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Hormones and Men’s Parenting Behaviour.

What kind of dad are you?  Research is beginning to show that the kind of parent you are is to some extent controlled by a number of key hormones.

 

In the journal Hormones and Behaviour the anthropologist Alexandra Alvergne studied the level of the hormone testosterone in men’s saliva, and how this correlated with family behaviour.  On average, the higher the levels of testosterone in the saliva, the less time and money the man invested in their wives and children.

 

Another study, by Ruth Fieldman, reported to the Society for Research in Child Development in Denver, Colorado, indicated that when men become fathers they undergo biochemical changes which affect how they relate to their children.  The study looked at the hormone Oxytocin, also called ‘the cuddle hormone’.  Fieldman found that the levels of oxytocin raised after the birth of a child in both fathers and mothers.  Furthermore, the more oxytocin was present in the fathers, the more they were seen to play, bond and attach to their children, then men who had low levels of oxytocin.

 

What both these studies appear to show is that your parenting style has something to do with your biology.  Indeed this makes sense in terms of evolutionary theory, as “investment” in offspring could be seen to be an evolutionary relevant trait, and therefore mediated by biology. 

 

Whether it is better, from an evolutionary perspective, to father many children and offer them poor support, or fewer children, and offer them more support, is an interesting backdrop to understanding men’s parenting preferences.  To reason from biology to morality, of course, is an example of what philosophers call ‘the naturalistic fallacy’.  However, some men, or so it might seem, are going to have to fight against their biology in order to become ‘responsible’ parents.

Another Aggression and Gene Link Found in Men.

Research by Kevin Beaver at Florida State University has found a link between the low-activity version of the gene MAOA and gang behaviour in men.  This gene, which is rarely found in women, has been shown to be related to aggression in men who have been abused as children.

 

Beaver found that men with low-activity MAOA were twice as likely to join gangs as men with the normal version.  Furthermore, of gang members, men with low-activity MAOA were four times as likely to have used a weapon, compared to men with the normal version of the gene.

 

This is the latest in a number of studies that relate genetics to aggression in some men, some of which I have reported here.  Men with the XYY chromosome variation have long been identified as more aggressive than the more common XY chromosome variation, and are overrepresented in the prison population.

 

What these studies are showing is that, for some men, aggression is likely to be a problem for them, and those around them – for genetic reasons.  Furthermore these men, in principle anyway, could be identified by genetic testing.  It follows that these men could be targeted for early intervention before their aggression causes them difficulties.

 

Anger is the only emotion that, if seen in excess, is dealt with by the criminal justice system rather than the health care system.  What is disturbing about this is that the criminal justice system may be good at ‘containing’ these aggressive men, but offers precious little to address their underlying emotional regulation issues.  In fact I have worked with many men who have received repeated prison sentences for aggressive behaviour – in none of these cases did the criminal justice system offer anything to help the man understand and moderate his aggressive behaviour.

 

I can’t help thinking that if ‘aggression’ was something identified by women as an issue within their ranks, aggressive behaviour would have become a health care priority a long time ago. 

 

Things might be about to change.  The American Psychiatric Association has been reported recently to be considering ‘aggressive behaviour’ as a distinct clinical diagnosis.  If they proceed with this, and I hope they do, this might force service providers and clinicians to provide services for these men – many of whom, as I have repeatedly shown, often have a biological predisposition to aggression.

 

It seems to me to make sense to address the cause of aggressive behaviour in some men.  Such a strategy may well reduce the burden on the criminal justice system, and the social distress these men’s behaviour causes, not least to the men themselves.

 

 

Dr Phil Tyson is a Men's Psychotherapist based in Manchester in the UK.  He offers counselling in Manchester, psychotherapy in Manchester, cognitive behavioural therapy in Manchester and telephone counselling nationally and internationally.

Obesity, Shrinking Brains, and Why Diets Don’t Work.

Like most middle aged men, I struggle to balance the delights of eating with the disappointment of my waist line. I hire a personal trainer three times a week; I eat loads of fruit and veg, and am on a low saturated fat diet (to curb my concerning cholesterol levels). Despite this I continue to buy trousers that are too tight for me on the assumption that ‘at some time in the near future’, the new me, no, the real me, will return, and I will be able to fit into them. The gold standard of a washboard stomach seems as unattainable now as it ever has been.

I am not obese by the way. Nor am I fat. My body mass index shows I am ‘normal’. My point is that keeping it at ‘normal’ is something that I have to prioritise and make time for. Exercise and good eating doesn’t happen by accident. They are hard won habits that have taken years to build.

I have a real sense of empathy for my clients whose goal it is to loose weight. My weight once spiralled out of control. It happened ‘by accident’ and when I ‘wasn’t paying attention’. Suddenly I was fat, and had no real awareness of it happening. I turned my attitude around quickly to address the problem, but it still took two years to get back in shape. Of course I had a choice at that point. I saw how all too easy it would have been to rationalise being overweight, and continue with the cosy, exercise free and chocolate rich lifestyle I had been enjoying.

