Hi According to tape, GH was biological female changing to male, hence the testosterone injections, which tape reports decreased use of "other" pronouns. Such pronouns resurfaced as testosterone wore off.
The finding certainly appears to match stereotypes about men and women, consistent with research on interest in "people" versus "things" in the two sexes. But a challenge given these kinds of associations is still to come up with a causal mechanistic model for how testosterone might increase use of "other" pronouns (i.e., increase interest in other people, in Pennebaker's description). In teaching these kinds of associations (e.g., genes <-> intelligence, hormone levels <-> performance on mental rotation tasks, ...), I always find awkward the lack of a proper mechanistic model for the relationships. Things got pretty messy when I tried (in a VERY SIMPLE MINDED way) using Google to make the causal connection between testosterone and interest in people. One step would be to figure out how testosterone injections could affect the brain. This appears to be a two-stage process. First, injections of testosterone produce increased levels of tryptophan. Second, tryptophan appears to be precursor to serotonin. See following two sources: http://content.karger.com/ProdukteDB/produkte.asp?Aktion=ShowAbstract&ArtikelNr=000135710&Ausgabe=240300&ProduktNr=223855 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serotonin Next step would be to document effects of increased serotonin. Here, literature appears to related higher levels of serotonin to more positive (or less negative ... a la SSRIs) moods (this association would itself call for much more detailed elaboration). See: http://neuroskeptic.blogspot.com/2011/10/life-with-low-serotonin-revisited.html To complete the chain, we find that more positive mood is associated with more interest in other people. See page 7 of following talk by Bower: http://files.blog-city.com/files/J05/86734/b/emotion_and_social_judgments.pdf So we have completed a nice causal chain (testosterone -> tryptophan -> serotonin -> positive mood -> interest in others), but it turns out to generate the OPPOSITE result from the reported findings ... that is, increased testosterone produced LESS use of "other" pronouns, rather than more. Moreover, the latter stages would appear to be a challenge for other findings as well; specifically, males do tend to be less neurotic, anxious, and depressed than females (i.e., more positive mood??), yet less interested in "people" on interest inventories. I haven't seen the Pennebaker book or the extended tape, so don't know whether a possible model is presented there. And people with more knowledge in this area can perhaps come up with an alternative, workable model. Take care Jim James M. Clark Professor of Psychology 204-786-9757 204-774-4134 Fax [email protected] >>> Michael Britt <[email protected]> 28-Dec-11 9:14:07 AM >>> I had the good pleasure of interviewing Dr. James Pennebaker, the author of The Secret Life of Pronouns and while I'm planning to release the full interview later today I thought I would extract an interesting snippet on a study he did with "GH". Pennebaker analyzed "GH"'s diaries (in particular his use of pronouns, adjectives, etc.) as he took testosterone shots in the process of having a sex change operation from a man to woman. Here's a 2 1/2 minute snippet on this topic: http://soundcloud.com/thepsychfiles/how-testosterone-affects-how Interesting and kinda funny. Michael Michael A. Britt, Ph.D. [email protected] http://www.ThePsychFiles.com Twitter: mbritt --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13251.645f86b5cec4da0a56ffea7a891720c9&n=T&l=tips&o=15037 or send a blank email to leave-15037-13251.645f86b5cec4da0a56ffea7a89172...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=15040 or send a blank email to leave-15040-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
