psychology chapter 8

what motivates sexual behavior

- cyclical period known as estrus, a female animal is fertile and receptive to male sexual advances. - Thus, in both men and women, sexual motivation is biologically influenced by the levels of the hormone testosterone in the body. - sexual behavior is greatly influenced by many different factors—social, cultural, and more.

james lange theory support

- emotions produced a distinct pattern of brain activity. study showed that physiological changes occur before we subjectively experience an emotion. - facial feedback hypothesis

maslows model criticism

-First, Maslow's core assumption that we must satisfy needs at one level before moving to the next level has not been supported by empirical research -Second, Maslow's concept of self-actualization is very vague and almost impossible to define in a way that would allow it to be tested scientifically.

amygdala

An almond-shaped cluster of neurons in the brain's temporal lobe, involved in memory and emotional responses, especially fear. two pathways: -thalamus→cortex→amygdala: takes twice as long as other method -direct thalamus→amygdala route.

resolution phase

Arousal slowly subsides and returns to normal levels

obesity

Condition characterized by excessive body fat and a body mass index equal to or greater than 30.0.

self-determination theory (SDT)

Deci and Ryan's theory that optimal human functioning can occur only if the psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness are satisfied. -importance of autonomy: emphasizes the need to feel that your activities are self-chosen and self-endorsed which reflects the importance of self-determination -

interpersonal engagement

Emotion dimension reflecting the degree to which emotions involve a relationship with another person or other people. reflects the idea that some emotions result from your connections and interactions with other people

extrinsic motivation

External factors or influences on behavior, such as rewards, consequences, or social expectations.

has evolution programmed us to overeat

For animals in the wild, food sources are often sporadic and unpredictable. If an animal waited to eat until it was hungry and its energy reserves were significantly diminished, it would run the risk of starving or falling prey to another animal. prehistoric humans would have consumed as much food as possible during times of abundance.

leptin

Hormone produced by fat cells that signals the hypothalamus, regulating hunger and eating behavior.When the level of these hormones in the brain increases, food intake is reduced and the body's fat stores shrink over time. When fat stores shrink, blood levels of leptin decrease, triggering eating behavior.

insulin

Hormone produced by the pancreas that regulates blood levels of glucose and signals the hypothalamus, regulating hunger and eating behavior.

Anthropomorphism

The attribution of human traits, motives, emotions, or behaviors to nonhuman animals or inanimate objects.

Motivation

The biological, emotional, cognitive, or social forces that activate and direct behavior.There are three basic characteristics commonly associated with motivation:activation, persistence, and intensity. Motivation is closely tied to emotional processes

fixed action patterns

animals display automatic and innate instinctual behavior patterns like migration or mating rituals,

walter cannon

challenged James Lange theory: -1: pointed out that body reactions are similar for many emotions, yet our subjective experience of various emotions is very different. fear and rage are accompanied by an increased heart rate, but we have no difficulty distinguishing between the two emotions. -2: argued that our emotional reaction to a stimulus is often faster than our physiological reaction. -3: artificially inducing physiological changes does not necessarily produce a related emotional experience. Ex:epinephrine: felt the heart beat faster but did not feel the emotion of fear

Persistence

demonstrated by continued efforts or the determination to achieve a particular goal, often in the face of obstacles, as evidenced by the volunteers slogging their way up steep, muddy trails, despite cold rain and wet equipment.

Activation

demonstrated by the initiation or production of behavior, such as Sandy's decision to travel to the Himalayas as a volunteer.

Abraham Maslow

developed his model of human motivation. acknowledged the importance of biological needs as motivators. But once basic biological needs are satisfied, he believed, "higher" psychological needs emerge to motivate human behavior.

emotions activate different brain areas

each emotion of sadness, happiness, anger, and fear have their own distinct neural circuits. areas of somatosensory cortex were also activated.

psychological arousal for different emotions

fear, anger, and sadness are all associated with accelerated heart rate. Anger produces greater increases in blood pressure than fear. And while anger produces an increase in skin temperature, fear produces a decrease in skin temperature.

