This course will take a fairly comprehensive look at the relationship between hormones and behavior. The underlying perspective will be one of Biological Psychology, consequently the physiological and experimental basis of this topic will be highlighted. Often in introductory Biopsychology courses the role of hormones in regulating behavior is barely touched upon, therefore this course will "start at the beginning". We will begin with an overview of the anatomy and physiology of endocrine systems, the chemistry of hormones, and the cellular and molecular features of hormone action. We will then examine a number of behaviors and their regulation by hormones. Much of this course will focus on the role of reproductive hormones (e.g. testosterone, estrogen and progesterone) in regulating sexual differentiation and reproductive related behaviors. The basis for this focus is largely that this is the one aspect of behavioral endocrinology that has been best characterized—I think, however, that you will find much of this information also very interesting. Because of the physiological and experimental perspective of this course, much of the phenomenology that we will be studying will be based on research in species other than humans. This species comparative approach reveals some very interesting "ways of doing things" that are intriguingly different from how "we" do things.

Several things to consider throughout this course are: Why does the body utilize hormones; isn't neuronal signalling much more efficient? Are the effects of hormones on the brain an effect of Nature or Nurture? To what extent do hormones determine and control who we are and what we do?