Unit 8 Psychology

how are emotions adaptive and what are the cultural influences on expressing emotions?

Culture and emotional expression When culturally diverse people were shown basic facial expressions, they did fairly well at recognizing them Facial expression such as happiness and fear are common throughout the world (universal language) Americans are more likely than Asians to openly display their feelings by their facial expressions Children's facial expressions-even those of blind children who have never seen a face-are also universal To effectively manage emotions, people would be best advised to control their facial expressions The meaning of gestures varies with the culture To find out if facial expressions also have different meanings in different cultures, two investigative teams showed photographs of various facial expressions to people in different parts of the world and asked them to guess the emotion A smile a smile the world around Ditto for anger and to a lesser extent the other basic expressions There is no culture where people frown when they are happy Facial expressions do convey some nonverbal accents that provide clues to one's culture Thus data from 182 studies show slightly enhanced accuracy when people judge emotions from their own culture Still, the telltale signs of emotion generally cross cultures The world over, children cry when distressed, shake their heads when defiant, and smile when they are happy So, too, with blind children who have never seen a face People blind from birth spontaneously exhibit the common facial expressions associated with such emotions as joy, sadness, fear, and anger Musical expressions also cross cultures Happy and sad music feels happy and sad around the world Whether you live in an African village or a European city, fast paced music seems happy, and slow paced music seems sadder Paul Ekman and his team asked isolated people in New Guinea to respond to such statements as, "pretend your child has died." When north american collegians viewed the taped responses, they easily ead the New Guineans' facial reactions This studied provided that shared emotional categories do not reflect shared cultural experiences This discovery would not have surprised Charles Darwin who argued that in prehistoric times, before our ancestors communicated in words, they communicated threats, greetings, and submission with facial expressions Their shared expressions helped them survive A sneer, for example, retains elements of an animal baring its teeth in a snarl Emotional expressions may enhance our survival in other ways, too Surprised raises the eyebrows and widens the eyes, enabling us to take in more information Disgust wrinkles the nose, closing it from foul odors Smiles are social as well as emotional events Bowlers seldom smile when they score a strike, they smile when they turn to face their companions Euphoric olympic gold medal winners typically don't smile when they are awaiting their ceremony, but they wear broad grins when interacting with officials and facing the crowd and cameras Thus, a glimpse at competitor's spontaneous expressions following an Olympic judo competition gives a very good clue to who won, no matter their country Even natively blind athletes, who have never observed smiles, display the same social smiles in such situations Although we share a universal facial language, it has been adaptive for us to interpret faces in particular context People judge an angry face set in a frightening situation as afraid They judge a fearful face set in a painful situation as pained Movie directors harness this phenomenon by creating contexts and soundtracks that amplify our perceptions of particular emotions Although cultures share a universal facial language for basic emotions, they differ in how much emotion they express Those that encourage individuality, as in Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and North America, display mostly visible emotions Those that encourage people to adjust to others, as in China, tend to have less visible displays of personal emotions In Japan, people infer emotion more from the surrounding context Moreover, the mouth, which is so expressive in North America, conveys less emotion than do the telltale eyes Cultural differences also exist within nations The Irish and their Irish-American descendants tend to be more expressive than Scandinavians and their Scandinavian-American descendants Like most psychological events, emotion is best understood not only as a biological and cognitive phenomenon, but also as a social cultural phenomenon Emotions are adaptive Darwin speculated that our ancestors communicate with facial expressions in the absence of language

how can you detect emotions?

Detecting and computing emotion Most people find it difficult to detect deceiving emotions. Even trained professional like police offices, psychiatrists, judges, and polygraphists detected deceiving emotions only 54% of the time To westerners, a firm handshake conveys an outgoing, expressive personality A gaze, an averted glance, or a stare communicate intimacy, submission, or dominance When two people are passionately in love, they typically spend time-quite a bit of time-gazing into each other's eyes Researchers wanted to know if staring into the eyes of strangers would stir the same responses so they asked unacquainted male-female pairs to gaze intently for two minutes either at each other's hands or into each other's eyes After spearting, the eye gazers reported feeling a tingle of attraction and affection Most of us read nonverbal cues well Shown 10 seconds of video from the end of a speed dating interaction, people can often detect whether one person is attracted to another We are especially good at detecting nonverbal threats In a series of subliminally flashed words, we more often sense the presence of negative ones, such as snake or bomb In a crowd of faces, a single angry face "pops out" faster than a single happy one And even when hearing another language, most of us readily detect anger Experience can sensitize us to particular emotions, as shown by experiments using a series of faces that morph from fear (or sadness) to anger Viewing such faces, physically abused children are much quicker than other children to spot the signals of anger Shown a face that is 60% fear and 40% anger, they are as likely to perceive anger as fear Their perceptions become sensitively attuned to glimmers of danger than nonabused children miss Hard-to-control facial muscles reveal signs of emotions you may be trying to conceal Lifting just the inner part of your eyebrows, which few people do consciously, reveals distress or worry Eyebrows raised and pulled together signal fear Activated muscles under the eyes and raised cheeks suggest a natural smile, called A DUCHENNE SMILE in honor of the French physician who described it A feigned smile, such as one we make for a photographer, often is frozen in place for several seconds, then suddenly switched off Authentic smiles tend to be briefer and to fade less abruptly Our brains are rather amazing detectors of subtle expressions Researchers filmed teachers talking to unseen schoolchildren and a mere 10 second clip of either the teacher's voice or face provided enough clues for both young and old viewers to determine whether the teacher liked and admired a child In other experiments, even glimpsing a face for one tenth of a second enabled people to judge voter support First impressions occur with astonishing speed note Christopher Olivola and Alexander Todorov Despite our brain's emotion detecting skill we find it difficult to detect deceiving expressions In one digest of 206 studies of discerning truth from lies, people were just 54% accurate-barely better than a coin toss Moreover, contrary to claims that some experts can spot lies, the available research indicates that virtually no one-save perhaps police professionals in high stakes situations-beats chance by much The behavioral differences between liars and truth tellers are too minute for most people to detect Some of us are, however, more sensitive than others to physical cues In one study, hundreds of people were asked to name the emotion in brief film clips they watched The clips showed portions of a person's emotionally expressive face or body, sometimes accompanied by a garbled voice For example, after a 2-second scene revealing only the face of an upset woman, the researchers would ask whether the woman was criticizing someone or being late or was talking about her ivorce Given such "thin slices," some people were much better emotion detectors than others Introverts tend to excel at reading others' emotions, while extraverts are generally easier to read Gestures, facial expressions, and voice tones, which are absent in written communication, convey important information Those who listen to 30 seconds of people describing their marital separation can better predict their current and future adjustment than can those who read script of the recording Electronic communications provide impoverished nonverbal cues To partly remedy that, we sometimes accompany our text messages, e-mails, and online posts with emotion cues The absence of expressive e-motion can make for ambiguous emotion Without the vocal nuances that signal whether a statement is serious, kidding, or sarcastic, we are in danger of communicating our own egocentrism, as people misinterpret our "just kidding" message

what are the gender differences with reocgnizing and expressing emotions?

Gender, emotion, and nonverbal behavior Women are much better at discerning nonverbal emotions than men Is women's intuition, as so many believe, superior to men's? After analyzing 125 studies of sensitivity to nonverbal cues, Judith Hall concluded that women generally do surpass men at reading people's emotional cues when given "thin slices" of behavior Women have also surpassed men in other assessments of emotional cues, such as deciding whether a male-female couple is a genuine romantic couple or a posed phony couple, and in discerning which of two people in a photo is the other's supervisor Women's nonverbal sensitivity helps explain their greater emotional literacy Invited by Lisa Feldman Barrett and her colleagues to describe how they would feel in certain situations, men described simpler emotional reactions Women would express more complex emotions than men would Women's skill at decoding other's emotions may also contribute to their greater emotional responsiveness In studies of 23,000 people from 26 countries around the world, women more than men reported themselves open to feelings That helps explain the extremely strong perception that emotionality is "more true of women" a perception expressed by nearly 100% of 18 to 29 year old Americans But the perception of women's emotionality also feeds, and is fed by people's attributing women's emotionality to their disposition and men's to their circumstances The one exception is anger, which strikes most people as a more masculine emotion 3 in 4 Arizona State University students imagined men when they pictured an angry face The researchers also found that when a gender neutral face was made to look angry, most people perceived it as male If the face was smiling, they were more likely to perceive it a female When surveyed, women are also far more likely than men to describe themselves as empathic If you have empathy, you identify with others and imagine what it must be like to walk in their shoes. You rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Children and adults who skillfully infer others' thoughts and feelings tend to enjoy positive peer relationships Physiological measures of empathy such as one's heart rate while seeing another's distress, confirm a gender gap, though a smaller one than is indicated in survey self reports Females are also more likely to express empathy-to cry and to report distress when observing someone in distress This gender difference was clear in videotapes of male and female students watching film clips that were sad (children with a dying parent), happy (slapstick comedy), or frightening (a man nearly falling off the ledge of a tall building) Women also tend to experience emotional events, such as viewing pictures of mutilation, more deeply, with more brain activation in areas sensitive to emotion And they are better at remembering the scenes three weeks later

what are the roles that hormones play in sexual behavior? What is estrogen and testosterone?

Hormones and Sexual behavior 1. Sex hormones effect the development of sexual characteristics and (especially in animals) activate sexual behavior a) Men produce testosterone in their testes b) Females produce estrogen in their ovaries and adrenals c) Both men and women have a little bit of each others primary sexual characteristics (the things that directly work with reproduction) 2. Sex hormones have two effects: a) They direct the physical development of male and female sex characteristics b) They activate sexual behavior (especially in nonhuman animals) 3. In most mammals, nature neatly synchronizes sex with fertile a) In humans, hormones more loosely influence sexual behavior, although sexual desire rises slightly at ovulation among women with mates b) When at peak fetidly, in their menstrual cycle, women express increased preference or masculine faces and ability to detect sexual orientation, but also increased apprehensiveness of men perceived as potentially sexually coercive c) One study invited partnered women not at risk for pregnancy to keep a diary of their sexual activity (these women were either using intrauterine devices or had undergone surgery to prevent pregnancy) d) On the days around ovulation, intercourse was 24% more frequent 4. Women's sexuality differs from that of other mammalian females in being more responsive to testosterone level a) If a woman's natural testosterone level drops, as happens with removal of the ovaries or adrenal glands, her sexual interest may wane b) But testosterone-replacement therapy sometimes restores diminished sexual appetite c) That is the finding of experiments with hundreds of surgically or naturally menopausal women, for whom a testosterone replacement patch restored sexual activity, arousal, and desire more than did a placebo d) For men with abnormally low testosterone levels, testosterone-replacement therapy often increases sexual desire and also energy and vitality 5. In men, normal fluctuations in testosterone levels, from man to man and hour to hour have little effect on sexual drive a) Indeed, fluctuations in male hormones are partly a response to sexual stimulation b) In the presence of an attractive female, Australian skateboarders' testosterone surges, which contributes to riskier moves and more crash landings c) Thus, sexual arousal can be a cause as well as a consequence of increased testosterone levels 6. Although normal short term hormonal changes have little effect on men's and women's desire, large hormonal shifts over the lifespan has a greater effect a) A person's interest in dating and sexual stimulation usually increases with the pubertal surge in sex hormones b) If the hormonal surge is precluded-as it was during the 1600s and 1700s for prepubertal boys who were castrated to preserve their soprano voices for Italian opera-the normal development of sex characteristics and sexual desire does not occur c) When adult men are castrated, sex drive desire does not occur d) Male sex offenders taking Depo-Provera, a drug that reduces testosterone levels to that of a prepubertal boy, similarly lose much of their sexual urge e) In late life, as sexual hormone levels decline, the frequency of sexual fantasies and intercourse declines as well 7. To sumarzie: we might compare human sex hormones, especially testosterone to the fuel in a car a) Without fuel, a car will not run, but if the fuel level is minimally adequate, adding more fuel to the gas tank won't change how the car runs b) The analogy is imperfect because hormones and sexual motivation interact c) However, it correctly suggests that biology is a necessary but not sufficient explanation of human sexual behavior d) The hormonal fuel is essential, but so are the psychological stimuli that run on the engine, keep it running, and shift it into high gear 8. Estrogen: a) Female animals "in heat" express peak levels of estrogen. Female receptivity in animals may be heightened with estrogen injections b) Sex hormones may have milder affects on humans than on animals. Women are more likely to have sex when close to ovulation (increased testosterone)< and men show increased testosterone levels when socializing with women c) The female becomes sexually receptive (in other animals being "in heat") when secretion of the female hormone, THE ESTROGENS (such as estradiol), peaks during ovulation d) Estrogens: sex hormones, such as estradiol, secreted in greater amounts by females than by males and contributing to female sex characteristics. In nonhuman female mammals, estrogen levels peak during ovulation, promoting sexual receptivity d) In experiments, researchers stimulate receptivity by injecting female animals with an estrogen 9. Testosterone: a) Levels of testosterone remain relatively constant in males, so it is difficult to manipulate and activate sexual behavior b) Castration, which reduces testosterone levels, lowers sexual interest c) Male hormone levels are most constant, and hormone injection does not so easily manipulate the sexual behavior of male animals d) Nevertheless, castrated male rats-having lost their testes, which manufacture the male sex hormone TESTOSTERONE- gradually lose much of their interest in receptive females e) They gradually regain it if injected with testosterone f) Testosterone: the most important of the male sex hormones. Both males and females have it, but the additional testosterone in male stimulates the growth of the male sex organs in the fetus and the development of the male sex characteristics during puberty

how does your immune system work and what can stress do to it?