Homosexuality

homosexuality was not the result of disturbed or abnormal family relationships. They also found that sexual orientation was determined before adolescence and long before the beginning of sexual activity.

mood

involves a milder emotional state that is more general and pervasive, such as gloominess or contentment. Moods may last for a few hours or even days

energy homeostasis

maintains your baseline body weight

excitement phase

marks the beginning of sexual arousal. Sexual arousal can occur in response to sexual fantasies or other sexually arousing stimuli, physical contact with another person, or masturbation. In both sexes, the excitement stage is accompanied by a variety of bodily changes in anticipation of sexual interaction.

dopamine receptors and obesity

obese individuals had significantly fewer dopamine receptors, colored red, than the normal-weight individuals. the obese people in the study, the number of dopamine receptors decreased as BMI increased. a significant reduction in dopamine response has been observed in conjunction with weight gain. People eat more to compensate for reduced brain rewards, but overeating reduces the dopamine reward system levels even further.

detecting deception

variety of nonverbal cues, such as fleeting facial expressions, vocal cues, and nervous body movements. expressions, microexpressions of fear, guilt, or anxiety often "leak" through. no single nonverbal cue indicates that someone is lying, and not all researchers have found evidence that deception is revealed in microexpressions

emotional intelligence

The capacity to understand and manage your own emotional experiences and to perceive, comprehend, and respond appropriately to the emotional responses of others. -low in emotional intelligence may have superior reasoning powers, but they sometimes experience one failure in life after another -high in emotional intelligence possess these abilities, and they are able to understand and use their emotions constructively

sensation seeking

The degree to which an individual is motivated to experience high levels of sensory and physical arousal associated with varied and novel activities. example, college students who study abroad score significantly higher on sensation-seeking than college students who stay in their country of origin

achievement motivation

The desire to direct your behavior toward excelling, succeeding, or outperforming others at some task.

intrinsic motivation

The desire to engage in tasks that are inherently satisfying and enjoyable, novel, or optimally challenging; the desire to do something for its own sake.

Sexual orientation

The direction of a person's emotional and erotic attraction toward members of the opposite sex, the same sex, both sexes, or neither sex. The key points are that there is a range of sexual identity and there is not always a perfect correspondence between a particular person's sexual identity, sexual desires, and sexual behaviors.

the need to belong

The drive to form and maintain lasting positive relationships that are characterized by mutual concern and caring. relationships should include frequent, positive interactions and persistent caring.

William Masters and Virginia Johnson

The human sexual response cycle was first mapped by sex research pioneers. indicated that the human sexual response could be described as a cycle with four stages: excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution.

homeostasis

The idea that the body monitors and maintains internal states, such as energy supplies, at relatively constant levels; in general, the tendency to reach or maintain equilibrium.

basic emotions

The most fundamental set of emotion categories, which are biologically innate, evolutionarily determined, and culturally universal. -fear, disgust, surprise, happiness, anger, and sadness are most commonly cited as the basic emotions -each basic emotion represents a family of related emotional states. complex and multifaceted.

basal metabolic rate (BMR)

When the body is at rest, the rate at which it uses energy for vital functions, such as heartbeat and respiration.

baseline body weight

Your typical or average body weight

culture and emotional expression

when culturally diverse people were shown basic facial expressions, they did fairly well at recognizing them -some specific nonverbal gestures, which are termed emblems, vary across cultures. For example, shaking your head means "no" in the United States but "yes" in southern India and Bulgaria. Nodding your head means "yes" in the United States, but in Japan it could mean "maybe" or even "no way!"

competence motivation

when you strive to use your cognitive, social, and behavioral skills to be capable and exercise control in a situation. provides much of the motivational "push" to prove to yourself that you can successfully tackle new challenges, such as striving to do well in this class or making it to the top of a steep trail

emotions classified according to two dimensions (or three)

(1) the degree to which the emotion is pleasant or unpleasant and (2) the level of activation, or arousal, associated with the emotion. -categorized emotions along a dimension of interpersonal engagement with Japanese participants

overweight and obesity factors

- Genetics is one important factor in excess body weight. - not getting enough sleep is another factor that affects metabolic rate. - the human body is much more effective at vigorously defending against weight loss than it is at protecting against weight gain

signals that regulate eating

-About 30 minutes before you eat, you experience a slight increase in blood levels of insulin and a slight decrease in blood levels of glucose. Once the meal is begun, blood glucose levels return to their baseline level. -ghrelin: an appetitite-stimulating hormone manufactured by cells lining the stomach. involved in the long-term regulation of energy balance and weight. When people diet and lose weight, ghrelin levels—and feelings of hunger—increase. -classical conditioning and operant conditioning: Time of day or other stimuli, such as your kitchen or a campus cafeteria, can become associated with the anticipation of eating and trigger the physiological signals that increase your sense of hunger

two factor and cognitive appraisal

-Both theories emphasize the importance of cognitive appraisal. -the two-factor theory says that emotion results from physiological arousal plus a cognitive label. In contrast, some appraisal theorists stressed that cognitive appraisal is the essential trigger for an emotional response

functions of emotion

-Emotional processes are closely tied to motivational processes. -Emotions often motivate behavior -rational decision making, purposeful behavior, and setting appropriate goals

