“Psychology colloquium discusses human hormone levels (Old Gold & Black)” plus 1 more |
| Psychology colloquium discusses human hormone levels (Old Gold & Black) Posted: 11 Feb 2010 01:27 PM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it.
Pranjal Mehta, a professor from Columbia University, came to discuss his research on the social endocrinology of status-seeking behavior as part of the 2009-10 Psychology Colloquium Series on Feb. 4. The aim of his research was to explore how individuals rise in hierarchy. Status influences social behavior, and Mehta's study of this concept takes "a rather unique approach." He put together The Social Endocrinology Approach, which looks at hormone levels as "traits and states," meaning hormones fluctuate. You can tap into someone's stable hormone levels because their fluctuations might have an impact on how people act. Animal literature and Mehta's studies have shown that testosterone levels are involved in driving status-seeking behavior. One of the questions Mehta posed during his research was what are the neural mechanisms for this process? In summary, hormones are used to influence the brain. Mehta uses the laboratory paradigm of The Ultimatum Game, an examination of aggressive behavior in the laboratory, where the offer to receive $5 will always be accepted, but the offer to receive $2 when your partner in the game receives $8 will be rejected 50% of the time. The players feel insulted and angry because of the unfair ultimatum so they turn it down, even though the profitable option would be to accept. This rejection is called "social retaliation" and the concept of their rejection due to feeling insulted is proven by the results that show players are less likely to reject the ultimatum if their partners are computers rather than other people. The conclusion drawn from the study was that high testosterone levels lead to unfair offer rejections. Another study carried out involved scanning subjects' neural activity during decision making for the ultimatum game. Their saliva was taken and tested for testosterone levels during the study and a correlation between levels of testosterone and rejection rates showed. Gender was not a factor, though levels fluctuated according to testosterone only. The second study which Mehta carried out looked at cortisol levels and how they interact with testosterone levels. High cortisol levels are associated with physical and psychological stress, and it can alter the pathway between testosterone and behavior. Because of this, Mehta proposed the dual-hormone regulation model which puts forth the idea that cortisol blocks testosterone from affecting behavior and provoking status-seeking behavior. Testosterone is positively related to dominant behavior only when cortisol levels are low, and the pattern is true for both males and females. In addition, high cortisol appears to create a trend of subjects rejecting the offer to compete again after defeat. When there is no threat to dominance, though, there is no effect of hormones on behavior. Mehta sees his next steps in research as extending to other behaviors such as risk-taking, and then extending to applied and real world contexts. He has also toyed with the idea of measuring genes in the saliva, and dopamine levels, and seeing how they affect the behavior. Comments from the lecture raised the question of whether the "Ultimatum Game" truly tests physical aggression, if that emotion is loosely defined as "the intention of physically causing harm to another being." It was suggested that perhaps the labeling of this impulse to accept or reject should be revised. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Posted: 11 Feb 2010 08:20 AM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/227af2/the_corsini_encycl) has announced the addition of John Wiley and Sons Ltd's new report "The Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology, Set, 4th Edition" to their offering. Psychologists, researchers, teachers, and students need complete and comprehensive information in the fields of psychology and behavioral science. The Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology four-volume set has been the reference of choice for almost three decades. This indispensable resource is updated and expanded to include much new material. The Fourth Edition features over 1,500 entries; complete coverage of DSM disorders; and a bibliography of over 10,000 citations. Readers will benefit from up-to-date and authoritative coverage of every major area of psychology. Author: Editor Biographies Irving B. Weiner, Ph.D., ABPP, is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at the University of South Florida and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological Science. He is currently President of the Society for Personality Assessment and President-elect of the Society of Clinical Psychology. He has written or authored numerous Wiley books, the most recent of which include Adolescence: A Developmental Transition (1995), Principles of Psychotherapy, 2e (1998), Adult Psychopathology Case Studies (2004), and Handbook of Forensic Psychology, 3e (2006). He also served as Editor-in-Chief of Wiley's 12-volume Handbook of Psychology (2003). W. Edward Craighead, Ph.D., ABPP, is the Fuqua Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Psychology at Emory University. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. He is a past President of the Society of Clinical Psychology and the Association for the Advancement of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies. He was Editor of the journal, Behavior Therapy. He has published over 140 scholarly papers and he has written/edited 8 books including an Adult Psychopathology text with Wiley. He also served as Editor of both the full and concise versions of the 3rd Edition of The Corsini Encyclopedia. For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/227af2/the_corsini_encycl. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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