Two observations suggest a genetic similarity among close friends: (1) the observed similarity among friends in certain traits and behaviors; (2) the evidence that many of these traits and behaviors have a genetic component. This hypothesis is tested using monozygotic (MZ) twins, dizygotic (DZ) twins, full biological siblings, and their best friends from the National Longitudinal Study of Adole...

Neuroendocrine mechanisms that mediate male aggression toward infants are poorly understood. Although testosterone is known to enhance aggression in other social contexts, evidence that it modulates aggression toward infants is equivocal. We have found that male progesterone receptor knockout (PRKO) mice exhibit no infanticidal behavior and little aggression toward young. Male PRKO mice also di...

Although long recognized in the clinical literature, problematic behavior characteristic of anxious drivers has received little empirical attention. The current research details development of a measure of anxious driving behavior conducted across three studies. Factor analytic techniques identified three dimensions of maladaptive behaviors across three college samples: anxiety-based performanc...

This review analyzes psychosocial and genetic determinants of aggressive behavior in rodents and nonhuman primates and the role of the serotonin (5-HT) system on aggressive behaviors in order to trace possible evolutionary common origins between psychopathological and adaptive forms of aggression. Studies in primates suggest that deficit in serotonin activity, as indicated by the levels of the ...

A case of a man with Tourette's disorder associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder, multiple sexual paraphilias, and aggressive behavior is described. Treatment with haloperidol led to improvement in the characteristic tics of Tourette's disorder as well as to improvement in these three complex-associated behaviors. After haloperidol was discontinued, an exacerbation of tics and the associa...

Approved: ____________________________________ Thesis Supervisor ____________________________________ Title and Department ____________________________________ Date 1 THE MODERATING ROLE OF CHILD TEMPERAMENT IN THE RELATION BETWEEN HARSH AND DEFICIENT PARENTING AND CHILD AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIORS

Temperature during embryonic development determines gonadal sex in the leopard gecko, Eublepharis macularius. Moreover, both embryonic temperature and gonadal sex influence adult behavior. Yet it remains unclear whether the effects of embryonic temperature and gonadal sex on behavior are irreversibly organized during development. To address this question, we gonadectomized adult females and mal...