p eterson and h armon -j ones 2011. a nger and t estosterone : e vidence t hat s ituationally - i...

PETERSON AND HARMON-JONES 2011. ANGER AND TESTOSTERONE: EVIDENCE THAT SITUATIONALLY-INDUCED ANGERRELATES TO SITUATIONALLY-INDUCED TESTOSTERONE

Background:• The relation between aggression and testosterone has

always been a questionable link.• In fact: testosterone is only responsible for a small

portion of aggressive behaviour.• And some studies have shown no connection at all

(Archer, Graham-Kevan, & Davies 2005).• Instead, researchers now believe that testosterone plays

a role in a broader picture involving power and dominance (Archer, 2006; Eisenegger, Naef, Snozzi, Heinrichs, & Fehr, 2009)

• But anger is a kind of social dominance phenomenon, so testosterone must be related to the emotion of anger.

PETERSON AND HARMON-JONES 2011. ANGER AND TESTOSTERONE: EVIDENCE THAT SITUATIONALLY-INDUCED ANGER RELATES TO SITUATIONALLY-INDUCED TESTOSTERONE

Aim:• Measuring changes in salivery testosterone and it’s

relation to anger.• Anger was evoked using Cyberball, a computer balltoss

game that can be used to evoke social rejection.• This particular paradigm was chosen for inducing anger

because of its known ability to evoke anger in an experimentally-controlled manner.

• They predicted that anger evoked in this paradigm would relate to testosterone.

• Also measuring cortisol but it was not anticipated that this would make any difference since it is involved in stress and fear.


Method:• Forty-three (18 male) nonsmoking introductory psychology

students 18–20 years old were run between 12:00 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. to reduce diurnal (dygnsrytm) influence.

• Saliva sample was taken after playing the ball-toss game and they were told that they were playing against two other contestors.

• They were told that when they received the ball, they were to press the right button to throw to the player on their right, and the left button to throw to the player on their left.

• When the game was over (approximately 4 min later), participants completed questionnaires assessing their self-reported anger. And a second saliva sample.


Results/Discussion:• As predicted, an increase in testosterone was associated

with greater anger.• The present research provides the first evidence

demonstrating that testosterone relates to the subjective experience of anger. These results concur with distinct theories that posit that anger and testosterone are associated with attempts to exert power, control, and dominance over others.

• In the case of ostracism, in which basic needs such as belonging and control are threatened anger may fuel behaviors directed at regaining a sense of control over the social situation. Consistently, angry responses to ostracism have been shown to relate to approach motivated patterns of relative left frontal cortical activity, which may also aid in attempts at regaining social control


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Questions:• What about the research methods? Are they precise,

has the study enough validity which means is it measuring what it claims to do? Is it really anger they are meausuring?

• What about the hormone. Read about hormones in CC.

• Gender differences and testosterone? And the PoS.• What’s your opinion concerning testosterone and

aggression: is it a bidirectional relation or is one of them the independent variable?

KOSFELD 2005OXYTOCIN INCREASES TRUST IN HUMANS.

Background:• Trust is important in all human societies – it is the

basis of all cooperative endeavors such as trade as well as being the foundation of family life.

• But mammals, such as humans, also have a propensity to insist on personal space and personal interest, so that any infringement is associated with unpleasant emotions such as fear and anger.

• Oxytocin has recently been discovered to be connected to the formation of social attachments in romantic and friendship relationships.

• It is also important in child-birth, and may be important in the establishment of mother-child attachment after birth.


Aim:• Kosfeld wanted to investigate the role that oxytocin

plays in establishing trustful relationships between humans, and to make this influence distinct from overall increase in risk-taking behavior.


Results:• Data analysis showed a statistically significant

difference between the oxytocin group and the placebo group when it came to investing money with a human trustee, but not in a computer trustee.


Conclusion:• Kosfeld concluded that Oxytocin causes increased

trust, rather than increased general risk taking, in human subjects.


Questions:• Kosfeld

KLINESMITH 2006. GUNS, TESTOSTERONE, AND AGGRESSION: AN EXPERIMENTAL TEST OF A MEDIATIONAL HYPOTHESIS

Background:• Many studies have shown a connection between levels

of testosterone and aggression in animals.• Studies have also supported the link between

testosterone and competitive behaviour in humans.• There is also substantial evidence that the presence of

a gun increases aggressive behaviour, but no research had previously linked guns, testosterone, and aggression.


Aim:• Klinesmith et al. hypothesized that testosterone acts

as a mediator – a connecting and enabling link – between guns and aggression.


Method:• Subjects were told that they would participate in an

experiment on taste perception.• They were first led to a room (one by one) where the

experimental group subjects were presented with a machine gun (a very realistic toy model) and told to disassemble and then reassemble it according to a the directions on a paper on the table.

• The control group subjects were instead presented with a complicated children’s game which they were also told to assemble and disassemble.

