Do you think agression is linked to testosterone?

"Aggression is linked to testosterone, mix that with a mental disorder and you have violence".





I was organizing my "watch list" here in Yahoo, and I read this answer from a contributor.





How much do you agree or not with this?





I know so many non aggressive men, that I am not sure if this statement is absolutely valid. What do you think of this?

Do you think agression is linked to testosterone?
All humans are equally capable of violent behavior. And, violence is not just a physical phenomenon. It manifests in intellectual, psychological and spiritual ways as well, including revenge / punishment / war / prisons / verbal abuse / racism / exploitation / self-harm / inward expressions such as depression / etc.





I have seen enough studies to make me sick that connect testosterone with violence. Every single study that does that is correlational, never once causal. The focus on testosterone in our scientific inquiry of violence began within medical science, which until recently suffered intensively from the western patriarchal fiduciary concept of healthcare, that physicians should make all the decisions for the patient. Medical researchers were focused on THEIR perceived responsibility to reduce violence. But, their knowledge base was biochemical and their perspective was inductive rather than deductive. Instead of seeing the whole person, they saw the cellular bits and pieces of a person and worked outward from there. They conducted especially those early research projects on testosterone with much more interest in the hormone itself than the person or the person's responses to physiological events. Testosterone medical research is about understanding the hormone, not the person.





The science of psychology during that same time frame, roughly 1890's to 1950's, was all a'flutter over new pharmaceutical and physiological interventions related to various mental illnesses. On the other hand, the bright new frontiers of psychological BEHAVIORAL research went military and classified toward the end of WWII and trying to dig into that era related to violence is a mess, mostly because a lot of that research was conducted by monsters. And, sadly, most of the German and Allied research into violence was to figure out how to INDUCE violence rather than understanding its etiologies. But, interestingly, testosterone gets basically ignored during that era when research started heating up in behavioral science.





What I can contribute here from all that reading is the recollection that violence is a cascade that all humans are vulnerable to. NO human is incapable of violence. The cascade that "triggers" violence is well understood. What isn't well understood is the other side of the equation. Although all humans can be "triggered", there is an individualized bell curve of resistence to that cascade. Some people are more quickly and easily triggered into violence. Others are seldom triggered.





The research that goes into understanding what goes on subjectively inside of someone's head is qualititative research, as opposed to quantitative research. Qualitative research is considered fluffy and weak and unusable by many. For example, when you ask someone to rate their pain, that measurement is subjective. Or, if you ask a postpartum mother if she is depressed, that is subjective reporting. Subjective data is excruciatingly difficult to crunch all together. What goes on inside of people's heads to resist violence triggers is subjective and although there is copious research, it gets shunted aside as fluffy and not taught too much and instead the biochemical testosterone-based research gets favored in the name of emperical veracity, which is good and understandable.





Recent new statistical computer methods of crunching subjective qualitative data is allowing for more solid work in this subject. AND, extraordinary new imaging technologies are allowing researchers to explore the brain. Scientific journals are exploding these days with solid new revelations. Read "Neuroscience" journal to keep up with all those happenings. We bluster about conjuring up explanations about the mysteries of ourselves and the world around around us. And, we resent it when science finds solid evidence to explain something, like why are yawns contagious? We now know that's caused by mirror neurons we all have in our brains. But, at least trying to understand violence from a complex neural consciousness perspective is a step up from merely trying to explain it all away as a testosterone event.





And, even more holistically, society still balks at perceiving how everything everywhere is connected. For example, noise pollution SIGNIFICANTLY increases the violent crime rate. But, instead of reducing noise pollution and preventing the disease it causes, we spend our time and money on building more prisons. Duh. And, we raise children in complete confusion related to long-term results. What damages children in early childhood that might set them down the path of violent behaviors? For example, misogyny is associated with early damage related to womb-like sensations of "engulfment" or suffocation which is transferred to a mistrust of women and a fear of being dominated by them. Much more occurs in childhood to launch that mental disease, but what exactly PREDISPOSES one child or another to experience "engulfment"? As ridiculous as this sounds, it might be as simple as suctioning mucous out of newborn's airways. Being placed on a ventilator is traumatic to adults. But, consider how that is only one/zillionth of that person's life experiences and consciousness. For a newborn, his life experiences and foundational core of consciousness amounts to light, cold and suffocating suctioning. So, the horror and suffering of suffocation sensations amounts to 30% of that child's initial consciousness. You bet that's going to shape him for the rest of his life, not to mention then taking the little guy down the hall, strapping him spread eagle on a board and whacking part of his penis off. We need to really get serious about comprehending the impact of our earliest life experiences on the rest of our lives. Patriarchal society has traditionally and most erroneously dismissed child-rearing as "woman's work" and unimportant. We must get more intelligent than that.





