stop playing), we ran into a furious storm that took the form of a little boy.

And now, at the age of five, our son continues to amaze us with his ferocity. Stunned and discouraged, we look at him and think: “What should we do now?!” Then we begin to reason: who is this child, so big and so aggressive? Only yesterday he was happy when he was tickled, hugged, carried in his arms. Who is this boy-man who stands before us, so defiant and amazingly wise? What strange forces had changed him so?

To understand what boys are "made" of, we have to look at what shapes them:

• powerful physiological forces,

• unique male psychological tasks and

• gloomy, dark, mysterious world of the male soul.

biological force

Boys are biologically driven by a drug-like hormone, one of the most powerful behavioral influences known to the world. It is this strength that makes the boys aggressive and makes them win at any cost. It forces them to destroy furniture, break light bulbs, and we as parents have to be glad that we have a good house, health and car insurance. A tiny drop of this powerful substance for a very brief period causes the smallest, weakest male in a group of monkeys to challenge the leader who is on the throne. Previously an outcast, he not only wins the fight, but also continues to dominate and rule the whole group: females, babies and other males. The same stimulus turns a playful nine-year-old man into a fourteen-year-old "incredibly clumsy" teenager. From conception to maturity, this force causes the child's body and brain to take on male forms. And all due to the action of the hormone testosterone.

Men's program

While it may be hard to imagine that our sweet and affectionate six-month-old son is under the influence of this powerful force, testosterone is already at work, ensuring the inner transformation of a boy into a man. Do not forget that every boy grows at his own pace: he develops in strict accordance with the program laid down in him, which determines his gender, body shape and affects his temperament. Physiologically, it develops before our eyes, regardless of what we as parents do. This miracle is beyond our control, as well as the child himself. He grows into a man, which is initially predetermined by hormones.

Let's take a little bit of biology together to shed some light on how this happens. As we all know, hormones are products produced by the endocrine glands (thyroid, pancreas, pituitary, thymus, ovaries in women and testicles in men). All of them are under the control of the biological mind, which has a clear plan for the development of each boy. Both boys and girls have the main sex hormones testosterone and estrogen, but boys have more testosterone and girls have higher levels of estrogen. The difference in their ratio and the strategic release schedule determines the uniquely female or uniquely male type of development.

The mind responsible for the development program operates at the level of genetic coding. Our sons receive these instructions from the Y chromosome. All embryos begin life as females, so during the first weeks after fertilization, the Y chromosome has an important mission to signal the production of testosterone, which will change the biological template from female to male. From that moment on, the child becomes a boy. The first part of the program has been completed. Too often we forget what a miracle it is when a small piece of undifferentiated flesh grows into a beautiful and viable male being. That's the purpose of the men's program.

In-depth research is currently underway to identify differences between men and women. Camilla Benbau and Julian Stanley, researchers at Johns Hopkins University, have studied more than 10,000 children and met with fierce resistance when they said that the differences between the sexes, no doubt, have a biological basis. Benbau says: “I spent fifteen years looking for an explanation for these differences in upbringing and came up with zero results. Then I abandoned this position ... We have already begun to receive evidence that with two equally acceptable (valid) approaches to the problem - through words and through images - women usually choose words, and men go through images.

Brain Research by Dr. Roger Ph.D. Gorsky, a pioneer of endocrinology, revealed significant differences in the brain structure of boys and girls. These variations may explain differences in higher brain functions such as memory, imagination, body control, and how men and women think, feel, act, and perceive the world around them. A man, for example, tends to fix a problem first so that he can review his relationship with his wife or girlfriend later, while most women analyze the relationship as they go. Men tend to focus on one issue or task at a time (like a bullseye) and look at everything else in their lives as distractions that should not be distracted. Women focus on the goal, but keep in mind the big picture of the field of action.

Some researchers in the fields of biology, psychology, and sociology question these findings. And there are reasons for that. Sexual studies in the 19th century were used to prove women's incapacity for any other role in the world than that of mother and housewife. Susannah Davies writes: “Anthropologists, biologists, and other researchers have used everything from brain size to appetite to justify the Victorian idea of ​​men as more intelligent, assertive, and therefore more politically empowered than the “weaker sex.” Then the pendulum swung the other way, to the belief that there were no significant biological differences (with the exception of reproductive function) between men and women. This group of researchers argued that the development of those qualities that we consider purely masculine or purely feminine is determined by the conditions of family education and cultural socialization. This longstanding disagreement over whether heredity or environment is more important is known as the "nature versus nurture" controversy.

The truth is that many factors influence the development of men and women. Physiologically, women and men are forced to march to the rhythm of completely different hormonal cycles, resulting in different attitudes, body shapes, and communication styles. The boy's entire being vibrates to the rhythm of testosterone.

As we already know, the first testosterone surge causes the fetus to act according to the male program. Another powerful outburst - in the sixth month pregnancy - marks the beginning of the second stage of development. Testosterone secretion then declines until the onset of puberty, when the production of this powerful hormone rises 10 to 20 times its normal level in girls. Once again, testosterone levels and the onset of puberty vary from boy to boy. Not surprisingly, a teenage boy cannot walk without bumping into objects, needs more sleep, loses his temper easily, becomes sullen, and cannot concentrate on work. He faces the startling, often frightening, but always powerful effects of change: body hair growth, muscle enlargement, an eightfold increase in penis size, a deepening of the voice, an enrichment of fantasies and dreams, and an awakening of interest in sex.

This testosterone rush brings with it a poisonous feeling of power and invincibility. A teenager feels that he can do anything. Mothers know how difficult it is to understand their child at this time. Fathers themselves feel how difficult it is to communicate with him. He is completely at the mercy of the male program of biological development.

By the age of twenty, sharp fluctuations in testosterone levels stabilize if a man is not sick and physically weakened. There is evidence that testosterone levels can temporarily rise if a man needs it for decisive action: when the man or his beloved is in danger, when he is angry or participates in competitions. But never again after puberty will we see a significant increase in hormone production in the name of creating a strong, healthy adult male body.

Testosterone and Male Behavior: Three Major Trends

As we have seen, the task of the Y chromosome is to form the adult male body. To implement her developmental program, she uses testosterone, which first assigns a male to the fetus, then develops the body of a boy and adds secondary sexual characteristics. The result is mature male physiology.

Testosterone has an equally powerful effect on male behavior. Although each boy develops differently, three main things are observed in all: a tendency to dominate and aggression, a strong impulsive desire to take risks, and repeated short periods of tension and relaxation.

Aggression and dominance

It is very different from daughters. She also fights and screams, but his mood swings are impossible to understand. He always pushes and always wants to do things his own way. His first impulse is to knock or shout. He doesn't do it on purpose. It just comes right out of him.
Yvonne, the confused mother
Modern hormonal research links aggressiveness in men and the desire to dominate others with high testosterone levels. According to James Debs, Ph.D., a researcher at the University of Georgia, “it (testosterone) defines the hierarchy of the human herd…”. Men who have more testosterone than usual, according to Debs, are trying to influence other people and lead them, dominate society and at home, freely express their views and moods.

These tendencies can manifest themselves in both positive and negative actions. The desire to dominate society can lead to leadership positions in school, on the basketball court, in business, and in politics. On the other hand, hyper-aggressiveness can be expressed in a tendency to delinquency, violence, promiscuity in relationships and crimes.

Rivalry for the title of "king of the hill", which takes place in all competitions, and the lack