Hundreds of experiments reveal the nervous and endocrine systems influence on the immune system You can think of the immune system as a complex surveillance system When it functions properly, it keeps you healthy by isolating and destroying bacteria, viruses, and other invaders Four types of cells are active in these search and destroy missions Two are types of while blood cells called LYMPHOCYTES Lymphocytes: the two types of white blood cells that are part of the body's immune system: B lymphocytes form in the bone marrow and release antibodies that fight bacterial infections; T lymphocytes form in the thymus and other lymphatic tissue and attack cancer cells, viruses , and foreign substances (even good ones such as transplanted organs) The third agent is the MACROPHAGE, which identifies, pursues, and ingests harmful invaders and worn out cells And finally, the NATURAL KILLER CELLS (NK CELLS ) pursue diseased cells (such as those infected by viruses or cancer) Your age, nutrition, genetics, body temperature, and stress all influence your immune system's activity When your immune system doesn't function properly, it can err in two directions Responding too strongly, it may attack the body's own tissues causing some forms of arthritis or an allergic reaction underreacting , it may allow a dormant herpes virus to erupt or cancer cells to multiply Women are immunologically stronger than men, making them less susceptible to infections, but this very strength also makes them more susceptible to self attacking diseases, such as lupus and multiple sclerosis Your immune system is not a headless horseman The brain regulates the secretion of stress hormones, which suppresses the disease-fighting lymphocytes Immune suppression appears when animals are stressed by physical restraints, unavoidable electric shocks, noise, crowding, cold water, social defat, or separation from their mothers One six-month study monitored immune responses in 43 monkeys 21 were stressed by being housed with new roommates-3 or 4 new monkeys each month By the end of the experiment, the socially disrupted monkey's immune systems were weaker than those of monkeys left in stable groups Human immune system react similarly: Surgical wounds heal more slowly in stressed people: in one experiment, dental students received punch wounds (precise small holes punched in the skin). Compared with wounds placed during summer vacation, those placed three days before a major exam healed 40% more slowly. Marriage conflict also slows punch wound healing Stressed people are more vulnerable to colds: researchers dropped a cold virus into the causes of stressed and relatively unstressed people. Among those living stress filled lives,s 47% developed colds. Among those living relatively free of stress, only 27% did. In follow up research, the happiest and most relaxed people were likewise markedly less vulnerable to an experimentally delivered cold virus. Other studies reveal that major life stress increases the risk of a respiratory infection The stress effect on immunity makes physiological sense. It takes energy to track down invaders produce swelling and maintain fevers Thus when diseased, your body reduce muscular energy output by inactivity and increased sleep Stress does the opposite It creates a competing energy need During an aroused fight or flight reaction, your stress responses divert energy from your disease-fighting immune system and send it to your muscles and brain This renders you more vulnerable to illness THE BOTTOM LINE: STRESS DOES NOT MAKE US SICK, BUT IT DOES ALTER OUR IMMUNE FUNCTIONING WHICH LEAVES US LESS ABLE TO RESIST INFECTION

how does ostracism affect us?

Ostracism: social exclusion leads to demoralization, depression, and at times nasty behavior In one mock interview study, women felt more excluded if interviewers used gender exclusive language (he, his, him) rather than inclusive (his or her) or neutral (their) language OSTRACISM is social exclusion Worldwide, humans use many forms of ostracism-exile, imprisonment, solitary confinement-to punish, and therefore control social behavior For children, even a brief time out in isolation can be punishing Asked to describe personal episodes that made them feel especially bad about themselves, people will-about four times in five-describe a relationship difficulty Feelings of loneliness can also spread from person to person like a disease, through one's acquaintances Being shunned-given the cold shoulder or the silent treatment, with other's eyes avoiding yours-threatens one's need to belong It's the meanest thing you can do to someone, especially if you know they can't fight back. People often respond to ostracism with depressed moods, initial efforts to restore their acceptance and then withdrawal To experience ostracism is to experience real pain as social psychologist Kiling Williams and his colleagues were surprised to discover in their studies of cyberostracism You can recall the feeling of being unfriended or having few followers on a social networking site, being ignored in a chat room, or having a text message or email go unanswered Such ostracism, they discovered, takes a toll: it elicited increased activity in brain areas, such as the anterior cingulate cortex, that also activate in response to physical pain That helps explain another surprising finding; the pain reliever acetaminophen lessens social as well as physical pain Across cultures, people use the same words (hurt, crushed) for social pain and physical pain Psychologically, we seem to experience social pain with the same emotional unpleasantness that marks physical pain Pain whatever its source focuses our attention and motivates corrective action Rejected and unable to remedy the situation, people may seek new friends or relieve stress in a strengthened religious faith Or they may turn nasty In a series of experiments, researchers told some students (who had taken a personality test) that they were "the type likely to end up alone later in life," or that people they had met didn't want them in a group that was forming They told other students that they would have "rewarding relationships throughout life," or that "everyone chose you as someone they'd like to work with" Those excluded became much more likely to engage in self defeating behaviors and to underperform on aptitude tests The rejection also interfered with their empathy for others and made them more likely to act in disparaging or aggressive ways against those who had excluded them (blasting them with noise, for example) If intelligent, well adjusted,d successful... students can turn aggressive in response to a small laboratory experience of social exclusion noted the research team, it is disturbing to imagine the aggressive tendencies that might arise from chronic exclusion from desired groups in actual social life Ostracism weaves through case after case of school violence

how does emotion and the automatic nervous system work together? What are the psychological differences and similarities of emotion?

Emotions and the autonomic nervous system: During an emotional experience our autonomic nervous system mobilizes energy in the body that arouses us Sympathetic is the fight or flight responses Parasympathetic is when you are really relaxed and chill Arousal and Performance: Arousal in short spurts is adaptive. We perform better under moderate arousal, but optimal performance varies with task difficulty With training, you can probably pick out a board movie goer based on the person's heart rate, perspiration, and breathing, but discerning physiological differences among fear, anger, and sexual arousal would be much more difficult Different emotions do not have sharply distinct biological signatures Nor do they engage sharply distinct brain regions The insula, a neural center deep inside the brain, is activated when we experience various social emotions such as lust, pride, and disgust In brain scans, it becomes active when people bite into some disgusting food smell the same disgusting food, think about biting into a disgusting cockroach, or feel moral disgust over a sleazy business exploiting a saintly widow Nevertheless, despite their similarities, sexual arousal, fear, anger, and disgust feel different to you and they often look different to others We may appear "paralyzed with fear" or "ready to explode" Research has pinpointed some real, though subtle, physiological distinctions and brain pattern distinctions among the emotions The finger temperatures and hormone secretions that accompany fear and rage do sometimes differ Fear and joy, although they prompt similar increased heart rate, stimulate different facial muscles During fear your brow muscles tense During joy, your muscles in your cheeks and under your eyes pull into a simple Some emotions also differ in their brain circuits Compared with observers watching angry faces, those watching (and subtly mimicking) fearful faces show more activity in their amygdala Brain scans and EEG recordings show that emotions also activate different area of the brain's cortex When you experience negative emotions such as disgust, your right prefrontal cortex tends to be more active than the left Depression prone people, and those with generally negative personalities, also show more right frontal lobe activity Positive moods tend to trigger more left frontal lobe activity People with positive personalities-exuberant infants and alert, enthusiastic, energized and persistently goal directed adults-also show more activity in the left frontal lobe than in the right Indeed, the more a person's baseline frontal lobe activity tilts left or is made to tilt left by perceptual activity- the more upbeat the person typically is To sum up, we can't easily see differences in emotions from tracking heart rate, breathing, and perspiration But facial expressions and brain activity can vary with the emotion Physiological similarities Physiological responses related to the emotions of fear, anger, love, and boredom are very similar Physiological differences: Physical responses, like finger temperature and movement of facial muscles, change during fear, rage, and joy The amygdala shows differences in activation during the emotions of anger and rage. Activity of the life hemisphere (happy) is different from the right (depressed) for emotions

summarize the strengths and weakness of the motivation perspectives?

1. INSTINCT THEORY AND EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY a) strength: Evolutionary psychology helps explain behavioral similarities due to adaptations from our ancestral past b) weakness: Instinct theory explains animal behavior better than human behavior; humans have few true instincts 2. DRIVE REDUCTION THEORY a) strength: Explains our motivation to reduce arousal by meeting basic needs, such as hunger or thirst b) weakness: Does not explain why some motivated behaviors increase arousal 3. OPTIMAL AROUSAL THEORY: a) strength: Explains that motivated behaviors may decrease or increase arousal b) weakness: Does not explain our motivation to address our more complex social needs 4. MASLOW'S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS: a) strength: Incorporates the idea that we have various levels of needs, including lower-level physiological and safety needs, and higher level social self-esteem, actualization, and meaning needs b) weakness: The order of needs ma change in some circumstances, Evolutionary psychologists note the absence in the hierarchy of the universal human motives to find a mate and reproduce

what are intrinsic and extrinsic motivation?

1. Intrinsic motivation: a) Motivation for a behavior is the behavior itself b) Children playing is an example c) If you are intrinsically motivated to learn something, it is easy to learn things about it d) This is very helpful in loving something which makes it easier to learn 2. Extrinsic motivation: a) Behavior is performed in order to obtain a reward or to avoid punishment b) A bonus program is an example c) Not as helpful because you can be motivated to do something, but the extrinsic motivation (like money or a draft pick) will motivate you even more

compare and contrast men's porn with women's erotica

1. Men's Porn a) Is visual, anatomical, impulsive, floridly promiscuous, and devoid of context and character b) Men fantasize about copulating with bodies c) It is objective towards women because that is not what real women look like 2. Women's erotica a) Far more likely to be verbal, psychological, reflective, serially monogamous, and rich in context and character b) Women fantasize about making love to people c) Women are turned on by erotica and men get turned on by porn d) It is serially monogamous e) Stability is better for raising children and men don't have to worry about pregnancy f) Character matters because you don't want to get pregnant by a bad person-want to spend time and get to know a person whereas men just want to have sex with a woman 3. The contrast: a) The contrasts between romance novels and porn videos are so numerous and profound that they can make one marvel that men and women ever get together at all, much less stay together and successfully rear children

what are stis

1. Roughly 1 in 4 individuals will get an STI in their lifetime 2. "This class of infections is second only to the common cold in frequency."

what is sexual orientation and what are the causes of it?

1. Sexual orientation: a) Sexual orientation refers to a person's preference for emotional and sexual relationships with individuals of the same sex, the other sex, and/ or either sex b) In Europe and America, based on many national surveys, homosexuality in men is 3-4% and in women is 1-2% c) As members of a minority, homosexuals often struggle with their sexual orientation 2. Genes and Sexual orientation: a) Origins unclear b) A number of studies suggest that homosexuality may be due to genetic factors 1) Family: homosexuality seems to run in families 2) Twin studies: homosexuality is more common in identical twins than fraternal twins 3) Fruit flies: genetic engineers can genetically manipulate females to act like males during courtship and males to act like females 3. Sexual orientation biology: (look at slides 111)

what is the need to belong?

1. The Need to belong a) "Man is a social animal," (aristotle) b) Separation from others increases our need to belong 2. We are what Greek philosopher Aristotle called the social animal a) Cut off from friends or family-alone in prison or at a new school or in a foreign land-most people feel keenly their lost connections with important others b) This deep need to belong-our affiliation need-seems to be a basic human motivation c) Although healthy people vary in their wish for privacy and solitude, most of us seek to affiliate with others, even to become strongly attached to certain others in enduring, close relationships d) Human beings have an urge to community c) Our psychological needs drive our adaptive behaviors and when satisfied enhance our psychological well being

what is adolescent sexuality? what are factors that reduce sexual acitivty in teens?

Adolescent Sexuality: 1. When individuals reach adolescence, their sexual behavior develops. 2. However, there are cultural differences 3. Sexual promiscuity in modern Western culture is much greater than in Arab countries and other Asian countries Factors that reduce sexual activity in teens: 1. High intelligence: teens with higher intelligence are likely to delay sex 2. Religiosity: religious teens and adults often reserve sex for a marital commitment 3. Father presence: a father's absence from home can contribute to higher teen sexual activity 4. Learning programs: teens who volunteer and tutor in community projects are less likely to engage in unsafe sex

is it cognition or unconscious processes that make you hungry?

Cognition/Unconscious and Hunger 1. Think for a moment about why you eat food...you probably think you eat food because it tastes so good right? 2. But how big is the box? 3. You decide how much to eat by how big the box is as much as how it tastes a) If it comes in a big box, you will probably eat more of it regardless of how it tastes b) If this is true is it a conscious choice?

Does electronic communications stimulate healthy self disclosure?

Confiding in others can be a healthy way of coping with day to day challenges When communicating electronically rather than face to face, we often are less focused on others' reactions, less self conscious, and thus less inhibited We become more willing to share joys, worried, and vulnerabilities Sometimes this is taken to an extreme, as when teens send photos of themselves they later regret, or cyberbullies hound a victim, or hate groups post messages promoting bigotry or crimes More often, the increased self disclosure serves to deepen friendships Although electronic networking pays dividends, nature has designed us for face-to-face communication which appears to be the better predictor of life satisfaction Texting and emailing are rewarding, but eye-to-eye conversation with family and friends is even more so

what is polygraph? Do lie detectors work?

