Essay on Guns, Testosterone, and Aggression Article Review

Robert Sapolsky’s collection of essays “The Trouble with Testosterone” is a thorough examination of the evolutionary roots of human behavior, by discussing the biology behind it. The book contains eighteen essays that explore this issue. The Stanford neuroscientist is a great writer: he concisely explains his views in each essay and makes it funny and easy for a layman to understand and absorb. He unpacks complex scientific ideas and explains them. The essay that I found most interesting was the titular essay, which was an examination of flawed logical reasoning that biologists make when they think there is a causal relationship between testosterone and aggression. Sapolsky, in that essay, explains why that is not true. These essays did not

A secure link between violent video games and violent behaviors has not yet been proven. Studies have shown numerous design flaws and have used unreliable sources such as noise blast tests to test their theory. Aforementioned only one-eighth of attackers have exhibited interests in video games. A report has not yet been proven to link violent video games with violent behaviors in school shootings but show that behavioral problems come from violent movies and other resources.

Another experiment to study the effects of playing violent video games on aggressive behavior was created by Craig Anderson and Karen Dill. In this experiment there were two games chosen, Wolfenstein 3D, a violent video game in which your goal

This article is a very useful source. Is useful because it answers the question, “Do violent video games cause an increase in aggression.” The question is answered thoroughly by the author because they cited recent studies, examples, and peer reviewed or scholarly sources that all concluded that violent video games cause an increase in aggression. The author is objective because they countered their argument by stating that

Carnagey, N. L., Anderson, C. A., & Bushman, B. J. (2007). The effect of video game violence on physiological. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43, 489-496. Retrieved from www.sciencediet.com

Testosterone is a hormone that is more concentrated in men than in women as it is a male sex hormone, it is thought to influence aggression from a young age onwards, due to its actions on the brain areas involved in controlling aggression. One research study that was done on testosterone involved measuring the testosterone found in the saliva of violent and non-violent criminals. This study was concluded by Dabbs et al

Anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) can change the person’s social behaviors, such as their sexual satiety when they are adolescence and could also make them have aggressive behaviors. This is more likely to happen in an adolescent brain because it is more susceptible than adult brains. (Montalto, Salas-Ramirez, Sisk, 2010). Aggression is also the most reported side effects of the use of steroids in adults and teenagers. Those that used AAS were most likely to be aggressive and act in violent ways when those who were not. This is what the name “roid rage” comes from. (Lumia, McGinnis, 2010). The use in steroid use has increased dramatically in recent years with males. It is mostly used among adolescent males aging from as young as 11 to gain body mass and strength for completive sports. Using of this drug can serve life-long consequences and be permanent. (Lumia,

Anderson, Craig A. (2003). An update on the effects of playing violent video games. Retrieved October 5, 2010 from http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs10/fa09/dis/02/extra/update_violence.pdf

Interaction between hormones and behavior has shown to be linked to higher aggression and hostility. The aggression found relates to sexual maturation and genetic characteristics. Androgens and testosterone are major influences of aggression. Hormones affect behavior and emotions. These aggressive effects can stem from contemporaneous organizational influences.

Aggression is a natural part of human behavior, and can even be adaptive in certain situations. However, when aggression manifests itself in violent behaviors, it becomes problematic. Patterns of aggression change throughout childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood, and these changes usually differ between males and females (Loeber, 1997). Physical aggression is typically greatest early in life and decreases during adolescence, whereas more serious violence tends to increase with age, particularly during adolescence (Loeber, 1997). Despite the changes that occur in aggressive tendencies throughout childhood and adolescence, aggression is seen as a very stable trait, almost as stable as

The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical review of a recent study examining the effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior in young children. Let me first provide a brief summary of the study. (a) The hypothesis is that violent video games cause aggression in young children. (b) The target population is young children. (c) The samples are young school age children and the sample sizes are sixty children separated into two groups with 30 children being in the experimental group and 30 children being in the control group. (d) The independent variable is violent video games and the dependent variable is aggression. (e) The result of the experiment were

The number of school shootings by teenagers causes researchers great concern. Researchers wonder if there is a correlation between the increased numbers in young adolescents playing video games containing violence, and the increased numbers of teenage school shootings. Brad Bushman believes there is a correlation between “video game violence and violence” (2013, p. 376) To explore the correlation, one must first understand the definition of aggression. Eden and Eshet-Alkalai use Anderson and Bushman’s (2003) definition: “who define aggression as a behavior that is directed toward another person (either virtually or physically) in a purpose of causing harm” (2014, p. 451). According to Eden and Eshet-Alkalai: “in their study of aggression, Little, Henrich, Jones, and Hawley, (2003) claim that the most common types of aggression among children and adolescents are Extrovert Aggression, in which a child attacks another child, either physically or verbally, and Interpersonal Aggression, in which a child or group of children attempt to harm the relations between other children…” (2014, p. 451). Olson et al. claim that, “For studies to be useful for policy, aggression must be clearly defined and validly measured with a focus on practical (not just statistical) significance” (2009, p. 189). Once the definition of aggression is established, researchers can evaluate the risk factors, exposure to violence in video games, the length of the exposure, and other environmental factors, of

Lavinia et. al. (2010) describes a study that calculated physiology factors on a person’s predisposition to aggression in intimate relationships. The study looked at physiological reactivity, which is defined as changes to a person’s body brought about by a stimulus. The study found that individuals that are antisocial and violent are

Both glands produce two distinct hormones, but produce differing amounts of each hormone. Masculine hormones such as androgens and testosterone are predominately produced by male testes. These hormones at high levels can be related to aggressive behavior regardless of sex, but high levels are most commonly found in males. High levels of feminine hormones or estrogen, most commonly found in females, have recently been linked to aggressive behavior as well. While high levels of estrogen in females and high levels of testosterone in males have been linked to aggressive behavior, normal levels of these hormones have been known to cause aggression as well. Although these hormones have been related to human behavior, scientists have concluded that these hormones alone do not dictate behavior (Morris & Maisto, 2005).

A major opposition to violence video games leading to aggression is that the research that was done is not a valid research. Henry Jenkins said “...most of those studies are inconclusive and many have been criticized on methodological grounds” (2). The studies are not inconclusive because in the studies that the researchers do they