Understanding and Preventing Violence, Volume 2: Biobehavioral Influences (1994)
Chapter: INFRAHUMAN PRIMATE STUDIES
has a weak direct action on the aggression of boys and, indeed, may have a stronger indirect action on this potential by increasing the mother's permissiveness for aggression (by exhaustion?).
HORMONES AND PUBERTY
STUDIES ON NONPRIMATES
In most species investigated, the prepubertal male is markedly less aggressive than his mature counterpart in a variety of situations. Maturation of social aggressiveness in the male mouse has been described (Williams and Scott, 1953–1954; Brain and Nowell, 1969; Cairns, 1972; Bernard et al., 1975; Barkley and Goldman, 1977). Indeed, the increased aggressiveness and the surge of androgens that precede puberty have been correlated in mice (McKinney and Desjardins, 1973). Similar maturation effects have been claimed in the domestic cockerel (Gallus domesticus; Sharp et al., 1977); the golden hamster (Mesocricetus auratus; Goldman and Swanson, 1975), the Mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguicalatus; Kaplan and Hyland, 1972), and guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus; Willis et al., 1977). There are also puberty-related increases in pituitary and plasma luteinizing hormone in many organisms. In some seasonally breeding species, this gonadotropin may exert a direct effect on fighting propensity (reviewed in Brain, 1977; see below).
Puberty is also associated with changing body signals (visual and olfactory) in many species, which may be related to hormones and can partially account for the changed fighting behavior. In many species, the anabolic (body size-increasing) effects of male sex hormone account for a surge in growth around the time of puberty. Threat and attack behaviors in lower vertebrates may be related directly to body size. Archer (1988) has also suggested that androgens influence the ''distractibility" of animals, rendering males more repetitive and "single-minded" in their activities than females. This change may also have a role in attack behavior.
INFRAHUMAN PRIMATE STUDIES
Dixson (1980) reviewed the data concerning puberty and aggression in a range of primate species. Field studies indicate behavioral changes during adolescence in male primates, but further research is needed on this topic (especially since the available evidence does not support any simple conclusion about the effects