Emotion-Lie Detectors Control question? Up to age 18, did you ever physically harm anyone? Relevant question Did [the deceased] threaten to harm you in any way? Relevant is higher than control than it is a lie 50 innocent and 50 thieves ⅓ of innocent declared guilty by polygraph ¼ of guilty declared innocent by polygraph Is 70% accuracy good? Assume 5% of 1000 employees are actually guilty Test all employees 285 will be wrongly accused What about 95% accuracy? Assume 1 in 1000 employees actually are guilty Test all employees (including 999 innocent) 50 wrongly declared guilty 1 of 51 testing positive are guilty (-2%) Lie Detector test and results on slides 184-188 Polygraph: a machine, commonly used in attempts to detect lies, that measures several of the physiological responses (such as perspiration and cardiovascular and breathing changes) accompanying emotion Polygraphs don't literally detect lies Instead, they measure emotion linked changes in breathing, cardiovascular activity, and perspiration The examiner will ask you a control question to establish a baseline, a useful comparison for your responses to critical questions If your responses to critical questions are weaker than to control questions, the examiner will infer you are telling the truth Critics point out two problems: Our physiological arousal is much the same from one emotion to another Anxiety, irritation, and guilt all prompt similar physiological reactivity Many innocent people do respond with heightened tension to the accusations implied by the critical questions Many rape victims, for example, fail these tests when reacting emotionally but truthfully A 2002 US National Academy of Science report noted that no spy has ever been caught by using the polygraph The FBI, CIA, and Department of Defense and Energy in the United States have tested tens of thoughts of employees, and polygraph use in Europe has also increased meanwhile , Aldrich Ames, a Russian spy within the CIA went undetected Ames took many polygraph tests and passed them all Nobody thought to investigate the source of his sudden wealth-after all, he was passing the lie detector tests A more effective approach to lie detection uses a guilty knowledge test, which also assesses a suspect's physiological responses to crime scene details known only to the police and the guilty person If a camera and computer had been stolen, only a guilt person should react strongly to the brand names of the stolen items Given enough such specific probes, an innocent person will seldom be wrongly accused Research teams are now exploring new ways to nab liars Psychologists Paul Ekman has done research and has trained law enforcement officers in detecting fleeting signals of deceit in facial expressions Eyeblinks, for example, decrease during the cognitive demands of lying and increase afterward Other researchers are developing software that analyzes facial microexpressions or compares the language of truth tellers and of liars who use fewer first person pronouns and more negative emotion words "Forensic neuroscience" researchers are going straight to the seat of deceit- the brain EEG recordings have revealed brain waves that indicate familiarity with crime information fMRI scans have shown liars' brains activating in places that honest people's brains do not A new US $10 million Law and Neuroscience Project led by psychologist Michael Gazzaniga, aims to assess appropriate uses of the new technology in identifying terrorists, convicting criminals, and protecting the innocent In 2010, a US federal court declared that fMRI lie detection is not yet reading for courtroom use Others argue that jurors' and judges' seat of the pants judgements are worse than the science that is excluded

how can having an explanatory style and social support help to manage the effects of stress?

Explanatory style People with an optimistic (instead of pessimistic) explanatory style tend to have more control over stressors, cope better with stressful events, have better moods, and have a stronger immune system Social support Supportive family members, marriage partners, and close friends help people cope with stress Managing stress effects Having a sense of control, an optimistic explanatory style, and social support can reduce stress and improve health

what are expressed emotions?

Expressed emotion Emotions are expressed on the face, by the body, and by the intonation of voice. Is this nonverbal language of emotion universal? People more speedily detect an angry face than a happy one Expressive behavior implies emotion To decipher people's emotions we read their bodies, listen to their voice tones, and study their faces

what external stimuli are involved in sexual motivation?

External Stimuli: 1. Men becomes sexually aroused when browsing through erotic material 2. However, women experience similar heightened arousal with similar material 3. Many studies confirm that men become aroused when they see, hear or read erotic material a) Surprising to many (because sexually explicit materials are marketed mostly to men) is that most women-at least the less inhibit women who volunteer to participate in such studies-report or exhibit nearly as much arousal to the same stimuli b) Their brains do however respond differently with fMRI scans revealing a more active amygdala in men viewing erotica c) In 132 such experiments, men's feelings of sexual arousal have much more closely mirrored their (more obvious) genital response than have women's 4. People may find sexual arousal either pleasing or disturbing a) Those who wish to control their arousal often limit their exposure to such materials, just as those wishing to control hunger limit their exposure to such materials, just as those wishing to control hunger limit their exposure to tempting cues b) With repeated exposure, the emotional response to any erotic stimulus often lessens, or habituates c) During the 1920s, when Western women's hemlimes first reached the knee, an exposed leg as a mildly erotic stimulus 5. Can sexually explicit material have adverse effects? a) Research indicates that it can b) Depictions of women being sexually coerced-and liking it-tend to increase viewer's acceptance of the false idea that women enjoy rape and they tend to increase male viewer's willingness to hut women c) Viewing images of sexually attractive women and men may also lead people to devalue their own partners and relationships d) After male collegians viewed TV or magazines depictions of sexually attractive women, they often found an average woman or their own girlfriend or wife less attractive e) Viewing x rated sex films similarly tends to diminish people's satisfaction with their own sexual partner f) Perhaps reading or watching erotica creates expectations that few men and women can fulfill

what is the feel good, do good phenomenon? What is subjective well being?

Feel-good, do-good phenomenon When we feel happy we are more willing to help others Subjective well being Subjective well being is the self perceived feeling of happiness or satisfaction with life. Research on new positive psychology is on the rise Emotional ups and downs Our positive moods rise to a maximum within 6-7 hours after waking up. Negative moods stay more or less the same throughout the day Over the long run, our emotional ups and downs tend to balance

what is the cognitive appraisal theory and the opponent process theory?

Opponent process theory: Opponent process theory suggests that any given emotion also has an opposed emotion (Fear/Relief or Sadness/Happiness) Activation of one member of the pair automatically suppresses the opposite emotion But the opposing emotion can serve to diminish the intensity of the initial emotion Solomon and Corbit (1974) The opponent process theory states that when one emotion is experienced, the other is suppressed. For example, if you are frightened by a mean dog, the emotion of fear is expressed and relief is suppressed. If the fear-causing stimulus continues to be present, after a while, the fear decreases and the relief intensifies Cognitive Appraisal Theory Sequence: Stimulus (object, event, or thought) Appraisal of how this affects your well being (consciously or unconsciously) Emotion (fear, anger, happiness,...) Physiological responses and behavior for an emotion to occur, it is necessary to first think about the situation

what is the physiology of obesity?

Physiology of Obesity: 1. Fat cells may divide, they may shrink but never disappear 2. Makes it easier to add fat in the future 3. The Physiology of Obesity: a) Our bodies store fat for good reason b) Fat is an ideal form of stored energy-a high calorie fuel reserve to carry the body through periods when foods is scarce-a common occurrence in our prehistoric ancestors' world c) No wonder that in many developing societies today (an in Europe in earlier centuries) people find heavier bodies attractive: obesity signals affluence and social status d) In parts of the world where food and sweets are no abundantly available, the rule that once served our hungry distant ancestors-when you find energy rich fat or sugar, eat it- has become dysfunctional

what is promoting health?

Promoting Health Promoting health is generally defined as the absence of disease We tend to only think of health when we are diseased. However, health psychologists say that promoting health begins by preventing illness and enhancing well being, which is a constant endeavor

what are the causes of the eating disorders?

Reasons for eating disorders: 1. Sexual abuse: childhood sexual abuse doe not cause eating disorders however it is associated with eating disorders 2. Family: younger generations at greater risk when raised in families in which weight is an excessive concern 3. Genetics: twin studies show that eating disorders are more likely to occur in identical twins rather than fraternal twins 4. Obsessive compulsive disorder: need to control 5. Depression and low self esteem

what are the social effects of obesity?

Social Effects of obesity: 1. When women applicants were made to look overweight, subjects were less willing to hire them a) It is harder to get a job and you will make less money because of preconceived notions on obesity 2. Obesity can be socially toxic, by affecting both how you are treated and how you feel about yourself a) Obesity has been associated with lower psychological well being especially among women and increased risk of depression b) Obese 60 to 9 year olds are 60% more likely to suffer bullying c) Obesity has physical health risks are well d) Yet few overweight people win the battle of the bulge

is obesity contagious?

Social contagion: 1. Obesity is contagious 2. If you friends are obese you are more likely to be obese 3. What about change? a) If your friend gains a couple pounds you are more likely to gain a couple pounds 4. Your risk of infection... a) If a friend becomes obese you are 57% more likely to become obese b) Friend of a friend 20% more likely to gain weight too (with friends of the same sex)

Can social networking profiles and posts reflect people's actual personalities?

Social networks reveal people's true personalities In one study, participants completed a personality test twice In one test, they described their "actual personality" in the other, they described their "ideal self" Volunteers then used the participants' Facebook profiles to create an independent set of personality ratings The ratings based on Facebook profiles were much closer to the participants actual personalities than to their ideal personalities In another study, people who seemed most likable on their Facebook page also seemed most likeable in face-to-face meetings Your online profiles may indeed reflect the real you

does biology or culture influence your taste preference?

Taste preference: biology or culture? 1. We tend to avoid food from other cultures because we aren't familiar with them 2. Countries with hot climates use more bacteria inhibiting spices in meat dishes a) makes sense because the meat will spoil in the hot climates faster 3. Body chemistry and environmental factors together influence not only the when of hunger, but also the what-our taste and preferences a) When feeling tense of depressed, you crave carbohydrates such as pasta, chips, and sweets help boost levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin which has calming effects b) When stressed even rats find it extra rewarding to scarf oreos c) Our preferences for sweet and salty tastes are genetic and universal, but conditioning can intensify or alter those preferences d) People given highly salted foods may develop a liking for excess salt e) People sickened by a food may develop an aversion to it f) The frequency of children's illnesses provides many chances for them to learn to avoid certain foods 4. Our culture teaches us that some foods are acceptable but others are not a) Bedouins enjoy eating the eye of a camel, which most North Americans would find repulsive b) North Americans and Europeans also shun horse, dog, and rat meat, all of which are prized elsewhere 5. But there is biological wisdom to many of our taste preferences a) Environments can influence the human genetics that affect diet and taste b) In places where agriculture has produced milk, for example, survival patterns have favored people with lactose tolerance c) And in hot climates (where foods spoil more quickly) recipes often include spices that inhibit the growth of bacteria d) India averages nearly 10 spices per meat recipe; Finland, 2 spices e) Pregnant women's food dislikes and the nausea associated with them, peak about the tenth weke when the developing embryo is most vulnerable to toxins 6. Rats tend to avoid unfamiliar foods a) So do we, especially those that are animal based b) This neophobia surely was adaptive for our ancestors by protecting them from potentially toxic substances c) In time, though, most people who repeatedly sample an initially novel fruit drink or ethnic food come to appreciate the new taste

what are the genetic factors in obesity?

The genetic factor 1. Identical twin studies reveal that body weight has a genetic basis 2. The obese mouse on the left has a defective gene for the hormone leptin. The mouse on the right sheds 40% of its weight when injected with leptin 3. Studies do reveal a genetic influence on body weight 4. Despite sharing family meals, adoptive siblings' body weights are uncorrelated with one another or with those of their adoptive parents. Rather people's weights resemble those of their biological parents 5. Identical twins have closely similar weights even when reared apart. Across studies, their weight correlates +.74 The much lower +.32 correlation among fraternal twins suggests that genes explain two thirds of our varying body mass

what role does memory play in hunger?

The psychology of hunger: 1. Memory plays an important role in hunger. Due to difficulties with retention, amnesia patients eat frequently if given food 2. When researchers tested two patients who had no memory for events occurring more than a minute ago a) If offered a second lunch 20 minutes after eating a normal lunch, both patients readily consumed it and usually a third meal offered 20 minutes after they finished the second b) This suggests that one part of our decision to eat is our memory of the time of our last meal c) As time passes, we think about eating again, and those thoughts trigger feelings of hunger

does money buy happiness? what is the adaption level principle?

Wealth and well being Many people in the West believe that if they were wealthier, they would be happier. However, data suggests that they would only be happy temporarily Does money buy happiness? Wealth is like health: its utter absence can breed misery, yet having it is no guarantee of happiness Happiness and satisfaction Subjective well being (happiness and satisfaction) measured in 82 countries shows Puerto Rico and Mexico (poorer countries) at the top of the list Values and Life satisfaction Students who value love more than money report higher life satisfaction Experienced emotion The adaptation-level principle; Happiness is relative to our prior experience If our current condition increases, we feel an initial surge of pleasure We then adapt to this new level of achievement, come to consider it as normal, and require something even better to give us another surge of happiness

what is LeDoux and Zajonc belief on the route to emotion

Zajonc and LeDoux emphasize that some emotions are immediate, without conscious appraisal. Even to emotional response But sometimes our emotions (especially simple likes, dislikes, and fears) take what Joseph LeDoux has called the "low-road," a neural shortcut that bypasses the cortex Following the low road pathway, a fear provoking stimulus would travel from the eye or ear (again via the thalamus) directly to the amygdala This shortcut, bypassing the cortex, enables our greased lightning emotional response before our intellect intervenes Like speedy reflexes that also operate apart from the brain's thinking cortex, the amygdala reactions are so fast that we may be unaware of what's transpired In one fascinating experiment, researches used fMRI scans to observe the amygdala's response to subliminally presented fearful eyes Although they were flashed too quickly for people to consciously perceive them, the fearful eyes triggered increased amygdala activity A control condition that presented happy eyes did not trigger this activity The amygdala sends more neural projections up to the cortex than it receives back, which makes it easier for our feelings to hijack our thinking than for our thinking to rule our feelings Thus, in the forest, we can jump at the sound of rustling bushes nearby and leave it our cortex to decide late whether the sound was made by a snake or by the wind Such experiences support Zajonc's belief that some of our emotional reactions involve no deliberate thinking

how does stress effect colds?