NPY (neuropeptide Y)

-In turn, increased brain levels of neuropeptide Y trigger eating behavior, reduce body metabolism, and promote fat storage. -If you lose weight, decreased leptin and insulin levels promote the secretion of NPY by the hypothalamus.

what determines sexual orientation

-Psychological, biological, social, and cultural factors are undoubtedly involved in determining sexual orientation. - Evidence from multiple studies shows that genetics plays a role in determining sexual orientation - non-shared environmental factors were involved in sexual orientation: They are social and biological factors, rather than upbringing or family environment that are experienced by one but not both twins. -evidence that sexual orientation may be influenced by shared biological factors, such as prenatal exposure to sex hormones or other aspects of the prenatal environment -some biological factors are correlated with sexual orientation -Several researchers now believe that sexual orientation is established as early as age 6

why do we stop eating

-Satiation: feeling of fullness and diminished desire to eat that follows eating. -satiation signal: stretch receptors in the stomach that communicate sensory information to the brainstem. -sensitivity of the stomach's stretch receptors is increased by a hormone called cholecystokinin, or CCK -psychological factors: sensory-specific satiety: you eat a meal, food becomes less appealing, especially the specific food that you are eating. -But if a different appealing food becomes available, your willingness to eat returns.

sympathetic nervous system

-The pounding heart and churning stomach that occurs when you experience an intense emotion like fear -triggers the fight-or-flight response, a rapidly occurring series of automatic physical reactions. -also activated by other intense emotions, such as excitement, passionate love, or extreme joy.

chalres darwin

-described the facial expressions, body movements, and postures used to express specific emotions in animals and humans. -argued that emotions reflect evolutionary adaptations to the problems of survival and reproduction. -Emotions help us solve adaptive problems posed by our environment. They "move" us toward potential resources, and they move us away from potential dangers.

Paul Ekman

-estimates that the human face is capable of creating more than 7,000 different expressions. -concluded that facial expressions for the basic emotions are innate and probably hardwired in the brain. -basic emotions are biologically determined, the result of evolutionary processes. -emotional expressions serve the adaptive function of communicating internal states to friends and enemies. -cultural conditioning, gender-role expectations, and other learning experiences shape how, when, and whether emotional responses are displayed.

Emotion

A complex psychological state that involves a subjective experience, a physiological response, and a behavioral or expressive response. -intense but rather short-lived. Emotions are also more likely to have a specific cause, to be directed toward some particular object, and to motivate a person to take some sort of action.

drive

A need or internal motivational state that activates behavior to reduce the need and restore homeostasis.

body mass index (BMI)

A numerical measure of body fat and weight status based on height and weight. A healthy BMI falls between 18 and 25. people with a BMI between 25 and 29.9 are considered overweight. healthy weight is indicated by a waist circumference of 40 inches or less in adult males and 35 inches or less in adult women.

hierarchy of needs

Maslow's hierarchical division of motivation into levels that progress from basic physical needs to psychological needs to self-fulfillment needs. people are motivated to satisfy the needs at each level of the hierarchy before moving up to the next level. lowest levels of Maslow's hierarchy emphasize fundamental biological and safety needs. At the higher levels, the needs become more social and psychologically growth-oriented, culminating in the need to achieve self-actualization

refractory period

Men experience this during which they are incapable of having another erection or orgasm.

emotion in nonhuman animals

One problem in establishing whether animals experience emotion is the difficulty of determining the nature of an animal's subjective experience. -Animals clearly demonstrate diverse emotions—fear, anger, surprise. -fish, turtles, and snakes, probably do not possess a level of self-awareness that would allow them to experience complex emotions like grief, empathy, or altruism. sophisticated animals, like dolphins, primates, and elephants, the evidence is more compelling

two-factor theory

Schachter and Singer's theory that emotion is the interaction of physiological arousal and the cognitive label that we apply to explain the arousal. emotion is the result of the interaction of physiological arousal and the cognitive label we use to explain our stirred-up state.

glucose

Simple sugar that provides energy and is primarily produced by the conversion of carbohydrates and fats.

display rules

Social and cultural regulations governing emotional expression, especially facial expressions.

detecting lies

The polygraph, commonly called a lie detector, measures physiological changes associated with emotions like fear, tension, and anxiety. Heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, and other indicators. problems: -First, there is no unique pattern of physiological arousal associated specifically with lying -Second, some people can lie without experiencing anxiety or arousal. This produces a false negative result: the liar is judged to be telling the truth. -Third, people may be innocent of any wrongdoing but still be fearful or anxious when asked incriminating questions—especially if they believe that they are suspected of a crime. polygraph tests are more likely to wrongly identify innocent people as guilty than guilty people as innocent -Finally, interpreting polygraph results can be highly subjective.

cognitive appraisal theory of emotion

The theory that emotional responses are triggered by a cognitive evaluation. -most important aspect of an emotional experience is your cognitive interpretation, or appraisal, of the situation or stimulus. -emotions result from our appraisal of the personal meaning of events and experiences.

