Competition, Relationship Status and Paternity - Report Example

Is There a Relationship Between Competition, Relationship Status, and Paternity with Testosterone Levels among Heterosexual Males? Professor Name Course Date Is There a Relationship Between Competition, Relationship Status, and Paternity with Testosterone Levels among Heterosexual Males? 1. Introduction Past studies have shown that there is an association between fatherhood and marriage with the levels of testosterone in males. The studies indicate that heterosexual males in relationships with members of the opposite sex have lower levels of testosterone due to paternal commitment. The studies attribute the changes in testosterone levels in paired males to the recent hominid evolution. Moreover, the researches indicate that other factors such historical and cross-cultural characteristics affect the levels of testosterone in heterosexual males (Burnham et al, 2003). Recent studies on human body have exposed the association of paternal care and pair bonding with the variations in the levels of testosterone among males. From these researches, it has been deduced that married men have lower levels of the hormone as compared to the unmarried and unpaired males.The studies emphasise that even unmarried men in committed relationships have lower levels of testosterone than unmarried men that are not committed to relationships. Though with little statistical significance, the same studies demonstrated that fathers have lower levels of the hormone as compared to married men who have not yet fathered. Therefore, there is another relationship between the levels of testosterone and fatherhood that is clearly distinct from the association of the levels of the hormone with marriage (Gray et al, 2002). Form the findings of the collections of the researches; it is evident that the variations in the levels of testosterone in married men have a close relationship with the marital outcomes. On the other hand, McIntyre et al (2006)indicate that higher levels of testosterone are experienced by married men around the time of divorce.In other cases, most researches have failed in their attempts to show differences in variations of testosterone levels between monogamously married men and unmarried men. However, some studies have found higher levels of testosterone among polygamous men than in monogamous men. Such findings complicate the clarity of the distinctiveness of testosterone levels and marital status or romantic commitments (McIntyre et al, 2006). From the findings of these researches, it is evident that further researches are recommendable to obtain a clear relationship between the levels of testosterone among married men and their marital status, romantic commitments, paternity, and even their ages. For this reason, the variations in the levels of testosterone among heterosexual males are of interest to many researchers. In this research, it can be hypothesised that there is an association between the relationship status, competition, and paternity with the levels of testosterone in males(McIntyre et al, 2006). Therefore, this research seeks to answer the question: “Is there a relationship between competition, relationship status, and paternity with testosterone levels among heterosexual males?” 2. Materials and Methods Participants The participants of this research were heterosexual male students from a universityin the north east of England. Most of the participants were students taking psychology in the university. The participants were requested to schedule for the research through Sona Systems on-line booking system (www.sonasystems.com). To motivate attract the prospective participants, the students were promised to receive credits after their participation. Moreover, the researchers sought approval from the University ethics committee to ensure that the research ethical. Materials The researchers asked the participants to record their age and marital status that was categorised as Married, Engaged, Cohabiting, Non-cohabiting relationship, Dating, Single, or Divorced.The marital status was then classified into two categories either “paired” or “single”. The participants were also required to indicate whether they had children or not. To determine their self-perceived competitiveness, the researchers asked the participants to rate their competiveness on a Likert scale. The scale ranged from 1 to 7 where 1 marked low competitiveness(for those that were not competitive at all) and 7 marked high competitiveness (for those that were extremely competitive). The researchers used the Multi-Tasking Framework provided by the Purple Research Solutions, United Kingdomto set up an experiment that required the participants to complete four different tasks simultaneously (Wetherell&Sidgreaves, 2005). The participants were required to complete three six-minute trials of increasing difficulty that were categorized as ‘low’ or ‘high’ based on their performance. To obtain the Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI) of the participants the researchers used the Penke&Asendorpf (2008) SOI. The SOI was comprisedof a combination of open-item response items to assess aspects of participants’ behaviours. The results of the inventory were recorded as “unrestricted SOI”(for low scores) and“restricted SOI” (for high scores). The last procedure of the research was the saliva collection and assayingsaliva samples. The participants were given Trident sugar-free chewing gum to stimulate saliva flow. Thereafter, saliva samples were taken from the participants to determine their competitive natureand the procedure was repeated 15 minutes after the participants completed the task to detect the changes in testosterone due to competition. These procedures were conducted between 12:00 and 18:00 hours to control diurnal variability in testosterone (Dabbs, 1990).The samples were then refrigerated immediately after collection and stored at -20°C within 24 hours. Finally, the researchers analysed the levels of testosterone in the samples. 