This Handbook represents the first concerted effort to understand male mental health in a way that facilitates a positive step forward in both theory and treatment. An alarming number of men experience serious mental health issues, as demonstrated by high rates of suicide and violent offending. Despite these problems, the study of male psychology has either been overlooked, or viewed as a problem of defective masculinity. This handbook brings together experts from across the world to discuss men's mental health, from prenatal development, through childhood, adolescence, and fatherhood. Men and masculinity are explored from multiple perspectives including evolutionary, cross-cultural, cognitive, biological, developmental, and existential viewpoints, with a focus on practical suggestions and demonstrations of successful clinical work with men. Throughout, chapters question existing models of understanding and treating men's mental health and explore new approaches, theories and interventions. This definitive handbook encapsulates a new wave of positive theory and practice in the field of male psychology and will be of great value to professionals, academics, and those working with males through the lifespan in any sector related to male mental health and wellbeing.
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Yes, you can access The Palgrave Handbook of Male Psychology and Mental Health by John A. Barry, Roger Kingerlee, Martin Seager, Luke Sullivan, John A. Barry,Roger Kingerlee,Martin Seager,Luke Sullivan in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Gender Studies. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
John A. Barry, Roger Kingerlee, Martin Seager and Luke Sullivan (eds.)The Palgrave Handbook of Male Psychology and Mental Healthhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04384-1_1
Begin Abstract
From Fetuses to Boys to Men: The Impact of Testosterone on Male Lifespan Development
When I started out doing my Ph.D. research on the psychological impact of testosterone in women, I presumed that women with higher testosterone levels would be more aggressive. After all, the literature is full of studies demonstrating that rodents become more aggressive when administered testosterone . However, after measuring naturally occurring levels of testosterone in around 140 women , I found that testosterone did not directly cause an increase in any of a range of self-reported types of aggression (verbal aggression , physical aggression , etc.) or anger . The only finding of this kind was that women with polycystic ovary sydrome (PCOS) , a condition in which raised testosterone is often seen, had significantly higher levels of withheld anger than controls. There was little evidence of a linear relationship between testosterone and aggression or anger , and my conclusion was that when testosterone causes unpleasantly masculinising symptoms in women (e.g. facial hair growth), the unpleasant symptoms cause withheld anger (also anxiety and depression ), but testosterone does not have a direct impact on anger or other expressions of distress (Barry et al. 2018). The moral of this story is that findings from animal studies donât always generalise to humans.
Testosterone Impacts Psychology via Various Pathways
The issue of the causal pathway from testosterone to mood is an important one, and illustrated in various ways by my subsequent PCOS research. The different pathways by which testosterone effects can occur must be clarified before we discuss the impact of testosterone in humans. Direct effects occur when testosterone acts directly upon receptors; indirect effects occur where the impact of testosterone is mediated via another variable; activational effects of testosterone are ephemeral and are caused by testosterone in the bloodstream; organisational effects of testosterone occur prenatally and cause permanent changes. When the average person thinks about the impact of testosterone on aggression, they are usually thinking of a direct, activational effect rather than anything indirect, though they might suspect that there are organisational effects of testosterone.
The first section of this chapter will deal mainly with the effects of testosterone on prenatal development , i.e. organisational effects, and the second half deals primarily with the activational effects of testosterone .
The Testosterone Family
One important caveat here: when we use the term testosterone in this chapter, we are really referring to the impact of the family of testosterone -like substances, called androgens. Androgens vary in strength (e.g. dihydrotestosterone is 10 times stronger than testosterone ), and in specific action (e.g. a key effect of dihydrotestosterone is to increase hair growth, whereas a key effect of testosterone is to increase muscle mass). Often we canât say for sure whether an effect is the result of testosterone or of another androgen, or of a combination of androgens. Testosterone is often presented as a general marker of âandrogenic activityâ, though the biological reality is more complex.
Androgens originate mainly in the testes, but also come from other organs, e.g. dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEAS) is mainly produced by the adrenal glands. Some androgens are converted into testosterone (e.g. androstendione), andâcounterintuitivelyâtestosterone is converted to estrogen (or, more specifically, to the main estrogen , called estradiol, or E2).
Testosterone and Health in Men and Women
Testosterone is considered the âmale hormoneâ because men have 10 times more testosterone than women do, and because androgens promote characteristics we consider masculine (e.g. muscle mass, penile and testicular development, and hair growth). Indeed it is easy to see how the physiological effects of testosterone might influence aspects of masculinity , e.g. greater muscle mass, strength and energy would make men more likely to have the roles of âfighter and winnerâ and âprovider (hunter) and protectorâ as described by Seager et al. (2014). Estrogen is considered the female hormone because women have 10 times more estrogen than men do, and estrogens promote female-typical characteristics (e.g. breast development and aspects of female fertility ). Like Jungâs concept of the anima and animus, all healthy men and women have a balance of testosterone and estrogen . An imbalance in the ratio of testosterone -to-estrogen has major implications for physical and psychological health. Although the human organism always strives for homeostasis, certain conditionsâsuch as illness or substance abuse âmay make this difficult. For example, women with too much testosterone âa characteristic of PCOS âdevelop symptoms such as subfertility, weight gain, type 2 diabetes , and depression . Men who experience reduced testosterone levels, e.g. due to androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) for prostate cancer (see Gannonâs chapter in this book), may experience symptoms such as erectile dysfunction , genital shrinkage, loss of libido , hot flashes , osteoporosis , loss of muscle mass, breast enlargement, anaemia, fatigue, diabetes , cardiovascular disease, mood swings, depression and cognitive impairment . The importance of a balanced ratio of testosterone and estrogen in men and women is very much like the balance of yin and yang described in Taoism (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1
A non-representational illustration, inspired by the Toaist principle of yin and yang, of (a) a healthy balance of testosteorne and estrogen, and (b) an unhealthy imbalance of testosterone and estrogen
We sometimes notice characteristics in which the average man is different to the average woman. If we think the difference is a product of nature (e.g. prenatal testosterone ) we tend to call it a sex difference, and if we think itâs a product of culture (e.g. fashions in the length of hair) we call this a gender difference. Because so many sex differences in human behaviour are the product of both nature and nurture , the distinction between sex differences and gender differences is often a moot point, thus in this chapter we will use the terms interchangeably, as do authors such as Maccoby (1988) and Hines (2017).
Having suggested that gender is a product of both nature and nurture, we are going to present in the first half of this chapter a list of some of the sex differences that are likely to be mostly the product of nature. Modern technologies have made it possible to explore the subtle differences between the brains of men and women . ...
