Examining the relationship between testosterone and cortisol on levels of rumination

Abstract

Rumination is a thought process experienced by most people. It involves repetitive thought over a past, present, or future event, emotion, or outcome. Although it is a common thought pattern, some types of rumination are implicated in both anxiety and depression disorders. The hormonal mechanisms of rumination are relatively unknown, especially concerning testosterone. The purpose of my thesis is to see if there is a relationship between rumination and the hormones cortisol and testosterone. Additionally, I proposed, based on the dual-hormone hypothesis, that cortisol would moderate the relationship between testosterone and rumination. Participants were 43 undergraduate students (women n = 30, men n = 13) who came into the lab on three separate occasions. Visit 1 was 45 minutes and participants completed questionnaires on rumination, anxiety and depression, and provided a saliva sample. Their second and third visits involved providing additional saliva samples to establish average levels of hormones. There were no significant bivariate correlations between the hormonal measures and the rumination measures. Anxiety and depression were significantly positively correlated with the rumination measures. Regression analyses with hormones, depression, and anxiety predicting rumination showed no significant effects for men. The same analyses for women showed that cortisol and the cortisol X testosterone interaction were significant predictors of rumination for women, demonstrating possible evidence in support of the dual-hormone hypothesis.