Understanding and Preventing Violence, Volume 2: Biobehavioral Influences (1994)
Chapter: ADRENOMEDULLARY FUNCTION AND HUMAN AGGRESSION
on behavior. There is ample evidence from studies with lower vertebrates and infrahuman primates (see Brain, 1977–1979a) that associations between hormones and changes in aggressiveness can be demonstrated in both male and female organisms. It seems especially relevant to comment on the repeated suggestion (see reviews by Dalton, 1964; Lloyd and Weisz, 1975; Bardwick, 1976; Steiner and Carroll, 1977) that the increased hostility and irritability of some females evident in the premenstrual tension (PMT) syndrome has a hormonal component. Various authorities have implicated prolactin, progesterone, testosterone, or even aldosterone (an adrenal hormone that influences water and electrolyte balance). Although hormones may play a role in sensations of discomfort, it seems unlikely that "raging hormones" alone account for the violence sometimes associated with the female reproductive cycle—factors such as membership in religious groups and expectancy of PMT symptoms have a bearing on how individuals react to their physiological changes.
What of the male? It is certainly true that some lower vertebrates and infrahuman primate males show seasonal changes in HPG function that can be related to changes in aggression associated with reproductive activity. Although the cycles of male reproductive hormones are not as obvious as those of the female, there is some evidence of cyclicity (with acute variations) in some animals (e.g., cattle). Sex may certainly influence gonadal function in men. A study of 101 college volunteers has suggested that testosterone titer is positively associated with the number of orgasms achieved through masturbation (Monti et al., 1977) but that there is little relationship among the hormonal change, the Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory, and a rating for "attributed aggression." Frodi (1977), in a study on 80 college freshmen, found that sexual arousal inhibited aggressive behavior mediated by deliberate angering, possibly as a consequence of an elevation of "anger-induced self-consciousness."
ADRENOMEDULLARY FUNCTION AND HUMAN AGGRESSION
In line with the studies on boys by Magnusson (1987, 1988), Woodman (1983) has reviewed the predictive power (in terms of assessing dangerousness) of examining the ratio of norepinephrine to epinephrine in response to a period of anticipation in a variety of incarcerated 18- to 45-year-old males (with no evidence of brain damage, renal dysfunction, or sensory defects, and a verbal I.Q.
