Locate aggression - Research Paper Example

Testosterone and male behaviors Assignment The above article, written by Nick Neave and Daryl O’Connor (2008) appearing in The Psychologist Journal , the authors attempt to show how the testosterone hormone is linked to typical ‘male behaviors’. The observational method used in conducting this research is the archival method in which the authors relied on existing data to carry out their study. Specifically, the authors relied on the data collected during previous studies linking the effect of testosterone on the occurrence of ‘male behaviors.

’ To achieve this, the authors used 37 different researches to document their findings. The male behaviors in this case refer to aggressive and anti-social behaviors, which have led to the hormone being labeled as ‘the aggressive hormone.’ This article is based on a review conducted by the authors on various researches linking this hormone to aggressive behaviors and its overall effect on activating an individual. The word ‘activating’ is used by the authors to mean stimulating or arousing.

In particular, wanted to know the degree to which male behaviors are influenced by the hormone. The researches consider the activational or stimulating effects of the hormone on sport, aggression, sexual behavior and cognition. According to the authors, higher levels of this hormone in men are associated with increases in aggressive behaviors. They observe that researches that have been conducted in this field have shown that higher levels of the hormone lead to typical ‘male behaviors’.

However, they observe that researches that have been conducted in this field have been observational, and this makes it difficult to generalize the findings. Furthermore, the author also report that some studies have focused on varying the levels of this hormone in individuals. The results have shown that there is some evidence to support the idea that higher levels of this hormone leads to aggressive behavior, mood and anger. However, they observe that the doses of testosterone given to patients in these studies do not all point to an increase in aggressive behavior in all patients.

Very high doses of the hormone may lead to aggressive behavior, but modest doses of the hormone do not suggest increases in this behavior. The authors thus conclude that the link between this hormone and aggressive behavior is not linear. They conclude that individual differences are likely to play a role in aggressive behaviors. One of the major strengths of this research is that the findings reported are based on actual researches on this topic. The authors have used findings from different studies that have focused on the link of this hormone and higher levels of aggression.

More than twenty eight researches are reviewed by the authors. This helps to show the different trends and variations in the different studies, and this offers more information on the research topic. Secondly, the results offered by the authors attempt to answer the question on whether aggression is linked to biological factors. Specifically, the authors suggest that the relationship testosterone and aggressive behavior is non-linear. This makes their findings relevant to the research question.

However, the research has two major drawbacks. First, the findings are based on a review of existing studies as opposed to an actual research conducted by the authors. The authors could have offered a more meaningful contribution if they carried out the research on live populations. Secondly, since the authors use the archival research method, they do not have control over how the data was collected. For instance, in the article, the doses of testosterone given to participants during clinical trials varied from one researcher to another.

This makes the findings by the different researchers vary greatly. ReferenceNeave, N & O’Connor, D (2008). Testosterone and male behaviors. The Psychologist, 22(1), pp. 28-31. Retrieved from http://www.thepsychologist.org.uk/archive/archive_home.cfm?volumeID=22&editionID =171