Stress and Colds People with the highest life stress scores were also the most vulnerable when exposed to an experimental cold virus

how does your stomach signal to your brain that you are hungry?

1. Stomach contractions (pangs) send signals to the brain making us aware of our hunger 2. This guy swallowed a balloon which measures stomach contractions. He pressed a key each time he feels hungry which is how he realized that his stomach contractions are linked to hunger a) Deprived of a normal food supply, Keys' semistarved volunteers were clearly hungry b) Working with Walter Cannon, AL Washburn agreed to swallow a balloon attached to a recording device c) When inflated to fill his stomach, the balloon transmitted his stomach contractions d) Washburn supplied information about his feelings of hunger by pressing a key each time he felt a hunger pang e) The discovery: washburn was indeed having stomach contractions whenever he felt hungry

what is the hierarchy of needs? What are the criticisms of Marlow's model?

A Hierarchy of motives/needs: 1. Abraham Maslow (1970) suggested that certain needs have priority over others 2. Physiological needs like breathing, thirst, and hunger come before psychological needs such s achievement, self-esteem, and the need for recognition a) If you are really hungry, you aren't worried about someone having a crush on you because you are really hungry 3. Criticisms: it is set up for Western society: a) Circumstances of the environment will probably only focus on physiological needs and safety needs whereas Western societies could focus on all of those probably in order b) If you are struggling to meet physiological needs and safety needs, it can bring people together which meets belongingness and love needs c) It doesn't necessarily have to follow the strict hierarchy d) When you are willingly to put others needs before your own is self actualization---so like some parents are good at this e) A lot of esteem needs are not meet in the US because people aren't able to have emotional friendships and can be lonely 4. Some needs take priority over others a) At this moment, with your needs for air and water hopefully satisfied, other motives-such as your desire to achieve are energizing and directing your behavior b) Let your need for water go unsatisfied and your thirst will preoccupy you c) Deprived our air, your thirst would disappear 5. Abraham Maslow (1970) describe these priorities as a HIERARCHY OF NEEDS a) Hierarchy of needs: Maslow's pyramid of human needs, beginning at the base with physiological needs that must first be satisfied before higher level safety needs and then psychological needs become active b) At the base of this pyramid are our physiological needs, such as those for food and water c) Only if these needs are met are we prompted to met our need for safety and then to satisfy our needs to give and receive love and to enjoy self esteem d) Beyond this, said Maslow, lies the need to actualize one's full potential 6. Near the end of his life, Maslow proposed that some people also reach a level of self transcendence a) At the self actualization level, people seek to realize their own potential b) At the self transcendence level, people strive for meaning, purpose, and communion that is beyond the self, that is transpersonal 7. Maslow's hierarchy is somewhat arbitrary; the order of such needs is not universally fixed a) People have starved themselves to make political statements b) Today's evolutionary psychologists concur with the first four levels of Maslow's needs pyramid, but they note that gaining and retraining mates, and parenting offspring, are also universal human motives 8. Nevertheless, the simply idea that some motives are more compelling than others provides a framework for thinking about motivation a) Worldwide life satisfaction surveys support this basic idea b) In poorer nations that lack easy access to money and the food and shelter it buys, financial satisfaction more strongly predicts feelings of well being c) In wealthy nations, where most are able to meet basic needs, home life satisfaction is a better predictor d) Self esteem matters most in individualistic nations, whose citizens tend to focus more on personal achievements than on family and community identity Maslow's hierarchy of needs: 6. self transcendence needs: need to find meaning and identity beyond the self 5. Self actualization needs: need to live up to our fullest and unique potential 4. Esteem needs: need for self esteem, achievement, competence, and independence; need for recognition and respect from others 3. Belongingness and love needs: need to love and be loved to belong and be accepted; need to avoid loneliness and separation 2. Safety needs: need to feel that the world is organized and predictable; need to feel safe 1. Physiological needs: need to satisfy hunger and thirst

what is the catharsis hypothesis and what is the opposing theory to it?

Catharsis hypothesis Venting anger through action or fantasy achieves an emotional release or "catharsis" Opposing theory: expressing anger breeds more anger, and through reinforcement it is a habit forming

what role does activity and food consumption play in obesity?

1. Activity a) Lack of exercise is a major contributor to obesity. Watching TV for two hours resulted in a 23% increase of weight when other factors were controlled 2. Food Consumption: a) Over the past 40 years, average weight gain has increased. Health professionals are pleading with US citizens to limit their food intake b) You can be the same weight but have all your muscle replaced by fat c) Studies in Europe, Japan, and the United States show that children and adults when suffer from sleep loss are more vulnerable to obesity d) With sleep deprivation, the levels of leptin (which reports body fat to the brain) fall, and ghrelin (the appetite-stimulating stomach hormone) rise 3. Social influence is another factor a) One 32 year study of 12,067 people found them most likely to become obese when a friend became obese b) If the obese friend was a close one, the odds of likewise becoming obese almost tripled c) Moreover, the correlation among friends weights was not simply a matter of seeking out similar people as friends 4. The strongest evidence that environment influences weight comes from our fattening world a) Changing food consumption and activity levels are at work b) We are wearing more and moving less, with lifestyles approaching those of animal feedlots c) In the united states, jobs requiring moderate physical activity declined from about 50% in 1960 to 20% in 2011 5. The bottom line: new stadiums, theaters, and subway cars, but not airplanes, are widening seats to accommodate the girth growth a) Washington state ferries abandoned a 50 year old standard: eighteen inch butts are a thing of the past b) New york city, facing a large problem with Big Apple bottoms, has mostly replaced 17,5 bucket style subway seats with bucketless seats 6. There can be high levels of heritability without heredity explaining group differences a) Genes mostly determine why one person today is heavier than another b) Environment mostly determines why people today are heavier than their counterparts 50 years ago c) Our eating behavior also demonstrates the now familiar interaction among biological, psychological, and social cultural factors

what is our need to maintain relationships?

1. Maintaining relationships: we resist breaking social bonds a) This happens in part because feelings of love activate brain reward and safety systems b) In one experiment involving exposure to heat, deeply love university students felt markedly less pain when looking at their beloved's picture (rather than viewing someone else's photo or being distracted by a word task) c) Pictures of our loved ones also activate a brain region associated with safety-the prefrontal cortex-that dampens feelings of physical pain d) Love is a natural painkiller 4. Even when bad relationships break, people suffer a) In one 16 nation survey and in repeated US surveys, separated and divorced people have been half as likely as married people to say they were "very happy" b) After such separations, loneliness and anger-and sometimes even a strong desire to be near the former partner-linger c) For those in abusive relationships, the fear of being alone sometimes seems worse than the certainty of emotional or physical pain 5. Children who move through a series of foster homes or through repeated family relocations know the fear of being alone a) After repeated disruption of budding attachments, they may have difficulty forming deep attachments b) The evidence is clearest at the extremes-the children who grow up in institutions without a sense of belonging to anyone, or who are locked away at home and severely neglected. c) Too many become withdrawn, frightened, speechless d) Feeling insecurely attached to clothes during childhood can persist into adulthood, in two main forms: e) Some display INSECURE ANXIOUS ATTACHMENT, constantly craving acceptance but remaining vigilant to signs of possible rejection f) Others are trapped in INSECURE AVOIDANT ATTACHMENT, feelings such discomfort over getting close to others that they employ avoidant strategies to maintain their distance 6. No matter how secure our early years were, we all experience anxiety, loneliness jealousy, or guilt when something threatens or dissolves our social ties a) Much as life's best moments occur when close relationships begin-making a new friend, falling in love, having a baby-life's worst moments happen when close relationships end b) Bereaved, we may feel life is empty, pointless c) Even the first weeks living on a college campus away from home can be distressing d) For immigrants and refugees moving alone to new places, the stress and loneliness can be depressing e) After years of placing individual families in isolated communities US immigration policies began to encourage chain migration f) The second refugee Sudanese family settling in a town generally has an easier adjustment than the first g) Social isolation can put us at risk for mental decline and ill health h) But if feelings of acceptance and connection increase, so will self esteem-positive feelings, and the desire to help rather than hurt others

what is stress, stressors, and the general adaption syndrome and the stress response system?

Stress and stressors Stress is not merely a stimulus or a response It is a process by which we appraise and cope with environmental threats and challenges (stressors) When short lived or taken as a challenge, stress may have positive effects. However, if stress is threatening or prolonged, it can be harmful 85% of college students recalled experiencing stress during the last three months and most said it had disrupted their schoolwork at least once On entering college or university, 18% of men and 41% of women reported having been frequently overwhelmed by all they had to do during the past year For many students, the high school years, with their new relationships and more demanding challenges, prove stressful Deadlines become relentless and intense at the end of each ter The time demands of volunteering, sports, music, and theater, work, college prep courses, and college applications combine with occasional family tensions and success pressures Sometimes it's enough to give you a headache or disrupt sleep The stress response system Cannon proposed that stress response was a fight-or-flight response marked by the outpouring of EPINEPHRINE AND NOREPINEPHRINE from the inner adrenal glands, increasing heart and respiration rates, mobilizing sugar and fat, and dulling pain Medical interest in stress dates back to Hippocrates In the 1920s, Walter Cannon confirmed that the stress response is part of a unified mind-body system He observed that extreme cold, lack of oxygen, and emotion arousing events all trigger and outpouring of the stress hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine from the core of the adrenal glands When altered by any of a number of brain pathways, the sympathetic nervous system increases heart rate and respiration, diverts blood from digestion to the skeletal muscles, dulls feelings of pain and releases sugar and fat from the body's stores All this prepares the body for the wonderfully adaptive response that Cannon called FIGHT OR FLIGHT Since Cannon's time, physiologists have identified an additional stress response system On orders from the cerebral cortex (via the hypothalamus and pituitary gland) the outer part of the adrenal glands secretes GLUCOCORTICOID stress hormones such as CORTISOL The two systems work at different speeds, explains biologists Robert Sapolsky: in a fight or flight scenario, epinephrine is the one handing out guns; glucocorticoids are the ones drawing up blueprints for new aircraft carriers needed for the war effort The epinephrine guns were firing at high speed during an experiment inadvertently conducted on a British Airways San Francisco to London flight. Three hours after takeoff, a mistakenly played message told passengers the plane was about to crash into the sea. Although the flight crew immediately recognized the error and tried to calm the terrified passengers, several required medical assistance General adaptation syndrome (GAS) According to Selye, a stress response to any kind of stimulation is similar. The stressed individual goes through three phases Canadian scientist Hans Selye's 40 years of research on stress extended Cannon's findings. His studies of animals' reactions to various stressors, such as electric shock and surgery, helped make stress a major concept in both psychology and medicine Selye proposed that the body's adaptive response to stress is so general that, like a single burglar alarm, it sounds, no matter what intrudes He named his response GENERAL ADAPTATION SYNDROME (GAS) and he saw it as a three phase process General adaptation syndrome: Selye's concept of the body's adaptive response to stress in three phases-alarm, resistance, exhaustion In phase 1, you have an ALARM REACTION, as your sympathetic nervous system is suddenly activated. Your heart rate zooms, Blood is diverted to your skeletal muscles. You feel the faintness of shock. With your resources mobilized, you are now ready to fight back. During Phase 2, RESISTANCE, your temperature, blood pressure, and respiration remain high. Your adrenal glands pump hormones into your bloodstream. Your are fully engaged, summoning all your resources to meet the challenge As time passes, with no relief from stress, your body's reserves begin to run out You have reached Phase 3, EXHAUSTION. With exhaustion, you become more vulnerable to illness or even, in extreme cases, collapse and death Selye's basic point: ALTHOUGH THE HUMAN BODY COPES WELL WITH TEMPORARY STRESS, PROLONGED STRESS CAN DAMAGE IT The brain's production of new neurons slows and some neural circuits degenerate One study found that shortening of telomeres, pieces of DNA at the ends of chromosomes, in women who suffered enduring stress as caregivers for children with serious disorders Telomere shortening is a normal part of the aging process; when telomeres get too short, the cell can no longer divide and it ultimately dies. The most stressed women had cells that looked a decade older than their chronological age, which may help explain why severe stress seems to age people Even fearful, easily stressed rats have been found to die sooner (after about 600 days) than their more confident siblings, which average 700 day life spans

describe how Ancel Keys' research was conducted and what they discovered about hunger?

1. When Ancel Keys and his research team conducted a now classic study of semistarvation, they first fed 36 male volunteers (all wartime conscientious objectors) just enough to maintain the initial weight a) Then for six months, they cut this food level in half b) The effects soon became visible c) Without thinking about it, the men began conserving energy d) They appeared sluggish and dull e) After dropping rapidly, their body weights stabilized at about 25% below their starting point f) The men become food obsessed. They talked, daydreamed food, and collected recipes, read cookbooks, and feasted their eyes on delectable forbidden food g) Preoccupied with their unmet basic need, they lost interest in sex and social activities h) The semistarved men's preoccupations illustrate how activated motives can hijack our consciousness i) When we are hungry, thirsty, fatigued, or sexually aroused, little else seems to matter j) When we're not food, water, sleep, or sex just don't seem like such big things in life now or ever 2. In studies, people in a motivated "hot" state (from fatigue, hunger, or sexual arousal) have easily recalled such feelings in their own past and have perceived them as driving forces in others' behavior a) Motives matter mightily

what does the bodies leptin level contribute to hunger?

