Biological determinism holds that biological factors, and notsocial or environmental ones, are the real, main, or most signifi-cant cause of life-related phenomena.
If looking at only the biological causes researchers may develop a bias. Looking at all the factors like environmental and social aspects matter as well. Making sure to look at all of the factors is important in creating non-bias results.
Pretheory is problematic because it distorts research and knowl-edge. It equates testosterone to manhood/masculinity/maleness,despite the lack of empirical support for this and the presence oftestosterone in people of all gender/sexes (van Anders, 2013; vanAnders et al., 2011; van Anders & Watson, 2006).
Bias are very common things for humans to have, including researchers. This can become a bad thing because it can bleed into the results of what they study and make them less accurate.
Gender/sex is critical to social neuroendocrinology, because thepeople we study exist in evolved and socialized bodies and carryout behaviours that have evolutionary and sociocultural meaning.For example, a researcher might study testosterone and sexualdesire, but what desire involves is not universal. It can includedesire for erotic bodily pleasure as people typically presume, butalso for excitement, stress relief, feeling attractive, or more, all inways that are profoundly gendered (Chadwick, Burke, Goldey,Bell, et al., 2017; Chadwick, Burke, Goldey, & van Anders,2017).
People are heavily influenced on society and social norms. researchers should consider this when taking everything into account. This would allow for the research to be more accurate.
Social neuroendocrinology explores dynamic hormone-behaviorassociations that are socially situated, and is especially useful as amodel for biobehavioral research with humans beyond binaries
Researchers should always look at the environmental and social aspects of the situation to gain a non-bias conclusion. Doing so gives an accurate and valid understanding on the situation.
ndeed, hormones are strikingly more malleablethan many social constructions, showing variability over the lifespan, days, seasons, and in response to exogenous cues that aresocial, environmental, and biochemical (Ellison, 2001; vanAnders, Goldey, et al., 2014).
Hormones can change under so many different influences, they are not fixed. There are so many things that can cause your hormones to change. It is important to study all of the possibilities.
Gender/sex refers to phenomena, features,and whole people where gender and sex intertwine, both could berelevant, and/or the two cannot be disentangled easily or at all, aswith whole women, men, and gender/sex-diverse people and manyaspects tied to them (van Anders, 2015; van Anders & Dunn,2009; see Figure 1). Understandings of ourselves and others arebased on a varying mix of cues that usually involve gender and sex(e.g., clothes, voice, hairstyles, facial structure).
Gender and sex are two very similar things, which, makes them easy to overlap and get mixed up. When researchers are documenting their research they should try their best to distinguish the two to eliminate confusion. Gender and sex are two things that are very different yet very similar.
ndeed, many sex differences in androgens and estro-gens are apparent and/or magnified only when all other sources ofvariation (like aging, diet, activity, social context, seasonality, timeof day) are held constant, leading to spurious assumptions that sexis the only or biggest source of variation (Hyde et al., 2019; vanAnders, Goldey, et al., 2014).
There are many factors that hormones may be effected by it does not just have to be sex. Hormones can be effected by the weather, diet, people you are spending time around, and so much more. This is why it is so important to study them and all of the factors that may disrupt them.
Accordingly, sex can be understood as biological/evolved, biomaterial, and/or bodily/physical aspects of organisms,individuals, or characteristics that can be classified as female, male,and/or sex diverse (building off of van Anders, 2015).
There is way more to sex than just labelng someone male or female. Its an emotional connection that deepens any relathsionhip no matter the sex of the indviual.