Functional Approaches to the Study of Cortisol

Catalog description

This seminar focuses on developing theories regarding the functions of cortisol, with emphasis on humans. Cortisol has been widely treated as a stress hormone in human psychology research, and researchers commonly infer from cortisol elevations that subjects have experienced stress. This course takes a broader perspective on this hormone and covers research into multiple different inputs that may trigger cortisol elevations, as well as research on the downstream effects of cortisol elevations. The goal is to build better theories of input-mappings mediated by this hormone in order to gain greater understanding of its evolved functions. Course topics are flexible based on student interest.