aggressive than girls; boys have higher exposure to testosterone pre and post-nataly.
This supports the hypothesis that testosterone is influential in aggressive behaviour, but these studies lack appropriate scientific rigour such as having a control group and fully objective measures of aggression would prevent such studies taking place.
Hawke (1952)
Correlation does not indicate causality and it might be that other variables such as socialisation affect these factors. However, there have been cases where convicted sex offenders have been castrated and this led to a removal of aggression and a loss of sex drive.
Motelica-Heino et al (1993)
Typically male rodents will be castrated and their behaviour will be compared with control rodents under various conditions. Castrated rodents show little to no aggression but if it is replaces (e.g. injection) then they will show typically aggressive behaviour. Causing differences to emerge according to the age of rodent at the time of castration. Newborns have a limited effect whereas over 10 days old the replacement gives them normal testosterone levels.
Edwards (1968)
Injecting neonatal female rodents with testosterone made them act much more aggressively when given testosterone as adults compared to control females.
. Supporting the idea that testosterone is implicated in aggressive behaviour and the sensation of neural circuitry after birth is an important factor in the effect of testosterone release.
Hormones are chemical messages that transmit information around the body and through the blood stream.
. Hormones affect a person's behaviour and can cause physical changes in the body.
¬ For example, oxytocin is a hormone released by the posterior pituitary gland, which has been shown to increase trust between people.
Testosterone is an androgen; this means it is a chemical that develops or maintains male characteristics. We all have testosterone in our bodies but it is present in a much lower degree in the average female compared to male.
. Having high levels of testosterone is said to cause people to behave aggressively.
The 'Basal model of Testosterone' suggests that the hormone is assumed to be a persistent trait that influences behaviour. Therefore, it follows that a man with high levels of testosterone will engage in social dominance behaviour such as fighting. The relationship is not a simple 'cause and effect' one; instead, the presence of testosterone increases the chance of aggression.
Weaknesses
Usefulness
Experimental research into testosterone and aggression cannot be ethically carried out on humans. There are limited case studies of convicted sex offenders being castrated, which supports the findings from animal research, but these cannot be regarded as representative of the general population since the perpetrators of such crimes are atypical.
Testable
Research into testosterone and aggression is based on correlational data, which means cause and effect conclusions cannot be drawn.
. For example, des testosterone cause an increase in aggression or does aggression cause an increase in testosterone.
¬ Further, it is not known whether another variable could have caused both an increase in testosterone and aggression.
Supporting Evidence
There is plenty of research to supporting the view that testosterone is linked to aggression.
. However, research has been carried out on small mammals such as rodents and some on primates, this limits the generalisability of the findings from experimental research.
¬ For example, testosterone serves a different function across species, such as the cingulate gyrus in monkeys is associated with fear-induced aggression but in dogs and cats stimulation of this area leads to irritability.
Therefore, this limits the generalisability of the findings from experimental research.