James-Lange theory of emotion

The theory that emotions arise from the perception of body changes. -your heart didn't pound and you didn't run because you were afraid. Rather, the James-Lange theory holds that you felt afraid because your heart pounded and you ran. -(1) We perceive a stimulus; (2) physiological and behavioral changes occur, which (3) we experience as a particular emotion.

Incentive theories

The view that behavior is motivated by the pull of external goals, such as rewards. drive and incentive explanations of motivation still had limitations. In some situations, such as playing a rapid-response video game, our behavior seems to be directed toward increasing tension and physiological arousal.

instinct theories

The view that certain human behaviors are innate and due to evolutionary programming. The obvious problem with the early instinct theories was that merely describing and labeling behaviors did not explain them.

humanistic theories of motivation

The view that emphasizes the importance of psychological and cognitive factors in motivation, especially the notion that people are motivated to realize their personal potential. Although innate and universal, the motivation to strive toward your highest potential could be jeopardized by the absence of a supportive environment—personal, social, and cultural

facial feedback hypothesis

The view that expressing a specific emotion, especially facially, causes the subjective experience of that emotion. we tend to unconsciously mimic the facial expressions of others, and feedback from our own facial muscles helps us to better understand others' emotional displays: explains why we are less able to recognize emotional expressions in other people

Arousal theory

The view that people are motivated to maintain a level of arousal that is optimal—neither too high nor too low. arousal is too low, we experience boredom and become motivated to increase arousal by seeking out stimulating experiences. arousal is too high, we seek to reduce arousal in a less stimulating environment. That the optimal level of arousal varies from person to person

set-point theory

Theory that humans and other animals have a natural body weight, called the set-point weight, that the body defends from becoming higher or lower by regulating metabolism and feelings of hunger.

drive theories

replaced instinct theories. The view that behavior is motivated by the desire to reduce internal tension caused by unmet biological needs: biological needs, such as hunger or thirst. drives are triggered by the internal mechanisms of homeostasis. the drive concept remains useful in explaining motivated behaviors that clearly have biological components, such as hunger, thirst, and sexuality. limitations: eating behavior can be motivated by factors other than the biological drive of hunger: People often eat when they're not hungry and don't eat when they are hungry. And how could drive theories account for the motivation to buy a lottery ticket, run a marathon, or leave home to volunteer in a remote Himalayan village?

plateau phase

second phase, physical arousal builds. The penis becomes fully erect, and the testes increase in size. The clitoris withdraws under the clitoral hood and the vaginal entrance tightens, putting pressure on the penis during heterosexual intercourse. During the excitement and plateau stages, the degree of arousal may fluctuate up and down

intensity

seen in the greater vigor of responding that usually accompanies motivated behavior.

ostracism

social rejection by other group members, emotional pain of social rejection activates physical pain areas in the brain

direct pathway

thalamus→ amygdala pathway rapidly triggers an emotional response to threats that, through evolution, we are biologically prepared to fear, such as snakes or rapidly moving objects. advantageous to be able to respond quickly in situations of potential danger.

indirect pathway

thalamus→cortex→amygdala. more complex stimuli to be evaluated in the cortex before triggering the amygdala's alarm system.

self-efficacy

the beliefs that people have about their ability to meet the demands of a specific situation; feelings of self confidence

need for affiliation

the need to associate with like-minded people in social groups. In combination, belongingess and affiliation are essential to both thriving in our personal lives and surviving as a species.

Autonomy

the need to determine, control, and organize our own behavior and goals so that they are in harmony with our own interests and values

Relatedness

the need to feel attached to others and experience a sense of belongingness, security, and intimacy

Competence

the need to learn and master appropriately challenging tasks

Orgasm

the third and shortest phase of the sexual response cycle. The muscles in the vaginal walls and the uterus contract rhythmically, as do the muscles in and around the penis as the male ejaculates. Both men and women describe the subjective experience of orgasm in similar—and very positive—terms.