Biological Approach - Hormones and Pheremones
Hormones:
Hormones are chemical messengers released from endocrine glands which influence the nervous systems
Regulates behaviours of humans such as aggression
Some hormones affect receiving and processing of stimuli in the nervous system
Hormones, unlike neurotransmitters, take a longer time to respond to stimuli
One type of hormone is adrenaline
Stress hormone, produced by adrenal glands, released into the bloodstream
Triggers the body's flight or fight response.
Pheremones:
Chemical substance produced and released into the environment by an animal
Effects the behaviour or physiology of others in its own species.
Specific group of pheromones can be signalling pheromones.
Affect sexual behaviours
Although no actual pheromones are found in humans, there is research that shows that some chemicals may lead to humans showing the same behaviours.
Study to use for the effect of Hormones on human behaviour:
Newcomer et al
Experimental design
aim: to determine if a high level of the stress hormone, cortisol, has an effect on verbal declarative memory.
participants: employees or students at a medical centre and they were given a clinical interview with a physician to ensure that they could participate in the study.
participants were matched for age and gender into one of the three total groups.
first group: received a high level of cortisol of 160mg
second group: received a lower dose of cortisol of 40mg
third group: received a placebo.
They were required to perform a recall task, 1 before they started the study, 1 after they were given their dosage, and 1 six days later to determine if their dosage of cortisol affected their recall.
first test: determined that there was no significant difference, as expected.
second test: showed that participants with the higher dose of cortisol achieved a lower score than those who received a placebo.
Those who received a lower dose of cortisol did better than those of the higher dose but worse than those with the placebo.
third test after six days was done to ensure that the cortisol had no long term effects. This test provided expected results where the participants achieved close to similar results as the first test.
Therefore, this study demonstrated that a high level of cortisol will affect the performance of the memory task, indicating that high levels of cortisol interfered with the verbal declarative memory of an individual, however researchers also determined that there was no long term effect on memory.
Study to use for the effect of pheromones on human behaviour:
Zhou et al
aim: to determine if the pheromone ‘AND’ influenced human sexual behaviour.
The participants consisted of heterosexual men and women, homosexual men and women.
They were asked to watch stick figures and determine if they were male or female 3 times on three different days.
While watching the screen, they were exposed to the smell of cloves.
In the conditional experiment, the cloves were mixed with AND, in the control experiment there was no AND mixed.
The results showed that of those participants who were attracted to men and were exposed to AND, more of them identified the stick figures as ‘masculine’ than those in the control group. However, AND had no significant effect on those attracted to women.
Hormones:
Hormones are chemical messengers released from endocrine glands which influence the nervous systems
Regulates behaviours of humans such as aggression
Some hormones affect receiving and processing of stimuli in the nervous system
Hormones, unlike neurotransmitters, take a longer time to respond to stimuli
One type of hormone is adrenaline
Stress hormone, produced by adrenal glands, released into the bloodstream
Triggers the body's flight or fight response.
Pheremones:
Chemical substance produced and released into the environment by an animal
Effects the behaviour or physiology of others in its own species.
Specific group of pheromones can be signalling pheromones.
Affect sexual behaviours
Although no actual pheromones are found in humans, there is research that shows that some chemicals may lead to humans showing the same behaviours.
Study to use for the effect of Hormones on human behaviour:
Newcomer et al
Experimental design
aim: to determine if a high level of the stress hormone, cortisol, has an effect on verbal declarative memory.
participants: employees or students at a medical centre and they were given a clinical interview with a physician to ensure that they could participate in the study.
participants were matched for age and gender into one of the three total groups.
first group: received a high level of cortisol of 160mg
second group: received a lower dose of cortisol of 40mg
third group: received a placebo.
They were required to perform a recall task, 1 before they started the study, 1 after they were given their dosage, and 1 six days later to determine if their dosage of cortisol affected their recall.
first test: determined that there was no significant difference, as expected.
second test: showed that participants with the higher dose of cortisol achieved a lower score than those who received a placebo.
Those who received a lower dose of cortisol did better than those of the higher dose but worse than those with the placebo.
third test after six days was done to ensure that the cortisol had no long term effects. This test provided expected results where the participants achieved close to similar results as the first test.
Therefore, this study demonstrated that a high level of cortisol will affect the performance of the memory task, indicating that high levels of cortisol interfered with the verbal declarative memory of an individual, however researchers also determined that there was no long term effect on memory.
Study to use for the effect of pheromones on human behaviour:
Zhou et al
aim: to determine if the pheromone ‘AND’ influenced human sexual behaviour.
The participants consisted of heterosexual men and women, homosexual men and women.
They were asked to watch stick figures and determine if they were male or female 3 times on three different days.
While watching the screen, they were exposed to the smell of cloves.
In the conditional experiment, the cloves were mixed with AND, in the control experiment there was no AND mixed.
The results showed that of those participants who were attracted to men and were exposed to AND, more of them identified the stick figures as ‘masculine’ than those in the control group. However, AND had no significant effect on those attracted to women.
