What are your specialities?

[Ldr]

(09-05-2019, 04:27 AM)taramarie Wrote:

(09-05-2019, 04:14 AM)Ldr Wrote: Well, my theory is about these themes also. We millennials have higher levels of oxytocin, which could mean that we feel lonely easier when compared to Gen X. Hormone levels affect our reactivity to everything around us and inside us. This is why hormones are paramount to how one acts, reacts and thinks.

I don't believe in that, but rather how we have been raised as a whole and individually as well as our individual personalities and finding our place in history that is needed at the time. I don't believe we have higher levels of oxytocin. That is just my way of thinking.

Well, the statistics do implicate that millennials and Gen Z - and all other 3rd and 4th generations - have higher levels of oxytocin (on average). There is clear evidence from the 1) breastfeeding initiation, 2) maternal age, and 3) time spent with children, as they all have a low point in 1972-75. And the alcohol consumption always drops at the same time in the cycle, and higher levels of oxytocin decreases drinking in humans and even the cravings to drink. High hormone levels of oxytocin also promote cooperative behavior and communication, so that fits the 3rd generation profile, and the millennials are indeed very cooperative.

Low hormone levels of oxytocin promote isolation and alcohol abuse, and that would be Boomers and Gen X (until birth year 1975).

Oxytocin and vasopressin fit the Strauss & Howe generational theory with great accuracy. And the theory also explains why the changes during an individuals life cycle are different for each generation. This is because the societal hormone levels change from turning to turning. So the societal hormone levels cycle, but of course the one's received at birth are the most important, as most of an individual's opinions and preferences are cemented at ages 15 to 25, after which they may be altered, but in decreasing amounts as he/she gets older.

Vasopressin is what drives group aggression towards an out-group. And during a 4th turning, vasopressin levels spike up, and they reach their highert point somewhere close to the ending of a 4th turning. (These are obvious only approximations, and situations always vary by century and nations involved.) An out-group in 2019 can be the democrats if you're an republican, or vice versa, or the English government in the 1770's. It does not matter who "they" are, but as vasopressin levels go higher, "they" may become an target of group violence. I believe this is the reason why 4th turnings are times of turmoil.

The theory also explains why there is a severe emotional/spiritual void as the 1st turning ends. As oxytocin and vasopressin are simultaneously low, there is a need to fill that emotional void with something new. This is why substance use increases during the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd turning, until there is a rise in oxytocin levels again, which decreases substance use.

Looking at several centuries and including the main 4th turning conflicts (American Revolutionary War, American Civil War, WW2) involving the US, the cyclic pattern now looks like this: