Testosterone Affects Transient Readiness for Action

描述(由申请人提供)：先前的研究表明，睾丸激素 既与反社会行为有关，也与中立甚至是中性的行为有关 亲社会的。调节变量可能导致睾丸素具有 积极或消极的影响尚未确定，条件是 预测睾丸激素是否与亲社会或反社会有关 其行为仍不清楚。还有一个更基本的问题是 睾丸素对行为有任何因果影响，或者它只是 根据行为体验的不同而不同。拟议的研究将 检查睾丸激素的短期影响，并考虑这些影响如何导致 对不同个体有不同的长期影响。要测试的模型 认为睾丸激素是短暂唤醒和集中注意力的来源 根据个人的兴趣和动机，导致采取行动 这可能是亲社会的，也可能是反社会的。成功的行动是 让个人感到满意会增加睾丸素，而失败的行为 会降低睾丸素，而这些变化反过来又会 修改对首选行为的推动力。总而言之，睾丸激素会 加强与个人个性和目标一致的行动， 而这一行动的后果将反馈到影响睾丸激素 级别，影响进一步的行动。该模型将首先进行测试，有四个 实验和相关研究。这些实验将检验这些假设 经皮睾酮治疗将(A)增加胆量和 主导感；(B)增加与环境的接触，以及 参与社会活动；(C)增加坚持性和重点 注意执行实验室任务；和(D)增加对 对活动、竞争和攻击性的含蓄态度。这个 相关研究将考察优势和教养作为调节因素 将睾丸素的作用导向反社会或亲社会的变量 大学生中的行为。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Prior research indicates that testosterone is related both to antisocial behavior and to behavior that is neutral or even prosocial. The moderator variables that might lead testosterone to have either positive or negative effects have not been identified, and conditions that predict whether testosterone will be associated with prosocial or antisocial behavior remain unclear. There is also a more basic question of whether testosterone has any causal effects on behavior at all, or whether it simply varies in response to behavioral experiences. The proposed research will examine short-term effects of testosterone and consider how these might lead to different long-term effects in different individuals. The model to be tested regards testosterone as a source of transient arousal and focused attention that, depending upon an individual's interests and motives, lead toward actions that may be either prosocial or antisocial. Successful action that is gratifying to the individual will increase testosterone, and failed action that is discouraging will decrease testosterone, and these changes in turn will modify the impetus toward preferred behavior. In summary, testosterone will potentiate action that is congruent with an individual's personality and goals, and the consequences of this action will feed back to affect testosterone level, affecting further action. The model will be tested first with four experiments and a correlational study. The experiments will test the hypotheses that transdermal testosterone treatments will (a) increase boldness and feelings of dominance; (b) increase engagement with the environment and participation in social activity; (c) increase persistence and focused attention in performing laboratory tasks; and (d) increase favorability of implicit attitudes toward activity, competition, and aggression. The correlational study will examine dominance and nurturance as moderator variables that guide the effects of testosterone toward antisocial or prosocial behavior among college students.