3. Results The findings of the research show that paired males had average testosterone levels of 100.69before the experiment while the single males had average testosterone levels of 111.29 before the experiment. After the experiment, the paired males’ levels of testosterone averaged 91.51 while those of the single males averaged 103.09. In other results, paired males with children had testosterone levels averaging 88.70 before the experiment while those without children had testosterone levels averaging 102.87. After the experiment, the average of testosterone levels for the paired males with children was 78.34 while that of paired males without children was 93.90. None of the single participants indicated to have sired children. The number of paired male participants with high self-perceived confidence was 21 while those with low self-perceived confidence were 18. On the other hand, single male participants with high self-perceived confidence were 18; a number that was close to those with low self-perceived confidence (19). The Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI) of the participants showed little variances among the paired and single participants. The sociosexual orientation of the participants of the paired male participants showed that 19 of them had unrestricted SOI while the rest of the paired participants (20) showed that they had restricted sociosexual orientation. The same case was evident among the single participants where 19 of them showed unrestricted SOI while 18 of them showed restricted SOI. In terms of Multi-Tasking Framework, 20 of the paired participants had low framework total while the rest (19) had high framework total. In the case of single participants multi-tasking, 19 participants recorded high frame work total. This was against the 18 participants who recorded a total low framework total. 4. Discussion and Conclusion From the findings obtained from the research, it is evident that there was little distinction in terms of the self-perceived confidence, Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI), and multi-tasking framework among the paired and single participants. However, it was evident that the levels of testosterone were dependent on the marital or relationship status of the participants as well as whether they had children or not. For this reason, it can be deduced that paternity has an impact on the levels of testosterone in males. Specifically, paternity can be said to lower the levels of testosterone among the males(McIntyre et al, 2006). It can be concluded that, mental, emotional, financial or physical responsibilities that are brought about by paternity tend to lower the levels of testosterone in males. Based on the results of this research, it can be concluded that competitiveness has insignificant effect on the levels of testosterone among paired and single males(Mazur, Booth &Dabbs, 1992). Therefore, the findings narrow down our research question to the effect of relationship status and paternity on the levels of testosterone among males. It is clearly evident that the high levels of testosterone are experienced by males who are not committed into relationships as compared to their committed counterparts(Burnham et al, 2003). It can be concluded that the levels of testosterone is lower among males that are committed by relationships as well as for those that have sired children. References Burnham, T. C., Chapman, J. F., Gray, P. B., McIntyre, M. H., Lipson, S. F., & Ellison, P. T. (2003). Men in committed, romantic relationships have lower testosterone. Hormones and Behaviour, 44, 119122. Dabbs, J. M. (1990). Salivary testosterone measurements: Reliability across hours, days, and weeks. Physiology and Behavior, 48, 83–86. Gray, P. B., Kahlenberg, S. M., Barrett, E. S., Lipson, S. F., & Ellison, P. T. (2002). Marriage and fatherhood are associated with lower testosterone in males. Evolution and Human Behavior, 23, 193201. Mazur, A., Booth, A., &Dabbs, J. M. (1992).Testosterone and Chess Competition.Social Psychology Quarterly, 55, 7077. McIntyre, M., Gangestad, S. W., Gray, P. B., Chapman, J. F., Burnham, T. C., ORourke, M. T., &Thornhill, R. (2006). Romantic involvement often reduces men’s testosterone levels--but not always: The moderating role of extrapair sexual interest. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 642651. Penke, L., &Asendorpf, J. B. (2008). Beyond globalsociosexual orientations: a more differentiated look at sociosexuality and its effects on courtship and romantic relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(5), 1113–35. Wetherell, M. A., &Sidgreaves, M. C. (2005). ShortCommunication: Secretory immunoglobulin - A reactivity following increases in workload intensity using the Defined Intensity Stressor Simulation (DISS). Stress and Health, 21, 99–106. Read More