Biological approach revision guide

Hormones and pheromones

For each of the following questions, be able to do the following:

1. Think about which terms and/or theories would be necessary to define or explain.
2. Provide 2 - 3 studies that could be used to answer the question.
3. How would you demonstrate critical thinking relevant to the question?
4. How would different command terms lead to different responses? (SAQ: Outline,
describe, explain); ERQ (Discuss, evaluate, contrast, to what extent)

Question 1. Discuss one or more hormones and their effect on human behaviour.

Key vocabulary / Attraction and Testosterone, Dopamine and Neurotransmitters, Adrenaline

description of theory and Cortisol and fMRI

Research Von Hippel – Attraction in risk-taking

Fischer - Dopamine neurons
McCaugh and Cahil- Adrenaline and Cortisol
Critical thinking T – It is testable since many studies have been done
E – There is a lot of evidence from these studies that support the fact that
hormones have effects on human behavior
A – Yes it is applicable, because hormones affect our everyday lives
C – The test measures and accurately asses the aim
U – It is unbiased because hormones are not influenced by bias
P – Not predictable
Different command SAQs: outline, describe, explain; ERQs: Evaluate research
terms

Question 2. Discuss the potential role of pheromones in human behaviour.

Key vocabulary / Hormone - Hormones are your body's chemical messengers. They travel in
description of theory your bloodstream to tissues or organs.
Pheromone - A pheromone is a secreted or excreted chemical factor that
triggers a social response in members of the same species. Pheromones are
chemicals capable of acting like hormones outside the body of the secreting
individual, to affect the behavior of the receiving individuals.
Research Wedekind
- Investigate whether human body odors and female preferences for
them are dependent on a person’s MHC-genes.
- Double-blind experiment
- 47 females, 47 males
- Men were asked to wear a t-shirt (given by the researchers) for 2 days
and women had to smell them on the third day and rate them from 1
to 10.
- First condition – 3 t-shirts from men with immune systems similar to
their own
- Second condition – 3 t-shirts from men with immune systems
dissimilar to their own
- Women preferred odors of men with MHC-genes dissimilar to their
own.
Zhou (2014)
- The study was a selected sample in which they selected 96 healthy
nonsmoking young adults of which 24 were heterosexual males 24
heterosexual women 24 gay men and 24 lesbian women.
- Participants were asked to identify gender of a stickmen that was
moving on the screen.
- They performed the task at around the same time of the day on three
consecutive days while being continuously exposed to either
androstadienone mixed with cloves, estratetraenol mixed with cloves,
or a control solution, also mixed with cloves. The participants only
carried out the task while smelling one of the solutions each day. The
scents were counterbalanced to control for order effects.
- The researchers found that when heterosexual females and gay
males were exposed to AND, they had a higher rate of identifying the
stick figure as “masculine” than the control group. AND had no
significant effect on heterosexual men or lesbian women. By contrast,
smelling EST systematically biases heterosexual males toward
perceiving the walkers as more feminine. The effect was not
statistically significant in bisexual and lesbian women.
Critical thinking Wedekind:
+ High replicability: Pheromones is supported by many studies, for example
Wedekind's study has also been replicated by Jacob et al (2002) Yamazaki et
al (1973) and shared the similar results in the male sample where they also
showed preference towards females of different MHC.
-Theory is reductionist: it over simplifies the behaviour of human mate
selection by bringing it down to the MHC, since it could be affect by other
external factors such as cognitive or socio-culture factors.
+Double blind ex: minimize demand characteristic, however deception then
becomes a problem -> in the end they did debrief so it is ethical
 - Not representative since they are in similar in age and culture
Zhou:

Different command SAQs: outline, describe, explain; ERQs: Evaluate research

terms

Question 3. Discuss the use of one or more research methods in the study of hormones and/or
pheromones.

Key vocabulary / Lab Experiment, cause and effect, IV & DV, ecological validity,
description of theory artificiality, reliability, etc...

Research Ronay and von Hippel (2010) - skateboard - Lab experiment, IV was the
presence of an attractive researcher and the DV was if the skateboarder
will commit to the trick (this doesn't include failing the trick only if they will
commit). Lab experiment because it was conducted under highly
controlled conditions and could have other outlining factors in the real life.
Newcomer et al (1999) - stress on memory – three groups with different
levels of cortisol asked to recall a prose paragraph – a true experiment

Critical thinking + controlled environment --> cause and effect relationship (relation
between adrenaline and risk taking: (Ronay von Hippel et al))
+ replicable --> reliability --> conformation of results (e.g. Newcomer et al
& meany et al)

- Too controlled –> can become artificial --> low ecological validity
- reductionist approach --> over simplification of human behavior
(Wedekind et al). Often when studying cause and effect, several external
factors may influence the results (especially in natural environment such
as Ronay and von Hippel (2010)), if these are not considered the study
may lack internal validity
Different command SAQs: outline, describe, explain; ERQs: Evaluate, contrast
terms
Question 4. Discuss ethical considerations in the study of hormones and/or pheromones.

Key vocabulary / Informed consent

description of theory Deception – for example when using placebo
Debriefing
Research Newcomer (1999) - injection of cortisol (low or high level)

Critical thinking When the participants get injected they can´t withdraw anymore. So the
researcher needs to use the informed consent where they need to inform
the participant about the effects cortisol can have on them.

In the studies with placebo the researchers deceive them but this is
needed for the study and can´t be done differently. Therefore the
debriefing needs to be done properly.

Different command SAQs: outline, describe, explain; ERQs: No other command term may be
terms used.