This is consistent with findings from James M. Dabbs, Jr (proclaimer: he was my mentor many years ago). He found increased sociability and interest in engaging with others for males with higher testosterone.
Paul On Dec 28, 2011, at 12:11 PM, Jim Clark wrote: > 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=13441.4e79e96ebb5671bdb50111f18f263003&n=T&l=tips&o=15040 > or send a blank email to > leave-15040-13441.4e79e96ebb5671bdb50111f18f263...@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=15041 or send a blank email to leave-15041-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
