Sex hormones and human behavior: a critique of the linear model.

Behaviors in which human males and females differ are frequently attributed to fetal gonadal hormone exposures. Much current thinking on this topic relies on a model of explanation the authors call linear-analytic. This model emerges from studies of hormone-behavior relationships in nonhuman animals. Examining three areas of hormone-behavior research in humans, the authors argue that the form of explanation is inappropriate to the behavioral phenomena being explained. They urge the adoption of a more complex neurobiological approach that emphasizes the role of the cerebral cortex and correlatively minimizes the role of fetal hormones.