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Roles of Hormones in Aggression - Coggle Diagram
Roles of Hormones in Aggression
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Strengths
Studies tend to use a lot of controls, even if they find correlational data and not differences. Barzman et al. (2013) used standardised measures for the children to rate their aggression and tests of hormones found in saliva to measure the hormone levels. These are carefully controlled measures. As the methods are scientific there is scientific credibility in the conclusions.
Barzman et aI. (2013) look at hormones in the saliva of 7 to 9 year old boys in a psychiatric hospital. They took saliva samples from 17 boys and looked for DHEA (a hormone), testosterone and cortisol. They also obtained ratings of the aggression of the children twice a day from the nurses' observations. Concluded that there are links between salivary hormones and aggressive behaviour in children in psychiatric hospitals.
Dabbs et aI. (1987) measured testosterone (a male hormone) in the saliva of 89 male prisoners, some involved in violent crime and some in non-violent crime. Levels of testosterone was higher this who had been involved in violent crime. Suggests that a high level of the hormone testosterone links to aggressive behaviour in humans.
Weaknesses
While there are correlations between levels of testosterone and cortisol and aggression, correlations do not give cause and effect findings, therefore this is not as scientific as gathering evidence from which cause and effect conclusions can be drawn.
Many of the studies use animals and it is difficult to generalise the findings to humans. For example, Sluyter et al (2003) argue that although mice and humans share 90% of their genes there are sufficient differences between them to suggest that findings about aggression in mice cannot be generalised to humans.
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Hormone
A chemical messenger produced in a system of glands called the endocrine system that travels through the bloodstream to target organs.
Slower than neurotransmitters because the travel in the bloodstream, not by neurones.
Testosterone
Secreted by the adrenal glands and testes.
It affects:
The brain (sex drive and aggression)
Growth of facial and body hair
Males produce more testosterone than females which is an explanation for why men are more aggressive than women
It is the male sex hormone and also has a role in regulating social behaviour through its influence on areas of the brain involved in aggression.
Cortisol
Cortisol is secreted by the adrenal glands to help the body deal with the effects of stress.
When cortisol levels are low, testosterone levels are high leading to more aggressive behaviour.
When cortisol levels are high testosterone's influence on aggression is blocked.