Body Chemistry and Leptin 1. Fat cells in our body produce leptin 2. Hypothalamus monitors these levels 3. High levels of leptin signal the brain to reduce appetite or increase the rate at which fat is burned 4. Leptin deficiency can cause obesity a) Leptin deficiency causes the fat cells to shrink and get smaller and it causes all of the fat cells to produce less leptin which makes people more hungry b) When the fat cells are filled up with food storage, the body releases leptin to signal to the body that you are no longer hungry c) Lower levels of leptin causes your body to be hungrier d) There is probably genetic variation in how much leptin produced in the body

what is the cannon bard theory?

Cannon-Bard Theory: Proposed that an emotion-triggering stimulus and the body's arousal take place simultaneously You have the perception of stimulus and it triggers the pounding heart (arousal) and fear (emotion) at the same time Cannon-Bard Theory: Arousal and Emotion occur simultaneously Physiologist Walter Cannon disagree with James and Lange The body's responses-heat rate, perspiration, and body temperature-are too similar, and they change too slowly, to cause the different emotions Cannon and physiologist, Phillip bard, concluded that our bodily responses and experienced emotions occur separately but simultaneously According to the CANNON-BARD THEORY, your heart is pounding as you experience fear Cannon Bard Theory: the theory that an emotion arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers: 1. Physiological response 2. The subjective experience of emotion The emotion triggering stimulus traveled to your sympathetic nervous system, causing your body's arousal At the same time, it travels to your brain's cortex, causing your awareness of your emotion Your pounding heart did not cause your feeling of fear, nor did your feeling of fear cause your pounding heart The Canon-Band theory has been challenged by studies of people with severed spinal cords, including a survey of 25 soldiers who suffered such injuries in World War II Those with lower spine injuries, who had lost sensation only in their legs, reported little change in their emotions' intensity Those with high spinal cord injury, who could feel nothing below the neck, did report changes Some reactions were much less intense than before the injuries Anger just doesn't have the heat to it that it used to. It's a mental kind of anger Other emotions those expressed mostly by body areas above the neck, were felt more intensely These men reported increases in weeping, lumps in the throat, and getting choked up when saying good-bye, worshipping, or watching a touching movie Our bodily responses seemingly feed our experienced emotions But most researchers now agree that our emotions also involve cognition Whether we fear the man behind us on the dark street depends entirely on whether we interpret his actions as threatening or friendly

what are the different types of eating disorders?

Eat disorders: 1. Anorexia nervosa: a condition in which a person refuses to eat a) Women are much more diagnosed with eating disorders than men but men eating disorders are on the rise b) Most of this is driven by the expectation of trying to reach a societal role c) People that are losing weight will still feel fat even when they are losing a lot of weight d) It is a very hard to treat disorder and has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness e) Can be by starving yourself or excessive working out without eating to compensate for the exercise 2. Bulimia Nervosa: a) Binge eating is associated with bulimia and consumes a large amount of food in a short amount of time and they try to mitigate the consequences of that large intact somehow (laxatives, forcing themselves to throw up, or excessive exercise) b) They are generally closer to their ideal weight c) Their is a high correlation between people who are abused and bulimia d) Intense fear of being fat e) Characterized by binging episodes f) Often followed by purging: A) Vomiting B) Laxatives C) Excessive exercise

what is embodied emotion?

Embodied emotion: We know that emotions involve bodily responses Some of these responses are very noticeable (butterflies in our stomach when fear arise), but others are more difficult to discern (neurons activated in the brain) Emotions are both cognitive and physical Whether you are falling in love or grieving a death, you need little convincing that emotions involve the body Feeling without a body is like breathing without lungs. Some physical responses are easy to notice. Other emotional responses we experience without awareness Emotions and the Autonomic Nervous System In a crisis, the sympathetic division of your autonomic nervous system mobilizes your body for action, directing your adrenal glands to release the stress hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine To provide energy, your liver pours extra sugar into your bloodstream To help burn the sugar, your respiration increases to supply needed oxygen Your heart rate and blood pressure increase Your digestion slows, diverting blood from your internal organs to your muscles With blood sugar driven into the large muscles, running becomes easier Your pupils dilate, letting in more light To cool your stirred up body, you perspire If wounded, your blood would clot more quickly The Yerkes-Dodson law explains that arousal affects performance in different ways, depending on the task When taking an exam, it pays to be moderately aroused-alert but not trembling with nervousness But too little arousal as when sleepy can be disruptive, and prolonged high arousal can tax the body When the crisis passes, the parasympathetic division of your AND gradually calms your body as stress hormones slowly leave your bloodstream After your next crisis, think of this: without any conscious effort, your body's response to danger is wonderfully coordinated and adaptive-preparing you to fight or flee

what is emotion and what are the different kinds?

Emotion: A response of the whole organism Physiological arousal Expressive behaviors Conscious experience If is probably one of the biggest influences on behavior Can have positive or negative emotions The puzzle for psychologists is figuring out how these three pieces fit together. To do that, we need answers to two big questions: Does your bodily arousal come before, after, or at the same time as your emotional feelings? How do thinking (cognition) and feeling interact? Does cognition always come before emotion? Historical emotion theories, as well as current research, have sought to answer these questions The basic emotions: Fear Surprise Disgust Happiness Anger Sadness Interest-excitement Contempt Shame- get this when you are caught and it is brought on you from others guilt -can have this when you don't get caught Does your heart pound because you are afraid or are you afraid because you feel your heart pounding? Your heart can start pounding before you are consciously aware of it because your unconscious mind is aware of stimuli that is alerting your sympathetic nervous system

what is the tend and befriend response when dealing with stress?

Fortunately, there are other options for dealing with stress One is a common response to a loved one's death: withdraw. Pull back. Conserve energy. Faced with an extreme disaster, such as a ship sinking, some people become paralyzed by fear Another stress response, found especially among women, is to seek and give support This TEND-AND-BEFRIEND response is demonstrated in the outpouring of help after natural disasters Tend-and-befriend: under stress, people (especially women) often provide support to others (tend) and bond with and seek support from others (befriend) Facing stress, men more often than women tend to socially withdraw, turn to alcohol or become aggressive Women more often respond to stress by nurturing and banding together This may in part be due to oxytocin, a stress moderating hormone associated with pair bonding in animals and released by cuddling, massages, and breast feeding in humans Gender differences in stress responses are reflected in brain scans: women's brains become more active in areas important for face processing and empathy; men's become less active It often pays to spend our resources in fighting or fleeing an external threat But we do so at a cost When stress is momentary, the cost is small When stress persists, we may pay a much higher price, with lowered resistance to infections and other threats to mental and physical well-being

how does happiness affect you

Happiness People who are happy perceived the world as being safer They are also to make decisions easily, are more cooperative, rate job applicants more favorably, live healthier, energized, and more satisfied lives Researchers have found that happy people tend to Have high self esteem (in individualistic countries) Be optimistic, outgoing, and agreeable Have close friendships or a satisfying marriage Have work and leisure that engage their skills Have a meaningful religious faith Sleep well and exercise However, happiness seems not much related to other factors, such as: Age Gender (women are more often depressed, but also more often joyful) Education levels Parenthood (having children or not) Physical attractiveness Money

what are incentives?

Incentive: 1. Where our needs push, incentives (positive or negative stimuli) pull us in reducing our drives 2. A food deprived person who smells baking breed (incentive) feels a strong hunger drive a) Smell of bread is incentive and hunger is the need 3. Certain incentives can either increase or reduce our drives a) Not only are we pushed by our needs to reduce drives, we are also pulled by INCENTIVES b) Incentives: a positive or negative environmental stimulus that motivates behavior c) This is one way our individual learning histories influence our motives d) Depending on our learning, the aroma of good food, whether freshly baked pizza or freshly toasted ants, can motivate our behavior So can the sight of those we find attractive or threatening 4. When there is both a need and an incentive, we feel strongly driven a) The food deprived person who smells baking bread feels a strong hunger drive b) In the presence of that drive, the baking bread becomes a compelling incentive c) For each motive, we can therefore ask "how is it pushed by our inborn physiological needs and pulled by incentives in the environment?"

what is the james lange theory?

James-Lange Theory: James-Lange Theory proposes that physiological activity precedes the emotional experience Your heart starts pounding before you realize that you are afraid James-Lange Theory: Arousal Comes before emotion Common sense tells most of us that we cry because we are sad, lash out because we are angry, tremble because we are afraid First comes conscious awareness, then the feeling But to pioneering psychologist William James, this commonsense view of emotion had things backwards Rather, "we feel sorry because we cry, angry because we strike, afraid because we tremble" James' idea was also proposed by Danish physiologist Carl Lange, and so is called the JAMES-LANGE THEORY James-Lange Theory: the theory that our experience of emotion is our awareness of our physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli Your feeling of fear followed your body's response Brain in a jar? "Without the bodily states following on the perception, the latter would be purely cognitive in form; pale, colorless, destitute of emotional warmth. We might then see the bear, and judge it best to run...But we should not actually feel afraid." (William James) We can't have emotions if we do not have bodies

what is the lazarus, shcachter, and singer's belief on emotion

Lazarus, Schachter, and Singer emphasize that appraisal also determines emotions Event to appraisal to emotional response Emotion researcher Richard Lazarus conceded that our brain processes vast amounts of information without our conscious awareness, and that some emotional responses do not require conscious thinking Much of our emotional life operates via the automatic, speedy low road But, he asked, how would we know what we are reacting to if we did not in some way appraise the situation? The appraisal may be effortless and we may not be conscious of it, but it is still a mental function To know whether a stimulus is good or bad, the brain must have some idea of what it is Thus, said Lazarus, emotions arise when we appraise an event as harmless or dangerous, whether we truly know it is or not We appraise the sound of the rustling bushes as the presence of a threat Later, we realize that it was "just the wind" So as Zajonc and LeDoux have demonstrated, some emotional responses-especially simple likes, dislikes, and fears-involve no conscious thinking We may fear a big spider, even if we "know" it is harmless Such responses are difficult to alter by changing our thinking We may automatically like one person more than another This instant appeal can even influence our political decisions if we vote (as many people do) for a candidate we like over the candidate expressing positions closer to our own But as Lazarus, Schachter, and Singer predicted, our memories, expectations, and interpretations also influence our feelings about politics Moreover, highly emotional people are intense partly because of their interpretations They may personalize events as being somehow directed at them, and they may generalize their experiences by blowing single incidents out of proportion Thus, learning to think more positively can help people feel better Although the emotional low road functions automatically, the thinking high road allows us to retake some control over our emotional life Together, automatic emotion and conscious thinking weave the fabric of our emotional lives

what is schachter and singer's two factor theory?

Schachter and Singer's Two Factor Theory: Our physiology and cognitions create emotions Emotions have two factors-physical arousal and cognitive label You perceive and stimulus and you will experience an arousal (pounding heart) and put a cognitive label on it (I'm afraid) and then you experience the emotion (fear) It allows for you to change your body's interpretation of stuff if you can convince yourself that you are feeling a different emotion than you already are. Other people feel different emotions They tested the theory by giving people a shot of epinephrine and the people who knew they would feel jittery attributed it to the shot and the people who didn' know the response of the shot attributed the jittery feelings to the environment Cognition can define emotion: Schachter and Singer Stanley Schachter and Jerome singer believed that an emotional experience requires a conscious interpretation of arousal: our physical reactions and our thoughts (perceptions, memorie,s and interpretations) together create emotion In their TWO FACTOR THEORY, emotions therefore have two ingredients: physical arousal and cognitive appraisal Two factor theory: the Schachter-Singer theory that to experience emotion one must (1) be physically aroused and (2) cognitively label the arousal To explore this SPILLOVER EFFECT, Schachter and Singer injected college men with the hormone epinephrine, which triggers feelings of arousal After receiving the injection, you go to a waiting room, where you find yourself with another person (actually an accomplice of the experimenters) who is acting either euphoric or irritated As you observe this person, you begging to feel your heart race, your body flush, and your breathing become more rapid If they had been told to expect these effects from the inject, the actual volunteers felt little emotion-because they attributed their arousal to the drug If they had been told the injection would produce no effects, the participants caught the apparent emotion of the other person in the waiting room They became happy if the accomplice was acting euphoric, and testy if the accomplice was acting irritated This discovery-that a stirred up state can be experienced as one emotion or another, depending on how we interpret and label it-has been replicated in dozens of experiments As researcher Daniel Gilbert noted, "feelings that one interprets as fear in the presence of a sheer drop may be interpreted as lust in the presence of a sheer blouse." THE POINT TO REMEMBER: AROUSAL FUELS EMOTION; COGNITION CHANNELS IT

what is the set point?

Set point: 1. The point at which an individual's "weight thermostat" is supposedly set 2. When the body falls below this weight, a increase in hunger and a lowered metabolic rate may act to restore the lost weight a) Same thing when your body is above your weight 3. Your behavior can affect the set point and there will be a point when the body cannot do anything to get back to the set point weight 4. In this way, rats (and humans) tend to hover around a stable weight, or SET POINT, influenced in part by heredity a) Set point: the point at which an individual's "weight thermostat" is supposedly set. When the body falls below this weight, an increase in hunger and a lowered metabolic rate may act to restore the lost weight

what is sex and sexual motivation?

Sexual Motivation: 1. Sex: a physiologically based motive (testosterone, limbic system, pheromones) a) But it is affected by learning and values b) Sexual motivation is made up of physiological readiness, imagined stimuli, and external stimuli c) Same drives, different attitudes d) Different cultures have different views on sexuality, marriage, and having children 2. Sex is part of life. Had this not been so far for all your ancestors, you would not be here a) Sexual motivation is nature's clever way of making people procreate, thus enabling our species; survival b) When two people feel an attraction, they hardly stop to think of themselves as guided by their genes c) As the pleasure we take in eating is nature's method of getting our body nourishment, so the desires and pleasures of sex are our genes' way of preserving and spreading themselves d) Life is sexually transmitted

how does are situation influence our eating patterns?

