Advanced Topics in Human Behavioral Endocrinology

Catalog description

This course focuses on developing functional accounts of the roles of hormones in human psychology and behavior. Existing hormone research commonly neglects functional explanations and instead attempts to develop parsimonious descriptions of the general effects of specific hormones. Uses published findings to develop and critically evaluate models of how hormones act as signals that prime functional output responses to the eliciting conditions that trigger hormone release. This exercise could be applied to research on human estradiol and progesterone, testosterone, cortisol, and oxytocin, but there is flexibility in the specific topics emphasized depending on the interests of students enrolled in the class.