Over the years I have noticed that many of my overweight clients have reached this tipping point and chose to continue eating. This is a painful option, of course, as it feeds into the man’s sense of guilt and shame, poor body image and low self worth. Eating then takes on a different symbolic meaning. It becomes the way one punishes oneself and perpetuates self loathing.

Paradoxically, it seems to me that the constant health warnings about being overweight just seem to embolden this self destructive cycle of eating as self abuse. The latest one is truly shocking. Brain regions that are important to thinking processes are 6% smaller in overweight people and 8% smaller in obese people. The reports author, Paul Thomson, cited in the New Scientist claims that the brains of obese people look 16 years older than lean controls (see New Scientist, 22 August, 2009).

But what is a person to do to combat obesity? This, of course, is a huge area of academic interest. As our populations are getting heavier and heavier, and obesity costing the economy more and more, the importance of finding answers to this question is becoming more pressing.

One finding that does seem to be coming through load and clear from the research is this: diets don’t work. I see this with the clients of my personal trainer. He puts them on a low calorie diet and vastly increases their expenditure of energy through exercise. Very often the strategy is successful in the short term. He often beams with pride as he tells me of a client who has lost 15 pounds or even 30 pounds. But in the medium term the weight simply piles back on. One person slimmed down only to put three stone back on while on a cruise.

The bottom line with weight loss is eat less and exercise more, but why is dieting so ineffective in the medium to long term? There are lots of reasons suggested for this, some physiological some psychological. My take on this is that the body can increase the number of fat cells in order to put on weight. The trouble is fat cells cannot be destroyed by the body. Weight therefore works like a ratchet system, always building the capacity to get bigger, but never smaller. The significance of this is that when you loose weight your body ‘feels’ like it is in starvation mode (as all your fat cells are now showing as ‘not full’) and this makes cravings for high calories foods more likely.

In short, once you have been overweight, in order to keep weight off you need to radically re-thing your approach to food and how you respond to cravings. This is not an easy process, and requires time and effort. Fortunately you don’t have to use a therapist to start along this process. Some of my clients have gained great benefit from an online course called Food Philosophy. It aims to educate you in food psychology so you are armed with the tools you need to change the way you think about food.

My approach to working with clients is similar. I start with understanding the person’s relationship to food. I don’t even like starting with a target weight loss. By changing the assumptions and habits of the person, I hope to bring about lasting and sustainable weight loss through subtle behavioural change. In an industry that thrives on quick fixes, my approach can seem long winded. I firmly believe, though, that sustainable weight loss in people with chronic obesity cannot be achieved without this kind of patient work.

Dr Phil Tyson is a Men's Psychotherapist based in Manchester in the UK.  He offers counselling in Manchester, psychotherapy in Manchester, cognitive behavioural therapy in Manchester and telephone counselling nationally and internationally.

Who is Male?

The athlete Caster Semenya has recently caused headlines the world over since her gold medal in the Berlin World Athletic Championships caused the IAAF to order tests to ascertain her gender. I personally find it outrageous that the tests could not have been arranged discreetly rather than in the centre of the world media frenzy. The last person this happened to was Santhi Soundarajan who attempted suicide in 2007 after failing a gender test. I hope Caster is able to bear the pressure, and humiliation, that has been put upon her.

But the case does raise interesting questions about who is a man or a woman. I guess the first thing to note is the difference between gender and sex. Gender is a social category bestowed on a child at birth. It is a moral matter. There are great social obstacles for people who want to negotiate a different gender to the one allocated at birth.

Sex, on the other hand, is a biological concept, and surprisingly in human beings, for many individuals it is far from clear cut. The standard line in class room biology is that there are 46 chromosomes including two that determine sex. 46XX and you are a girl, 46XY and you are a boy. But human biology throws up much more variability than this. For example, some men are born with an extra Y chromosome, 47XYY. Such ‘hyper masculine’ men are overrepresented in the prison population due to their extreme aggression. Other variations include 47XXX, 47XXY, 49XXXYY to name but a few. The presentation of people with such genetic makeup can be complicated.

Genetic and biological factors can also interact. For example in one presentation, complete androgen insensitivity syndrome, a biological boy (46XY) is insensitive to the male hormones that trigger the development of male sexual characteristics (foetuses are by default, female). As a result the biological boy develops female sexual characteristics and lives out a life as a woman.

My favourite condition, however, is 5 alpha reductase enzyme deficiency syndrome. In this genetic condition the child has the sexual characteristics of a girl and is brought up as a girl. At puberty, however, male secondary sexual characteristics develop including descended testes and an enlarged phallus. Some individuals even produce serviceable sperm. What is so interesting about this condition is that it is highly prevalent in the Dominical Republic where it affects about 1 in 90 children. The culture is therefore so used to the condition that the children can often very successfully negotiate the transition at puberty from girl to boy.