Then, geneticists opened up the human genome and now we're all agog over genetic predispositions for violence. Hey! How easy. Let's just blame it all on our genes! But, that again is too simple because it does not explain why the MAJORITY of humans rise above violence. With so much focus on testosterone and genetics, we again fail to lucidly and honestly examine the role of the human conscience in violence. Back in the 40's and 50's when Eskimos heard about spanking, they despaired to the point of suicide because they could not comprehend such madness of the conscience. Violence is significantly socialized. We live in a dichotomous society rampant with the good / bad oppositional paradigm, which breeds hostility, fear and violence. When children are exposed to violence, they become more violent. We must explore violence not from pat linear answers like testosterone or genetics, which offer clues about VERY slight differences among us related to how we respond to violence triggers. We've got to look at the bigger more complex holistic perspective.





An excellent novel to read sometime about the rise in conscience of a man who struggled with misogyny and racism is David Bradley's Faulkner award winning novel, "The Chaneysville Incidence", (1987) which examines well the subjective illuminations that one man achieved that enabled him to rise above severe damage and accultuations of hate and violence.
Reply:Thank you Flyinghorse. (I see you love dance. My granddaughter is a surprisingly beautiful new dancer. She lives for dance.) Report It

Reply:Would make a great research topic. However, I believe in mind over matter more. I think as human we should intelligent enough to think ourselves through. So whether it is Testosterone or PMS, we should be sensible creatures.





So no. I mean c'mon....would you win a case with "But my dear judge, my testosterone level was unusually high at that time".
Reply:Like every other subject here, there is a wealth of opinions but sadly very little actual fact.


Almost every one answering this question needs to stop giving sexist opinions and start reading actual research on every subject being discussed here, including testosterone.





Some of the answers are so obviously based on anti-male sexism....





By the way, there is NO link whatever. The cause of violence is our upside-down civilization. It is environmental, not hormonal.


The thought is asinine unless one can find a way to explain that 150 years ago, men were just as, if not more, inundated with testosterone by far less violent.


Hmmmmm. Violence seems to have grown along side and in similar amounts as feminism. There is a more likely culprit.
Reply:Testosterone challenges the body and mind. If that challenge is not met with proper discipline, or love, aggression often manifests.





If you believe there exists a spirit in the body and mind, as I do, the relationship between chemistry and spirit is mysterious, but in this case there is no mystery that the spirit commands behavior.





If you believe that our behavior is purely electro-chemical, then roll the dice...
Reply:not at all. I am a male 6'6" and I have had one quarter of the women that I have been involved with be abusive to me. and no I did not hit back. so yes some men do become aggressive with to much testosterone,but at the same time some women are already the aggressive type. so more often than not it is a coin flip.
Reply:Testosterone has a facilitative effect on violence, but violence itself is more of a contingent strategy that is normally distributed among humans; some expressing more violence, some expressing less.


This is a tentative conclusion, as violence is not that well understood, despite what social scientists think.
Reply:Eh... in some way, but there is clearly a lot of other factors as well. Too many men are total sweethearts and just as masculine as any other guy. IMO an abnormal amount of aggression is probably a mental issue if the person is like that normally. I mean, women can be that way too, with less testosterone to go on. But then again, maybe not much is even needed, maybe one body or brain just deals better than another.
Reply:I think disproportionate male aggression is a mixture of culture and biology, including testosterone.
Reply:I do agree that testosterone has something to do with aggressiveness. However, I do not think it would lead to violence. Testosterone can do a lot of things, but I do not think that violence is one of them. The idea that testosterone can lead to violence is yet to be proven. However, this is an interesting topic, and I am hoping there will be a research about this.





On the other hand, I do agree that mental disorder can cause violence, but I don't think it needs to be coupled with high level of testosterone before it can cause violence
Reply:You conveniently forget that a woman has testesterone too, just like a man has oestrogen. Any kind of grandular or hormonal disorder can effect behaviour in man or woman.
Reply:It may increase urges or impulses of aggression, but nothing a sane person can't *easily* handle. Aggressive *behavior* is a different matter.





Plenty of people take enought hormone steroids to die very young but never have "roid rage".





Similar to my views on drunken violence, people just like excuses to give into their base impulses. Hard drugs, halucinogenics, etc may be different.
Reply:sometimes it is, and women have testosterone too, beer raises the levels of testosterone in women and in men.
Reply:yes, but not an excuse for it.
Reply:It IS linked to testosterone - this is why people abusing steroids develop the symptom of "roid rage" - its a part of being male, but it is one reason tend to be more aggressive, on average, than females. There are individuals who break this rule, but in general, males ARE more aggressive than females.
Reply:I think agression is linked to testosterone along with a whole bunch of other psychological and environmental variables .





For ex. Women who live in environments in which violence and war is condoned can be more agressive than males who live in a peaceful setting.