• Saliva samples were collected at Time 1, before the handling of the gun/children’s game, and at Time 2, afterwards.


Method:• After a fixed time, the researchers said that it was time

for the taste perception test. Subjects were presented with a glass of water in which a drop of hot sauce had been added. They were told that this had been prepared by the previous participant, and asked to rate the taste intensity.

• They were then asked to prepare the glass for the next participant using a glass of water and however much they wanted of the hot sauce. They were told this would be completely anonymously and the researcher left while the subject added the hot sauce. The researchers then took the glass away and measured the change in weight – thereby ascertaining the amount of hot sauce the subject had added.


Results:• subjects who interacted with the handgun showed

more of an increase in testosterone from Time 1 to Time 2 (Mean change = 62.05 pg/ml) than did those who interacted with the children’s game (Mean change = 0.68 pg/ml).

• Subjects who interacted with the gun added more hot sauce to the water (M = 13.61) than did those who interacted with the children’s toy (M = 4.23 grams).

• Finally, the amount of hot sauce placed in the cup was positively correlated with changes in testosterone level (r = .64).


Conclusion:• the researchers conclude that aggression is increased

by handling a gun, and that this increase in aggression happens because testosterone is increased.


Questions:• Why is testosterone increased by handling a gun?• Why is aggression increased by handling a gun?• Can we be sure that adding hot sauce is an aggressive

act?

ALVARES, GAIL ET AL. 2010. ACUTE EFFECTS OF INTRANASAL OXYTOCIN ON SUBJECTIVE AND BEHAVIORALRESPONSES TO SOCIAL REJECTION

Background:• Positive and supportive social relationships are essential

for health and well-being, acting as a buffer against the

impact of social stress• Social support is consistently shown to confer beneficial

physiological effects on cardiovascular, endocrine, and immune systems.

• However, instances of social isolation, exclusion, or social rejection from any social relationship can be devastating. Long-term social rejection increases the risk of psychosomatic and related psychosocial problems

• Furthermore, long-term social rejection has been linked to antisocial behaviors, depression, anxiety, feelings of alienation, suicidal ideation, and aggression


Background:• Both observationally and experimentally, research has

found that exclusion increases stress and associated salivary cortisol reactivity and shifts in negative emotional states.

• Growing recognition of the specialized sociomotivational systems within the mammalian brain has highlighted a role for the neuropeptide and hormone oxytocin (OT) as a key regulator for the processing of social information.

• It has been suggested that OT may moderate the outcomes associated with negative emotional states, stress, and anxiety. For example, intranasal OT increases prosocial behaviors in humans, such as increasing gaze to eye regions of faces, trust, emotion, recognition, cooperation and social memory.


Aim:• These findings, taken together, suggest that OT may

reduce the negative consequences of social stress and anxiety. Although social stress tasks have been employed previously, no study has yet examined whether OT may moderate the negative consequences of an explicitly overt social stressor, with no positive social cues present.


Hypothesis:• This study investigated whether OT may buffer against

subjective and behavioral responses to social ostracism during a ball-tossing game. We hypothesized that OT may act as a general buffer against social stress and therefore reduce the negative experiences of ostracism.


Method/Participants:• Seventy-four healthy men (n 37) and women (n 37)

recruited from the University of Sydney (age 18–53 years, M 21.91, SD 5.93).

• Exclusion was determined by a self report medical interview with a trained experimenter, and a pregnancy test administered onsite for all females. Exclusion criteria included pregnancy/breastfeeding, current symptoms of depression, panic attacks, psychosis, epilepsy, or substance dependence.

• After providing consent, participants were randomly assigned in a double-blind manner to receive OT or placebo and then randomly assigned to an ostracism or inclusion in a ball tossing game.


The ball tossing game:• The Cyberball Task is a virtual ball-tossing game

presented within an Internet web browser on a standard 24” computer screen. The game consists of two cartoon icons representing other virtual players “online” that toss the ball back and forth to each other and the participant. Participants were either included (thrown one third of ball throws) or ostracized (thrown twice initially and then ignored).


Results:


Discussion:• The present study investigated the effects of OT on

initial acute reactions to ostracism. Results replicated previous ostracism research by showing that cyber-ostracism had a damaging impact on fundamental needs: belonging, selfesteem, meaningful existence, control, and negative affect.

• They also found that socially included participants given OT reported an increased desire to play the game again with the virtual participants.


Questions:• Can we trust that oxytocin always brings us a positive

social approach or is OT dependent related which means that the positive effect only comes when there is social reason to be postive?

• How about the ecological validity in this case?

p eterson and h armon -j ones 2011. a nger and t estosterone : e vidence t hat s ituationally - i...

Documents

induced testosterone

inducing anger

greater anger

emotion of anger

threatened anger

salivery testosterone

selfreported anger

subjective experience