Role of Cortisol and Psychopathy in the Cycle of Violence

You will prepare and submit a term paper on Role of Cortisol and Psychopathy in the Cycle of Violence. Your paper should be a minimum of 2500 words in length. Being a prospective study it applied the method of experimentation where observations were assessed based on primary medication and psychopharmacology. A sample of sixty-seven adults was picked and dozed with 20mg cortisol- a placebo-controlled medicine with a counterbalance design. The testing time was 5 hours and effects were checked based on the history of the subject. The experimentation part was conducted via a laboratory program PSAP (Point Subtraction Aggression Paradigm) to bring decisive experimental results. Meanwhile, forgetting the historical background of the subjects a questionnaire was prepared and presented. It asked questions on child abuse, psychopathy, and impulsivity, to get precise information on the backgrounds of the subjects (Gowin, 2013).

In the study, variables such as psychopathy, disruption, delinquency, and impulsivity were tested as independent variables. These were considered as variables causing “aggression”, which is a dependent variable in the study. Apart from deriving the relationship between variables, the study also investigated the application of cortisol- a medicine made to reduce aggression. The correlation between the variables was tested using multiple regression models. This was to assess which of the factors are close to aggression and can be called genuine causes of aggression (Gowin, 2013).

The results indicate a significant relationship between child abuse and aggression. This shows that early received maltreatment gets transformed into aggression in the later period-most precisely in the adult period. Moreover, psychopathy and factors of the HPA axis are also having a positive relationship with aggression (Gowin, 2013).

The findings project that both psychological therapies and psychopharmacological medications are essential to reduce aggression. Meanwhile, for assessing aggression experts must analyze all the factors of the HPA axis and the cycle of violence. This is to analyze aggression in the right true sense and the prospective manner (Gowin, 2013).