A high frequency of exposure to violence can lead to desinsitization, and the "agression" eventually becomes labelled as normal behavior in a person's subconscience.





Less expsure to violence=less agression. Testosterone can predispose someone to agression, but it's not a excuse for agression.





Self control is the most important variable as well. If the person has not been taught to take responsibility for their action (bad upbringing), they won't take anything seriously.
Reply:During the week I worked for the DEA, before I failed the drug test, I did some research on the definite connection between teen-age boys taking steroids and being involved in more fights, date rape and regular rape.


Also, in prison, they have done studies proving that violent offenders and rapists had higher testosterone levels, and if given female hormones, were better able to control their impulses.


All men who have a high testosterone level do not correlate with uncontrollable aggression and crime, but crime and uncontrollable aggression correlate with high testosterone levels.
Reply:I remember reading a while ago about a study that was conducted with prison inmates that tested whether or not violent offenders had higher levels of testosterone that the general population.





They were not found to have significantly higher levels.
Reply:They are linked. But most people jump to the illogical conclusion that this means that testosterone causes aggression. In fact it has been found that testosterone sometimes rises after an aggressive behavior instead of before. Other neurotransmitters, such as vasopressin, also have implications in aggression but are often overlooked. Key here is not to jump to the conclusion that because the two are linked that one causes the other. It could very well be that an increase in aggressive behavior causes an increase in testosterone levels.
Reply:No if that would be the case bodybuilders on roids would have to be the most agressive people, that is clearly not the case. It might be a contribuiting factor, however testosterone might be a contribuiting factor to anything ranging from protein synthesis an effective immune system to sheer genius. Painting testosterone as evil is just another of feminism lame attempts to paint men evil.





I think the same was said about blacks "back in the day". Clearly if they would have been oh so agressive they wouldnt have been enslaved like that in the first place.
Reply:I was just thinking about posting this. In my Juvenile delinquency class, it is said that people who have lots of testosterone are violent, which included females. I know plenty of guys who are probably breathing testosterone who are not violent at all. I dislike this scientific theory.
Reply:It is linked to aggression in animals (most of the studies are on mice) but there is no clear and consistent link in humans.





Edit


Because the popular belief that testosterone = violence is so strong I should include a reference that interested people can check. The following is a good review and stands the test of time (i.e the conclusions have not been overturned) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20296...
Reply:Testosterone can cause anger and violent behavior, this has been demonstrated to be true by a large number of men who have been abusing testosterone.
Reply:I have a mental disorder and I'm aggressive, but I would never ever hurt or harm somebody, I'd only do that if they'd provoke me. I'm also a heavy weight lifter, which is the cause of my very high testosterone levels, but I find ways to release my anger.
Reply:Hormones, testosterone in particular are said to 'organise' a behaviour during development or 'activate' the behaviour under certain conditions. This tends to lead to unwarranted assumptions. A simple hormone cannot, by itself, organise a complex behaviour. It can only encourage or inhibit the development of structures that are already present, by perhaps sensitising receptors preferentially for a potential later behaviour





Likewise, the idea that testosterone 'activates' a behaviour leads to the assumption that it causes it, when it may simply facilitate the occurrence of the behaviour.





Among humans, male aggression is seen as more of a problem than female aggression and, if it is assumed that females do not fight, then they are less likely to be studied. Studies of male fighting have focused on demonstrating the hormonal link. If there is no clear link for females, there are not likely to be any published.


http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Testost...
Reply:I agree to a certain extent. But some men have more testosterone than others. Once again, you cannot generalize.
Reply:I think there is a link between aggression and testosterone but it's not the sole factor mitigating violence. It's one of several factors.


I won't bother to provide a link. The link Twilight provided does a good job of explaining this in better detail.
Reply:Is it linked to it. They proved this so much males have higher car insurance because they are suppose to be more aggressive drivers. But it's not the only reason.
Reply:I really do not know, but would hazard a guess that there exists a parabola curve regarding this; hence I would agree with you that this statement is flawed.
Reply:Testosterone is biologically linked with activity levels, aggression and libido. That is scientifically evidenced, not conjecture.





This does not mean that men with high testosterone levels will commit DV obviously, but I suspect there is a correlation though I'm not aware of any research on it.





*Edit* Included in sources paper to back up the science, which makes clear testosterone is just one of many factors. Exactly how important it is in aggression is up for debate but it certainly seems to be a factor*
Reply:check out this website i dont know if it will answer your question but you can try





http://www.canada.com/topics/bodyandheal...
Reply:Clearly I don't buy that either; whereas there are two areas of the brain that directly regulae or affect aggression. They are the amygdala and the hypothalmus; with the hypothalmus being known to have caused it through electrical stimulation; more importantly it has receptors that help determine aggression levels with the neurotransmitters serotonin and vasopressin; various experiments have proven that testosterone has nothing to do with it.