Situational influences on eating: 1. To a surprising extent, situations also control our eating-a phenomenon psychologists have called the ecology of eating a) Most of us eat more when with others. After a party, you may realize you've overeaten. This happens because the presence of others tends to amplify our natural behavior tendencies b) Unit bias occurs with similar mindlessness. Working with researchers at France's national Center for Scientific Research, Andrew Geier and his colleagues explored a possible explanation of why French waistlines are smaller than American waistlines. From soda drinks to yogurt sizes, the French offer foods in smaller portion sizes. To find out if this matters, Investigators offered people varieties of free snacks and their consistent results were that they offered a supersized standard portion, people put away more calories. In other studies, even nutrition experts helped themselves to 31% more ice cream when given a big bowl rather than a small one, and 15% more when scooping with a big rather than a small scoop. Portion size matters c) Food variety also stimulates eating. Offered a dessert buffet, we eat more than we do when asked to choose portions from one favorite dessert. For our early ancestors, these behaviors were adaptive. When foods were abundant and varied, eating more provided a wide range of vitamins and minerals and produced fat that protected them during winter cold or famine. When a bounty of varied foods was unavailable, eating less extended the food supply until winter or famine ended

how can stress cause illness?

Stress and Illness: Psychological states can cause physical illness When we feel severe stress, or ability to cope with it is impaired Stress can be adaptive In a fearful or stress-causing situation, we can run away and save our lives Stress can be maladaptive If it is prolonged (chronic stress), it increases our risk of illness and health problems Stress is a slippery concept We sometimes use the world informally to describe threats or challenges and at other times our responses Stress: the process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, called stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging Stress arises less from events themselves than from how we appraise them One person, alone in a house, ignores its creaking sounds and experiences no stress; someone else suspects an intruder and becomes alarmed One person regards a new job as a welcome challenge; someone else appraises it as risking failure When short lived, or when perceived as challenges, stressors can have positive effects A momentary stress can mobilize the immune system for fending off infections and healing wounds Stress also arouses and motivates us to conquer problems In a Gallup World Poll, those who were stressed but not depressed reported being energize and satisfied with their lives-the opposite of the lethargy of those depressed but not stressed Championship athlete,s successful entertainers, and great teachers and leaders all thrive and excel when aroused by a challenge Having conquered cancer or rebounded from a lost job, some people emerge with stronger self esteem and a deepened spirituality and sense of purpose Indeed, some stress early in life is conducive to later emotional resilience Adversity can beget growth Extreme or prolonged stress can harm us Children who suffer severe or prolonged abuse are later at risk of chronic disease Troops who had post traumatic stress reactions to heavy combat in the Vietnam war later suffered greatly elevated rates of circulatory, digestive, respiratory, and infectious diseases People who lose their jobs, especially later in their working life, are at increased risk of heart problems and death There is an interplay between our heads and our health

what is the sexual response cycle? Name and describe the different stages?

The physiology of sex: 1. Sexual response cycle: the four stages of sexual responding described by Masters and Johnson-excitement, plateau, organsm, and resolution a) Like hunger, sexual arousal depends on the interplay of internal and external stimuli 2. The sexual response cycle a) In the 1960s, gynecologist obstetrician William Masters and his collaborator Virginia Johnson made headlines by recording the physiological responses of volunteers who masturbated or had intercourse b) With the help of 382 female and 312 male volunteers-a somewhat atypical sample, consisting only of people able and willing to display arousal and orgasm while being observed in a laboratory-Masters and Johnson monitored or filmed more than 10,000 sexual "cycles" 3. Masters and Johnson (1966) describe the human sexual response cycle as consisting of four phases: 1) Excitement: genitals become engorged with blood. Vagina expands and secretes lubricant. Penis enlarges a) Same brain regions active in males and females b) During the initial excitement phase, men's and women's genital areas become engorged with blood, a woman's vagina expands and secretes lubricant, and her breasts and nipples may enlarge 2) Plateau: Excitement peaks breathing, pulse, and blood pressure, continue to increase a) In the plateau phase, excitement peaks as breathing, pulse, and blood pressure rates continue to increase b) the penis becomes fully engorged and some fluid-frequently containing enough live sperm to enable conception-may appear at its tip c) Vaginal secretion continues to increase 3) Orgasm: contractions all over the body. Increase in breathing, pulse, and blood pressure. Sexual release. a) Masters and Johnson observed muscle contractions all over the body during orgasm; these were accompanied by further increases in breathing, pulse, and blood pressure rates b) At organsm, pulse rate surges about 70 to 115 beats per minute c) A woman's arousal and organsm facilitate conception by positioning the uterus to receive sperm, and drawing the sperm further inward d) A woman's orgasm therefore not only reinforces intercourse, which is essential to natural reproduction, it also increases retention of deposited sperm e) The pleasurable feeling of sexual release apparently is much the same for both exes f) In one study, a panel of experts could not reliably distinguish between descriptions of orgasm written by men and those written by women g) University of Groningen neuroscientist Ger Holstee and his colleagues understand why. They discovered that when men and women undergo PET scans while having orgasms, the same subcortical brain regions glow. And when people who are passionately in love undergo fMRI scans while viewing photos of their beloved or of a stranger, men's and women's brain responses to their partner are pretty similar 4) Resolution: Engorged genitals release blood. Male goes through a refractory phase. Women resolve slower. a) Some women can have multiple orgasms in one period but men usually cannot b) The resolution has a massive drop off for men but more smooth and longer for women c) The body gradually returns to its unaroused state as the engorged genital blood vessels release their accumulated blood-relatively quickly if orgasm has occurred relatively slowly otherwise (it's like the nasal tickle that goes away rapidly if you have sneezed, slowly otherwise) d) During this resolution phase, the male enters a REFRACTORY PERIOD, lasting from a few minutes to a day or more, during which he is incapable of another organism e) The female's much shorter refractory period may enable her to have more orgasms if restimulated during or soon after resolution f) Refractory period: a resting period after orgasm, during which a man cannot achieve another orgasm

what is the yerkes-dodson law?

Yerkes-Dodson Law: Optimum Arousal: 1. Human motivation aims to seek optimum levels of arousal, not to eliminate it a) The optimum levels of arousal depend on the activity b) There is a higher level of arousal with easy tasks and you want lower levels of arousal for harder tasks because it will allow you to concentrate better c) Difficult tasks you want lower levels of arousal and easy tasks you want higher levels of arousal to have the best performance 2. Young monkeys and children are known to explore the environment in the absence of a need-based drive 3. We are much more than homeostatic systems, however OPTIMAL AROUSAL THEORY holds that some motivated behaviors actually increase arousal a) Well fed animals will leave their shelter to explore and gain information, seemingly in the absence of any need based drive b) Curiosity drives monkeys to monkey around trying to figure out how to unlock latch that opens nothing or how to open a window that allows them to see outside their room c) It drives the 9 month old infant to investigate every accessible corner of the house d) It drives you to read this text, and it drives the scientists whose work this text discusses e) And it drives explorers and adventures such as Aron Ralston and George Mallory f) Those who, like Mallory and Ralston, enjoy high arousal are most likely to see kout intense music, novel foods, and risky behaviors g) They are "sensation seekers" 4. So human motivation aims not to eliminate arousal but to seek optimum levels of arousal a) Having all our biological needs satisfied, we feel driven to experience stimulation and we hunger for information b) We are "infovores" said neuroscientists Irving Biederman and Edward Vessel after identifying brain mechanisms that reward us for acquiring information c) Lacking stimulation, we feel bored and look for a way to increase arousal to some optimum level d) However, with too much stimulation comes stress, and we then look for a way to decrease arousal 5. Two early 20th century psychologists studied the relationship of arousal to performance and identified what we now call the YERKES-DODSON LAW, suggesting that moderate arousal would lead to optimal performance a) Yerkes-Dodson law: the principle that performance increases with arousal only up to a point, beyond which performance decreases b) When taking an exam, it pays to be moderately aroused-altery but not trembling with nervousness c) We have since learned that optimal arousal levels depend the task as well, with more difficult task requiring lower arousal for best performance

how does aerobic exercise help with stress?

Aerobic exercise Many studies suggest that aerobic exercise can elevate mood and well being because aerobic exercise raises energy, increases self confidence and lowers tension, depression, and anxiety

what is the wanting to belong and to be socially accepted?

1. Wanting to belong: we spend a lot of time thinking about real and imagined relationships 2. Social acceptance: a sense of belonging with others increases our self esteem. Social segregation decreases it a) Having someone who rejoices with us over good news helps us feel even better about the good news as well as about the friendship b) The need to belong runs deeper, it seems than the need to be rich c) One study found that very happy university students were distinguished not by their money but by their rich and satisfying close relationships d) The need to belong colors our thoughts and emotions e) We spend a great deal of time thinking about actual and hoped for relationships f) When relationships form, we often feel joy g) Falling in mutual love, people have been known to feel their cheeks ache from their irresistible grins h) Asked "what is necessary for your happiness" or "what is it that makes your life meaningful" most people have mentioned before anything else-close, satisfying relationships with family, friends or romantic partners i) Happiness hits close to home 3. Researchers asked American and South Korean collegians "What was your most satisfying moment in the past week", then asked them to rate how much that moment had satisfied various needs a) In both countries, the peak moment had contributed most to satisfaction of self esteem and relatedness-belonging needs b) When our need for relatedness is satisfied in balance with two other basic psychological needs-AUTONOMY (a sense of personal control) and COMPETENCE- we experience a deep sense of well being and our self esteem rides high c) Indeed, SELF ESTEEM is a gauge of how valued and accepted we feel 4. To gain acceptance, we generally conform to group standards a) We monitor our behavior, hoping to make a good impression b) We spend billions on clothes, cosmetics, and diet and fitness aids-all motivated by our search for love and acceptance c) By drawing a sharp circle around "us" the need to belong feeds both deep attachment and menacing threats d) Out of our need to define a "we" come loving families, faithful friendships, an team spirit, but also teen gangs, ethnic rivalries, and fanatic nationalism e) For good or for bad, we work hard to build and maintain our relationships f) Familiarity breeds liking, not contempt g) Thrown together in groups at school, at band camp, on a hiking trip, we behave like magnets, moving closer, forming bonds h) Parting, we feel distress. We promise to call, to write, to come back for reunions

how does belonging to a group help us with survival?

Aiding survival: 1. Social bonds boosted our ancestors' survival rates a) Social bonds boosted our easily ancestors' chances of survival b) Adults who formed attachments were more likely to reproduce and to co-nurture their offspring to maturity c) Attachment bonds helped keep those children close to their caregivers, protecting them from many threats 2. Cooperation also enhanced survival a) In solo combat, our ancestors were not the toughest predators b) But as hunters, they learned that six hands were better than two c) As food gatherers, they gained protection from two footed and four footed enemies by traveling in groups d) Those who felt a need to belong survived and reproduced most successfully and their genes now predominate e) We are innately social creatures f) People in every society on Earth belong to groups and prefer and favor "us" over "them" 3. Having someone who rejoices with us over good news helps us feel even better about the good news as well as about the friendship a) The need to belong runs deeper, it seems than the need to be rich b) One study found that very happy university students were distinguished not by their money but by their rich and satisfying close relationships 4. The need to belong colors our thoughts and emotions a) We spend a great deal of time thinking about actual and hoped for relationships b) When relationships form, we often feel joy c) Falling in mutual love, people have been known to feel their cheeks ache from their irresistible grins d) Asked "what is necessary for your happiness" or "what is it that makes your life meaningful" most people have mentioned before anything else-close, satisfying relationships with family, friends or romantic partners e) Happiness hits close to home 1. Protecting against predators 2. Procuring food, hunting, and gathering 3. Come together to reproduce the next offspring, and nurture young a) Social bonds are good because you had a better chance of surviving if you are in a group so there is a fear of getting kicked out of the group because of this

what is behavioral medicine

Behavioral medicine Psychologists and physicians have developed an interdisciplinary field of behavioral medicine that integrates behavioral knowledge with medical knowledge Mind and body interact; everything psychological is simultaneously physiological Stress invigorates our lives by arousing and motivation us An unstressed life would hardly be challenging or productive Behavioral medicine research provides a reminder of one of contemporary psychology's overriding themes: MIND AND BODY INTERACT; EVERYTHING PSYCHOLOGICAL IS SIMULTANEOUSLY PHYSIOLOGICAL Psychological states are physiological events that influence other parts of out physiological system There is an interplay between our heads and our health and we are biopsychological systems

what drives motivated behavior?

Motivated behavior often is driven by powerful emotions that color and sometimes disrupt our lives. Emotions don't exist just to give us interesting experiences. They are our body's adaptive response, increasing our chances of survival. When we face challenges, emotions focus our attention and energize our actions Our heat races. Our pace quickens All our senses go on high alert Receiving unexpected good news, we may find our eyes tearing up. We raise our hands triumphantly. We feel exuberance and a newfound confidence. Yet negative and prolonged emotions can harm our health

how does spirituality and faith communities help with stress?

Spirituality and faith communities Regular religious attendance has been a reliable predictor of a longer life span with a reduced risk of dying Intervening factors Investigators suggest there are three factors that connect religious involvement and better health Religious involvement causes health behavior (less smoking, drinking), social support (faith communities, marraige), and positive emotions-hope/optimism/coherence (less stress, anxiety) causes a better helath (less immune system suppression, stress hormones, and suicide)

what are the different types of stressor categories?

