Hormones

• What are hormones?

  Chemical messengers that transmit info around the body
• How are hormones carried?

  Through the bloodstream
• Who has testosterone?

  Males and females, but males have a larger amount
• What does testosterone link to?

  Anger and aggression

  Development of male sex organs
• When does testosterone start to develop?

  Foetal stage- kick starts the development of male sex organs
• What is cortisol?

  Stress hormone
• Explain the dual hormone hypothesis

  When cortisol levels are high, testosterone levels are low. When cortisol levels are low, testosterone levels are high.
• What does adrenaline do?

  activates the fight or flight response that triggers the need to be fast or strong
• Give 2 strengths of this theory

  1.Supporting evidence: Beeman 1947- castrated rats are less aggressive than when they inject testosterone in them

  2.Supporting evidence: Dabbs et al 1995- measured testosterone in saliva of 692 adult male prisoners- higher levels in rapists and violent offenders than burglars and thieves
• Give 2 weaknesses of the theory

  1.Generalisability: use of animals in research means the findings cannot be generalised to humans

  2.Hard to establish causailtiy in human studies: Dabbs et al- was the increase in testosterone due to aggression or the other way round.