Mazur A, Booth A
Public Affairs Program, Syracuse University, NY 13244, USA.
Behav Brain Sci. 1998 Jun;21(3):353-63; discussion 363-97.
In men, high levels of endogenous testosterone (T) seem to encourage behavior intended to dominate--to enhance one's status over--other people. Sometimes dominant behavior is aggressive, its apparent intent being to inflict harm on another person, but often dominance is expressed nonaggressively. Sometimes dominant behavior takes the form of antisocial behavior, including rebellion against authority and low breaking. Measurement of T at a single point in time, presumably indicative of a man's basal T level, predicts many of these dominant or antisocial behaviors. T not only affects behavior but also responds to it. The act of competing for dominant status affects male T levels in two ways. First, T rises in the face of a challenge, as if it were an anticipatory response to impending competition. Second, after the competition, T rises in winners and declines in losers. Thus, there is a reciprocity between T and dominance behavior, each affecting the other. We contrast a reciprocal model, in which T level is variable, acting as both a cause and effect of behavior, with a basal model, in which T level is assumed to be a persistent trait that influences behavior. An unusual data set on Air Force veterans, in which data were collected four times over a decade, enables us to compare the basal and reciprocal models as explanations for the relationship between T and divorce. We discuss sociological implications of these models.
在男性中，高水平的内源性睾酮（T）似乎会促使他们表现出想要支配他人——提升自己相对于他人的地位——的行为。有时支配行为具有攻击性，其明显意图是伤害他人，但通常支配行为是以非攻击性的方式表现出来的。有时支配行为会采取反社会行为的形式，包括反抗权威和违规行为。在某个时间点测量的T，大概能反映一个人的基础T水平，它能预测许多这类支配或反社会行为。T不仅会影响行为，行为也会对T产生影响。争夺支配地位的行为会通过两种方式影响男性的T水平。首先，面对挑战时T会升高，就好像它是对即将到来的竞争的一种预期反应。其次，竞争之后，T在获胜者中升高，在失败者中下降。因此，T和支配行为之间存在一种相互作用，它们相互影响。我们将一种相互作用模型（其中T水平是可变的，既是行为的原因也是行为的结果）与一种基础模型（其中T水平被假定为一种影响行为的持久特质）进行了对比。一个关于空军退伍军人的不同寻常的数据集，在十年间收集了四次数据，这使我们能够比较基础模型和相互作用模型，以解释T与离婚之间的关系。我们讨论了这些模型的社会学意义。