As you can see, whether you are a boy or a girl is sometimes far from straightforward. In our culture, however, as gender is such a morally layered experience, such inter-sexed children and their families often experience great psychological suffering. My sense is that it is still a matter of ridicule and social ostracism if someone, for whatever reason, tries to realign their gender identity.

Indeed there is a great deal of pressure to be either a man or a women. This in itself is damaging to such inter-sexed persons as, very often, they cannot function convincingly in either role. I can envisage a time in the future where inter-sexed persons are simply allowed to live out their humanity in a way that makes sense for them, rather than in a way that makes sense to us.

Dr Phil Tyson is a Men's Psychotherapist based in Manchester in the UK.  He offers counselling in Manchester, psychotherapy in Manchester, cognitive behavioural therapy in Manchester and telephone counselling nationally and internationally.

Can We Choose Who We are Attracted to?

I recently posted an article about research on what women find attractive about men (Women Go for Smart and Generous Guys), and it received quite a lot of attention, so I thought I would add a post that delves a bit deeper into what men and women find attractive in each other.

The branch of science that has explored human attraction most thoroughly in recent years is known as socio-biology. It is perhaps worth pondering on the socio-biology project a moment before delving in. Socio-biology is the are of science that uses evolutionary theory to explain social behaviour in animals. As sex is perhaps the most important of social behaviours, it stands to reason that socio-biologists spend a lot of their time researching sexual behaviour in animal species and human beings.

From a socio-biological perspective, we find others sexually attractive who are most likely to maximise our genetic success. That is to say, give us healthy and fertile children.

This brings us to the first observation in socio-biology in that women invest 9 months of pregnancy and then years of nurturing into their children, whereas the male investment in creating a child is potentially much less. According to this view, men are ‘salesmen’ and women are ‘sales resistant’ and this is important as it forms the context for what men and women find attractive in each other.

For men the case is simpler than for women in that all men are concerned about is that the women is healthy and fertile and capable of bearing and rearing his child. What are the cues for this?

Well according to researchers at the University of St. Andrews, men are attracted to women with higher levels of estrogen as they are more fertile. The effect of this hormone on the body is:

• Smoother skin

• Bigger eyes

• Fuller lips

• Smaller nose

• Larger breasts

The researchers also found that women who wear makeup are subtly altering their appearance in the direction of demonstrating greater levels of estrogen.

Interestingly women tend to be rated by men as more attractive at their most fertile time in their menstrual cycle.

Estrogen is not the only factor that determines male attraction to women. Clues that give a hint of a women’s capacity to lactate are also thought to be important. What is important to lactation is that women are not too thin or too heavy. As a consequence, women ‘advertise’ their body weight in certain highly visible areas (men’s body weight tends to be more evenly distributed). These tend to focus on the right amount of visible body fat in the following areas:

• Breasts

• Hips

• Buttocks.

But what do women find attractive in men? Well this is a slightly more complicated question because it appears that women’s biology encourages a duel strategy.

Going back to first principles, women need men who will advance the prospects of her genes being reproduced into the next generation. This means she needs a man who will stick around, contribute to childcare, and invest in her offspring. She also needs a man with good genes who will contribute to the fitness of her offspring. The important point here is that it does not have to be the same man. Let me explain.

Most of the time women are attracted to men with more feminine features. These men are seen as kinder, and more co-operative, than men with more masculine features, meaning they are more likely to be good fathers to her offspring. In addition, women find generous and smart guys more attractive, again for similar kinds of reasons. Men also invest in what are referred to as ‘sexual ornaments’, that is to say behaviours that do not add to fitness directly, but that demonstrate an abundance of resources to the woman, indicating a good mating choice. A good example of a sexual ornament in men is wit and savoir fare. Perhaps this is the reason why most stand up comics are men.

Being a good father to her children is not the same as giving good genes to her children, and although most of the time women go for good fathers, at the time it really matters, when she is most fertile, women switch strategies, and fancy men with the following characteristics:

• Tall.

• Broad shoulders.

• More muscular.

• Square jaw.

In other words, more ‘masculine’ men.

Controversially the implication of this is that women’s best strategy is to settle down with a more ‘feminine’ man and be unfaithful to him to secure offspring. Perhaps this accounts for why 10% of men are unwittingly bringing up the child of another man.

So what should we make of this research? Well it has been argued that this socio-biological perspective lacks ecological validity. That is to say the effects that are found in the laboratory are too small to have any major impact on real people’s choice of sexual partner or mate. I can see the sense in this argument. After all for most of us, most of the time, our sexual partners are a compromise between what we desire, and what is available to us. However it is useful to have some perspective on those subconscious processes that impact on our decisions. How can we hope to transcend our animal heritage without it?

Dr Phil Tyson is a Men's Psychotherapist based in Manchester in the UK.  He offers counselling in Manchester, psychotherapy in Manchester, cognitive behavioural therapy in Manchester and telephone counselling nationally and internationally.