Stressors fall into three main types: catastrophes, significant life changes and daily hassles. All can be toxic Stressful life events Catastrophic events: like earthquakes, combat stress, and floods lead individuals to become depressed, sleepless, and anxious Catastrophes are unpredictable large scale events such as wars, earthquakes, floods, wildfires, and famines Nearly everyone appraises catastrophes as threatening We often give aid and comfort to one another after such events, but damage to emotional and physical health can be significant In surveys taken in the three weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, two thirds of Americans said they were having some trouble concentrating and sleeping In the New York area, people were especially likely to report such symptoms, and sleeping pill prescriptions rose by a reported 28% In the four months after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans' suicide rate reportedly tripled For those who respond to catastrophes by relocating to another country, the stress is twofold The trauma of uprooting and family separation combine with the challenges of adjusting to the new culture's language, ethnicity, climate, and social norms In the first half-year, before their morale begins to rebound, newcomers often experience culture shock and deteriorating well being Such relocations may become increasingly common because of climate change in years to come Significant life changes The death of a loved one, a divorce, a loss of job, or a promotion may leave individuals vulnerable to disease Life transitions are often keenly felt Even happy events, such as getting married, can be stressful Other changes-graduating from high school, leaving home for college, losing a job, having a loved one die-often happen during young adulthood The stress of those years was clear in a survey in which 15,000 Canadian adults were asked whether you are trying to take on too many things at once Responses indicated highest stress levels among young adults Young adults stress appeared again when 650,000 americans were asked if they experienced a lot of stress yesterday Some psychologists study the health effects of life changes by following people over time Others compare the life changes recalled by those who have or have not suffered a specific health problem, such as a heart attack These studies indicate that people recently widowed, fired, or divorced as more vulnerable to disease In one Finnish study of 96,000 widowed people, their risk of death doubled in the week following their partner's death Experiencing a cluster of crises-losing a job, home, and partner, for example-puts one even more at risk Daily Hassles Rush hour traffic, long lines, job stress, and becoming burnt-out may be the most significant sources of stress and can damage health Events don't have to remake our lives to cause stress Stress also comes from daily hassles-rush hour traffic, aggravating siblings, long lunch lines, too many things to do, family frustrations, and friends who don't respond to calls or texts Some people can simply shrug off such hassles For others, however, the everyday annoyances add up and take a toll on health and well being Many people face more significant daily hassles As the Great Recession bottomed out, Americans' most oft-cited stressors related to money, work, and the economy Such stressors are well-known to residents of impoverished areas, where many people routinely face inadequate income, unemployment, solo parenting, and overcrowding

what is obesity and what is the effect on your body?

1. Obesity and weight control a) Fat is an ideal form of stored energy and is readily available b) In times of famine, an overweight body was a sign of affluence 2. Obesity: a) A disorder characterized by being excessively overweight. Obesity increases the risk for health issues like cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, and back problems 3. Body Mass Index (BMI) a) Obesity in children increases their health risks... b) The world health organization has estimate that more than 1 billion people worldwide are overweight and 300 million of them are clinically obese defined by the WHO as a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more c) In the united states, the adult obesity rate has more than doubled in the last 40 years, reaching 34% and child teen obesity has quadrupled 4. Obesity and Mortality: a) The death rate is high among very overweight men b) Significant obesity increases the risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, gallstones, arthritis, and certain types of cancer, thus increasing health care costs and shortening life expectancy c) Recent research also has linked women's obesity to their risk of late life cognitive decline, including Alzheimer's disease and brain tissue loss d) One experiment found improved memory performance 12 weeks after severely obese people had weight loss surgery and lost significant weight e) Those not having the surgery showed some further cognitive decline f) Research on the physiology of obesity challenges the stereotypes of severely overweight people being weak-willed gluttons

what is a set point theory? How does set point and metabolism play into obesity?

1. Set Point Theory: a) According to the set point theory, there is a control system built into every person dictating how much fat he or she should carry-a kind of thermostat for body fat b) We don't know how to change the set point yet...activity looks like the best bet 2. Set point and metabolism a) When reduced from 3,500 calories to 450 calories, weight loss was a minimal 6% and the metabolic rate a mere 15% b) Once we become fat, we require less food to maintain our weight than we did to attain it c) Fat has a lower metabolic rate than does muscle-it takes less food energy to maintain d) When an overweight person's body drops below its previous set (or settling) point, the person's hunger increases and metabolism decreases e) Thus the body adapts to starvation by burning off fewer calories f) Learning people also seem naturally disposed to move about. g) They burn more calories than do energy conserving overweight people who tend to sit still longer h) These individual differences in resting metabolism help explain why two people of the same height, age, and activity level can maintain the same weight, even if one of them eats much less than the other does

can you still be hungry with no stomach?

1. Tsand (1938) removed rat stomachs, connected the esophagus to the small intestines, and the rats still felt hungry (and at food) a) Hunger can also exist without stomach pangs as researchers discovered when they removed some rats' stomachs and created a direct path to their small intestines b) The rats continued to eat despite not having a stomach c) Some hunger persists similarly in humans whose stomachs have been removed as a treatment for ulcers or cancer d) So the pangs of an empty stomach are not the only source of hunger 2. Your stomach has to do with telling you that you are hungry, but it is not the only pathway because you can still eat and be hungry despite not having a stomach

how does a social network affect us?

As social creatures, we live for connection Asked what he had learned from studying 238 Harvard University men from the 1930s to the end of their lives, researcher George Vaillant replied "the only thing that really matters in life are your relationships to other people." Mobile networks and social media: Humans connecting through talking, texting, posting, chatting, social gaming, e-mailing. The changes in how we connect have been fast and cast With a critical mass of your friends on social networks, its lure becomes hard to resist. Such is our need to belong The social effects of social networking By connecting like-minded people, the Internet serves as a social amplifier It also functions as an online dating matchmaker As electronic communication has become part of our "new normal" researchers have explored how the changes have affected our relationships Have social networking sites made us more, or less, socially isolated? In the Internet's early years, when online communication in chat rooms and during social games was mostly between strangers, the adolescents and adult who spent more time online spent less time with friends As a result, their offline relationships suffered Even in more recent times, lonely people have tended to spend greater than average time online Social networkers have been less likely to know their real world neighbors and "64%" less likely than non-Internet users to rely on neighbors for help in caring for themselves or a family member But the Internet has also diversified our social networks Despite the decrease in neighborliness social networking seems mostly to have strengthened our connections with people we already know If your social networking helps you connect with friends, staying in touch with extended family, or fin support in facing challenges, then you are not alone For many, though, being alone is not the problem. If you are like other students, two day of social networking deprivation would be followed by a glut of online time, much as you would eat voraciously after a two day food fast Social networks connect us, but they can also become gigantic time and attention sucking inversions

what is glucose? How does your body chemistry and your brain interact to make you hungry?

Body Chemistry and The Brain: 1. Levels of glucose in the blood are monitored by receptors (neurons) in the stomach, liver, and intestines. They send signals to the hypothalamus in the brain 2. Insulin and Glucose are two substances in the blood that are critical in regulating hunger levels 3. If you have low blood sugar, your body will release glucagon from your pancreas which will cause your liver to release glucose into your bloodstream which makes you hungry. 4. Pancreas and liver control glucose level and when your body starts releasing glucagon it signals to your brain that you are hungry 5. Somehow, somewhere, your body is keeping tabs on the energy it takes in and the energy it uses 6. If this weren't true, you would be unable to maintain a stable body weight 7. A major source of energy in your body is the blood sugar glucose a) Glucose: the form of sugar that circulates in the blood and provides the major source of energy for body tissues. When its level is low, we feel hunger b) If you blood glucose level drops, you won't consciously feel this change, but your stomach, intestines, and liver will signal your brain to motivate eating c) Your brain, which is automatically monitoring your blood chemistry and your body's internal state, will then trigger hunger 8. The brain does this by several neural areas, some housed deep in the brain within the hypothalamus a) This neural traffic interaction includes areas that influence eating b) For example, one neural arc (called the arcuate nucleus) has a center that secretes appetite-stimulating hormones, and another center that secretes appetite-suppressing hormones c) Explorations of this neural area and others reveal that when an appetite enhancing center is stimulated electrically, well fed animals begin to eat d) If the area is destroyed, even starving animals have no interest in food e) The opposite occurs when an appetite suppressing area is stimulate: animals will stop eating f) Destroy this area and animals will eat and eat, and become extremely fat

what does your basal metabolic rate contribute to your hunger?

Basal Metabolic Rate: 1. Body's base rate of energy expenditure 2. We humans (and other species too) vary in our BASAL METABOLIC RATE a) Basal metabolic rate: at the body's resting rate of energy expenditure b) But we share a common response to decreased food intake: our basal metabolic rate drops, as it did for participants in Keys' experiment c) After 24 weeks of semistarvation, they stabilized at three quarters of their normal weight, although they were taking in only half their previous calories d) They reduced their energy expenditure, partly by being less active, but partly by dropping their basal metabolic rate by 29% 3. Some researchers have suggested that the idea of a biologically fixed set point is too rigid to explain some things a) One thing it doesn't address is that slow, sustained changes in body weight can alter a person's set point b) Another is that when we have unlimited access to a wide variety of tasty foods, we tend to overeat and gain weight c) And set points don't explain why psychological factors influence hunger d) For these reasons, some prefer the looser term settling point or set range to indicate the level at which a person's weight settles in response to caloric intake and energy use. e) These factors are influenced by environment as well as biology 3. Basal Metabolic rate: a) The rate at which the body uses energy for vital functions while at rest b) What influences it: A) Your age B) Height, size C) Genetics D) Males have a higher metabolic rate than females

what is the behavior feedback phenomenon and health psychology?

Biofeedback An electronic technique that enables a person to control physiological responses that are normally involuntary Blood pressure Muscle tension Modifying type a lifestyle can reduce recurrence of heart attacks Other researchers have observed a similar BEHAVIOR FEEDBACK PHENOMENON People perceive ambiguous behaviors differently depending on which finger they move up and down while reading a story If particular participants read the story while moving an extended middle finger, the story behaviors seemed more hostile If reading with a thumb up, they seemed more positive Hostile gestures prime hostile perceptions Acting how another person acts helps us to feel what they feel and become more empathetic Indeed natural mimicry of others' emotions helps explain why emotions are contagious Primates also ape one another and such synchronized expressions help bond them and us together To study how stress and healthy and unhealthy behaviors influence health and illness, psychologists and physicians created the interdisciplinary field of behavioral medicine, integrating behavioral and medical knowledge HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY: a subfield of psychology that provides psychology's contribution to behavioral medicine

what effect does cognition have on emotion?

Cognition and Emotion What is the connection between how we think (cognition) and how we feel (emotion)? Can we change our emotions by changing our thinking? Cognition Can define emotion An arousal response to one event spills over into our response to the next event Cognition does not always precede emotion (2 paths) Emotions are felt directly through the (a) amygdala or through (b) the cortex for analysis A subliminally presented happy face can encourage subjects to drink more than when presented with an angry face Cognition does not always precede emotion: When fearful eyes were subliminally presented to subjects, fMRI scans revealed higher levels of activity in the amygdala Robert Zajonc contended that we actually have many emotional reactions apart from, or even before, our interpretation of a situation When people repeatedly view stimuli flashed too brief for them to interpret, they come to prefer those stimuli Unaware of having previously seen them, they nevertheless rather like them We have an acutely sensitive automatic radar for emotionally significant information such that even a subliminally flashed stimuli can prime us to feel better or worse about a follow up stimulus In experiments, thirsty people were given a fruit-flavored drink after viewing a subliminally flashed (thus unperceived) face Those exposed to a happy face drank about 50% more than those exposed to a neutral face Those flashed an angry face drank substantially less Neuroscientists are charting the neural pathways of both "bottom-up" and "top-down" emotions Our emotional responses can follow two different brain pathways Some emotions (especially more complex feelings like hatred and love) travel a "high road" A stimulus following this path would travel (by way of the thalamus) to the brain's cortex There, it would be analyzed and labeled before the command is sent out, via the amygdala (an emotion-control center) to respond

what are the different types of contraceptives?

Contraception: 1. Ignorance: many do not have the right ideas about birth control methods 2. Guilt Related to Sexual Activity: guilt reduces sexual activity, but it also reduces the use of contraceptives 3. Minimal Communication: many teenagers feel uncomfortable discussing contraceptives 4. Alcohol use: those who use alcohol prior to sex are less likely to use contraceptives 5. Mass Media: the media's portrayal of unsafe extramarital sex decreases the use of contraceptives

what is the controversy surounding emotions?

Controversy: 1. Does physiological arousal precede or follow your emotional experience? 2. Does cognition (thinking) precede emotion (feeling)? Yes

how can you cope with stress?

Coping with stress Reducing stress by changing events that cause stress or by changing how we react to stress is called PROBLEM FOCUSED COPING Emotion focussed coping is when we cannot change a stressful situation, and we respond by attending to our own emotional needs Perceived control Research with rats and humans indicates that the absence of control over stressors is a predictor of health problems

how can depression effect your health

Depression too can be lethal Happy people tend to be healthier and to outlive their unhappy peers Even a big happy smile predicts longevity as Ernest Abel and Michael Kruger discovered when they examined the photographs of 150 Major League Baseball players who had appeared in the 1952 BaseBall Register and had died by 2009 On average, the nonsmokers had died at 73, compared with an average 80 years for those with a broad genuine smile The accumulated evidence from 7 studies suggests that depression substantially increases the risk of death, especially death by unnatural causes and cardiovascular diseases After following 63,469 women over a dozen years, researchers found more than a doubled rate of heart attack death among those who initially scored as depressed In the years following a heart attack, people with high scores for depression are four times more likely than their low scoring counterparts to develop further heart problems Depressed people tend to smoke more and exercise less, but stress itself is also disheartening: When following 17,415 middle-aged American women, researches found an 88% increased risk of heart attacks among those facing significant work stress In denmark, a study of 12,116 female nurses found that those reporting 'much too high" work pressures had a 40% increased risk of heart disease In the United States, a 10 year study of middle aged workers found that involuntary job loss more than doubled their risk of a heart attack. A 14 year study of 1059 women found that those with five or more trauma related stress symptoms had three times the normal risk of heart disease Research suggests that heart disease and depression may both result when chronic stress triggers persistent inflammation After a heart attack, stress and anxiety increase the risk of death or of another attack Stress disrupts the body's disease fighting immune system, enabling the body to focus its energies on fleeing or fighting the threat Yet stress hormones enhance one immune response, the production of proteins that contribute to inflammation Thus people who experience social threats, including children raised in harsh families are more prone to inflammation responses Inflammation fights infections; if you cut yourslef, inflammation recruits infection fighting cells But persistent inflammation can produce problems such as asthma or clogged arteries, and worn depression Researchers are now uncovering the molecular mechanisms by which stress, in some people activates genes that control inflammation

what is the drive reduction theory?

