Hormonal Factors - Aggression Flashcards

1
Q

What is testosterone?

A

A type of androgen = associated with males attributes

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2
Q

Why might testosterone explain why young males are the most likely to be convicted of a violent offence?

A

Testosterone peaks in young males and then decreases through out life. Appears to be a weak correlation BUT the relationship between testosterone and aggression is not very clear

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3
Q

Where and why is cortisol produced?

A

Produced in the adrenal medulla as a response to stress

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4
Q

How does cortisol increase aggression? (2 points)

A

Low cortisol = more aggression

1) very unpleasant to have low levels of autonomic nervous system arousal
2) acts to inhibit aggressive behaviour

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5
Q

How are cortisol and testosterone linked?

A

Perhaps testosterone does increase aggression but only when there are low levels of cortisol

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6
Q

What did Kouri do?

A

Double-blind procedure = young men given doses of testosterone or a placebo
- Paired with a confederate who said if they press a button they would reduce the amount of money received by the other participant

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7
Q

What did Kouri find?

A

Those who received testosterone pushed the button more BUT not very aggressive behaviour

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8
Q

What did Virkunen find?

A

Study reported low levels of cortisol in young offenders

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9
Q

What did Bain et al find?

A

No significant difference in testosterone of those charged with violent crimes than non-violent crimes

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10
Q

What is the nature/nurture issue?

A
  • In a challenging situation testosterone may increase = aggression increase
  • People may be born with high testosterone or low cortisol
  • Drug abuse can reduce levels of cortisol
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11
Q

What is the real world application issue?

A
  • If violent offender have low cortisol (screen them) we could treat this with medication which may reduce aggression
  • If offenders have high testosterone they could be given anger management
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12
Q

What is the social sensitive nature of research issue?

A

If all young men are labeled with high testosterone this may cause a self-fufilling prophecy = become aggressive due to the label

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13
Q

What was the aim of Book’s study?

A

To re-examine the relationship between testosterone and aggression with a sample of 45 studies

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14
Q

What did Book find?

A

The mean weighted correlation (r=0.14) corroborates the previous finding of a weak positive relationship
= there is a weak association between more testosterone and more aggression, but that many other factors must be important

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