SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
At the University of Texas
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Social Endocrinology
Hormones, like actors, can play a variety of roles. The hormones currently under study by UT’s Social-Personality psychologists—testosterone and cortisol—have long been known to support a variety of metabolic, developmental, and regulatory functions. Testosterone is essential for proper development of the brain, emergence of primary and secondary sexual characteristics, and muscular growth and development. Cortisol plays a critical role in lipid, carbohydrate and protein metabolism. It also plays a role in the bone, circulatory, nervous and immune systems.What we are finding most fascinating is that these important biological substances are also turning out to be surprisingly powerful players in a variety of psychological phenomena, ranging from language production and cognition to dominance, sex, aggression, and health. Although research on other species is abundant, research on humans is scant, and thus UT Social-Personality psychology is at the forefront of an important and rapidly growing area within human social neuroscience. The primary labs within Social-Personality doing research on social endocrinology are the Josephs Lab and the Pennebaker Lab.