Martha McClintock

Martha Kent McClintock (born February 22, 1947)

Her research focuses on the relationship that the environment and biology have upon sexual behaviour.[2] She is the David Lee Shillinglaw Distinguished Service Professor in Psychology at the University of Chicago and is the Founder and past Director of the Institute for Mind and Biology.^[3]

Education and career

McClintock was born in

While at Wellesley College, she investigated menstrual synchrony in women living in a college dormitory. She reported that women living together or who were friends synchronized their menstrual cycles.[6] Subsequently, she proposed that menstrual synchrony is caused by the two opposing pheromones: one that shortens cycles and one that lengthens them.^[7]

In 1992 H. Clyde Wilson Jr., professor of anthropology at the University of Missouri, published a critique of McClintock's research in Psychoneuroendocrinology.^[8] In that article, as well as in a 1987 article on human pheromones and menstruation published in Hormones and Behavior,^[9] Wilson analyzed the research and data collection methods McClintock and others used in their studies. He found significant errors in the researchers' mathematical calculations and data collection as well as an error in how the researchers defined synchrony. Wilson's own clinical research, as well as his critical reviews of existing research, have demonstrated that menstrual synchrony in humans has not been adequately documented.^{[citation needed]}

She has also published research indicating that androstadienone, found in sweat and saliva, can modify the psychological, physiological and hormonal responses of humans, a subtle form of human chemical communication.^[10]

McClintock believes that being able to control the ratio of male and female offspring in a litter can potentially lead to an improved understanding of the reasons that cause miscarriage. In general, Martha McClintock always tries to answer the question of how biology and one's environment influences sexual behaviour in her research.^[11]

Awards

McClintock has received several awards, including the American Psychological Association's Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology, the University of Chicago's Faculty Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching, and the Wellesley College Alumnae Achievement Award. She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is also a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Animal Behavior Society, the American Psychological Society, the American Psychological Association, and the International Academy of Sex Research.^[12]

See also

• Androstenone
• Biopsychology
• Estratetraenol
• Neuroendocrinology

References