Psychobiological Responses to Competition in Women

From an evolutionary perspective, questions have been raised about whether women have a psychobiological pattern similar to that of men. In humans, hormonal effects of competition and its outcome have been investigated under the biosocial status hypothesis, which proposes that, after a competition, winners would show increases in testosterone whereas losers would show reductions, and the challenge hypothesis, which emphasizes the functional role of testosterone increases in the spring to promote agonistic behavior related to territoriality and access to females. Subsequently, the coping competition model has defended the study of competition within a more general stress model, considering the psychobiological responses as part of the coping response. This chapter shows that women investigations are increasing in number in recent years and that, in competitive situations, they present coping strategies with a psychobiological response pattern that can be enlightened by the coping competition model.