Drive reduction theory: 1. When the original instinct theory of motivation collapsed, it was replaced by DRIVE REDUCTION THEORY a) Drive reduction theory: the idea that a physiological need creates an aroused tension state (a drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy the need b) With few exceptions, when a physiological need increases, so does a psychological drive-an aroused, motivated state 2. Instinct theory of motivation was replaced by the drive reduction theory. A physiological need creates an aroused tension state (a drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy the need a) Need (for food or water) > drive (hunger, thirst) > drive reducing behavior (eating, drinking) 3. Primary Drives: Unlearned a) Food b) Water c) Temperature regulation d) Things that you are born liking 4. Secondary Drives: learned a) Money b) Shelter c) Job

what is homeostasis?

Homeostasis: 1. Tendency to maintain a balanced or constant internal state 2. Regulation of any aspect of body chemistry around a particular level 3. It is the biological equilibrium 4. The physiological aim of drive reduction is HOMEOSTASIS a) Homeostasis: a tendency to maintain a balanced or constant internal state; the regulation of any aspect of body chemistry, such as blood glucose, around a particular level b) An example of homeostasis (literally "staying the same) is the body's temperature regulation system, which works like a room thermostat c) Both systems operate through feedback loops: sensors feed room temperature to a control device d) If the room temperature cools, the control device switches on the furnace e) Likewise, if our body temperature cools, blood vessels constrict to conserve warmth, and we feel driven to put on the clothes or seek a warmer environment

what hypothamus centers are involved in hunger?

Hypothalamic Centers: 1. The lateral hypothalamus (LH) brings on hunger (stimulation). Destroy the LH, and the animal has no interest in eating a) The reduction of blood glucose stimulates orexin in the LH, which leads rats to eat ravenously b) The Ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH) depresses hunger (stimulation). Destroy the VMH, and the animal eats excessively c) The nucleus in the VMH causes us to stop eating and not be interested in food 2. Blood vessels supply the hypothalamus, enabling it to respond to our current blood chemistry as well as to incoming neural information about the body's state a) One of its tasks is monitoring levels of appetite hormones, such as ghrelin, a hunger arousing hormone secreted by an empty stomach b) During bypass surgery for severe obesity, surgeons seal off part of the stomach c) The remaining stomach then produces much less ghrelin and the person's appetite lessens d) Other appetite hormones include insulin, leptin, orexin, and PYY e) The interaction of appetite hormones and the brain activity suggests that the body has some sort of "weight thermostat" f) When semistarved rats fall below their normal weight, this system signals the body to restore the lost weight g) The rats' hunger increases and their energy output decreases h) If body weight rises-as happens when rats are forced fed-hunger The hypothalamus and Hunger 1. Brain: a) Anabolic is building n) Catabolic is tearing down 2. Food intake 3. Energy expenditure: a) Metabolic rate b) Physical activity: body will adapt to the increase physical activity to slow everything down so you don't complete your fat storage 4, Fatness signals: a) insulin/leptin 5. Energy balance: 6. Fat stores

what is imagined stimuli?

Imagined Stimuli 1. Our imagination can influence sexual arousal and desire. People with spinal cord injuries and no genital sensation can still feel sexual desire a) Men want women who are devoted to them and are cold to all other men 2. The brain, it has been said, is most significant sex organ 3. The stimuli inside our heads-our imagination- can influence sexual arousal and desire 4. People who, because of a spinal cord injury, have no genital sensation can still feel sexual desire 5. Consider, too, the erotic potential of dreams a) Sleep researchers have discovered that genital arousal accompanies all types of dreams, even though most dreams have no sexual content b) But in nearly all men and some 40% of women, dreams sometimes contain sexual imagery that leads to orgasm c) In men, nighttime orgasms and nocturnal emissions ("wet dreams") are more likely when orgasm has not occurred recently 6. About 95% of both men and women say they have sexual fantasies a) Men (whether gay or straight) fantasize about sex more often, more physically, and less romantically b) They also prefer less personal and faster paced sexual content in books and videos c) Fantasizing about sex does into indicate a sexual problem or dissatisfaction d) If anything, sexually active people have more sexual fantasies

what is the instinct evolutionary theory?

Instincts and Evolutionary Psychology: 1. INSTINCT: a complex, unlearned behavior that is rigidly patterned throughout a species a) Such behaviors are common in other species b) Human behavior, too exhibits certain unlearned fixed patterns, including infants' innate reflexes for rooting and sucking 2. Although instinct theory failed to explain most human motives, evolutionary psychology's underlying assumptions that genes predispose species-typical behavior remains as strong as ever a) Evolution can help influence our phobias, our helping behaviors, and our romantic attractions b) Instincts are complex behaviors that have fixed patterns throughout different species and are not learned c) Instincts would be breathing and infants have a rooting and sucking reflex to help them eat and all of these things have these innate traits that you are born with 3. Everything else is learned that we do if it is not an instinct a) Since you are taught most things, this means that society has a massive impact on who you are because you can't live outside of society 4. Early in the 20th century, as the influence of Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory grew, it became fashionable to classify all sorts of behaviors as instincts a) If people criticize themselves, it was because of their "self-abasement instinct" b) If they boasted, it reflected their "self assertion instinct" c) After scanning 500 books, one sociologist compiled a list of 5759 supposed human instincts d) Before long, this fad for naming instincts collapsed under its own weight e) Rather than explaining human behaviors, the early instinct theories were simply naming them f) It was like "explaining" a bright child's low grades by labeling the child an "underachiever" g) To name a behavior is not to explain it 5. To qualify as an instinct, a complex behavior must have a fixed pattern throughout a species and be unlearned

what is motivation? What are the four perspectives of motivation?

Motivation: A need or desire that energizes behavior and directs it towards a goal a) Specific need or desire, such as hunger, thirst, or achievement, that prompts goal directed behavior b) Our motivations arise from the interplay between nature (the bodily "push") and nurture (the "pulls" from our thought processes and culture) Perspectives on Motivation: Four perspectives are used to explain motivation: 1. Instinct/ Evolutionary theory a) focuses on genetically predisposed behavior 2. Drive-Reduction theory a) You are motivated to reduce something which drives you to do it b) focuses on how our inner pushes and external pulls interact 3. Arousal Theory: a) We do this to maintain awareness and excitement b) focuses on finding the right level of stimulation 4. Hierarchy of Motives a) Abraham Maslow's theory that describes how some of our needs take priority over others

Does social networking promote narcissism?

Narcissism is self esteem gone awry Narcissistic people are self important, self focused, and self promoting Some personality tests assess narcissism with items such as "I like to be the center of attention" Given our constant social comparison-our measuring ourselves against others-many social networkers can't resist comparing numbers of friends Evolutionary psychologists Robe Dunbar estimates we can have meaningful, supportive relationships with about 150 people-a typical size of tribal villages Those who score high on narcissism are especially active on social networking sites They collect more superficial "friends" They offer more staged, glamorous photos And not surprisingly, they see more narcissistic to strangers viewing their pages For narcissists, social networking sites are more than a gathering place; they are a feeding trough in one study college students were randomly assigned either to edit and explain their online profile for 15 minutes,or to use that time to study and explain a Google Maps routing After completing their tasks, all were tested. Those who had spent the time focused on themselves scored higher on a narcissism measure We have seen that identifiable physiological mechanisms drive some motives, such as hunger (though learned tastes and cultural expectations matter,too) Other motives, such as our need for affiliation, are more obviously drive by psychological factors, such as the social rewards that come from belonging What unifies all motives is the common effect: the energizing and directing of behavior

what are the different personality types?

Personality types Type A is a term used for competitive, hard driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, and anger prone people Type B refers to easygoing, relaxed people Type A personalities are more likely to develop coronary heart disease The researchers' hunch had paid off, launching a class nine year study of more than 3000 health men, aged 35 to 59 At the start of the study, the researchers interviewed each man for 15 minutes, noting his work and eating habits, manner of talking, and other behavioral patterns and grouped them into TYPE AND TYPE B Type A; Friedman and Rosenman's term for competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, and anger-prone people Type B: Friedman and Roseman's term for easygoing, relaxed people Nine years later, 257 men had suffered heart attacks and 69% of them were Type A Moreover, not one of the "pure" Type Bs-the most mellow and laid back of their group-had suffered a heart attack More than 700 studies have now explored possible psychological correlates or predictors of cardiovascular health These reveal that Type A's toxic core is negative emotions-especially the anger associated with an aggressively reactive temperament When we are harassed or challenged, our active sympathetic nervous system redistributes blood flow to our muscles, pulling it away from our internal organs One of those organs, he liver, which morally removes cholesterol and fat from the blood, can't do its job Type A individuals are more often "combat ready" Thus, excess cholesterol and fat may continue to circulate in their blood and later get deposited around the heart Further stress-sometimes conflicts brought on by their own abrasiveness-may trigger altered heart rhythms In people with weakened hearts, this altered pattern can cause sudden death Hostility also correlates with other risk factors, such as smoking, drinking, and obesity In important ways, people's minds and hearts interact Hundreds of other studies of young and middle age men and women have confirmed the finding that people who react with anger over little things are the most coronary prone Suppressing negative emotions only heightens the risk One study followed 13,000 middle aged people for 5 years Among those with normal blood pressure, people who had scored high on anger were three times more likely to have had heart attacks, even after researchers controlled for smoking and weight Another study followed 1055 males medical students over an average of 36 years Those who had reported being hot tempered were five times more likely to have had a heart attack by age 55 As others have noted rage seems to lash back and strike us in the heart muscles

what are the types and causes of sexual dysfunction?

Sexual Problems: 1. Masters and Johnson sought not only to describe the human sexual response cycle but also to understand and treat the inability to complete it 2. Sexual dysfunctions: a problem that consistently impairs sexual arousal or functioning a) Some involve sexual motivation, especially lack of sexual energy and arousability b) For men, others include erectile disorder (inability to have or maintain an erection) and premature ejaculation c) For women, the problem may be pain or female orgasmic disorder (distress over infrequently or never experiencing orgasm) d) In separate surveys of some 3000 Boston women and 32,000 other American women, about 4 in 10 rooted a sexual problem, such as orgasmic disorder or low desire, but only about 1 in 8 reported that this caused personal distress e) Most women who experience sexual distress relate it to their emotional relationship with the partner during sex 3. Men generally suffer from two kinds of sexual problems: premature ejaculation and erectile disorder a) Premature ejaculation: prior to insertion or immediately after b) Erectile disorder: don't even have insertion c) Both problems are somewhat related to psychology and make having a baby difficult d) If there is a problem in the relationship, it can psychologically make sexual problems occur. If there is love and a nice trusting foundation then you are less likely to have problems 4. Women sometimes suffer from orgasmic disorders a) Scientists are just now starting to study women's sexual disorders and sex organs 5. These problems are not due to personality disorders and can be treated through behavior therapy and drugs such as Viagra a) Affect 30-50% of adults and most respond to psychotherapy and/or drugs b) Men and women with sexual dysfunctions can often be helped through therapy c) In behaviorally oriented therapy, for example, men learn ways to control their urge to ejaculate, and women are trained to bring themselves to orgasm d) Starting with the introduction of Viagra in 1998, erectile disorder has been routinely treated by taking a pill e) Sexual dysfunction involves problems with arousal or sexual functioning f) People with paraphilias such as exhibitionism, fetishism, and pedophilia, do experience sexual arousal but they direct it in unusal ways 6. The American Psychiatric Association only classified such behavior as disordered if: a) A person experiences distress from their unusual sexual interest b) The sexual desire or behavior entails harm or risk of harm to others

how does stress effect aids

Stress and AIDS We know that stress suppresses immune functioning As its name tells us, AIDS is an immune disorder caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) AIDS has become the world's fourth leading cause of death and Africa's number one killer Ironically, if a disease is spread by human contact (as AIDS is, through the exchange of bodily fluids, primarily semen and blood) and if it kiss slowly (as AIDS does), it can be lethal to more people Those who acquire HIV often spread it in the highly contagious first few weeks before they know they are infected Worldwide, some 2.6 million people slightly more than half of them women-became infected with HIV in 2009, often without their awareness Years after the initial infection, when AIDS appears, people have difficulty fighting off other diseases such as pneumonia More than 25 million people worldwide have died of AIDS Stress cannot give people AIDS, but stress and negative emotions speeds the transition from HIV infection to AIDS in someone that is already infected and it is a predictor of a faster decline in those with AIDS HIV infected men who experience stressful events, such as the loss of a partner, exhibit somewhat greater immune suppression and travel a faster course in this disease Educational initiative,s bereavement support groups, cognitive therapy, relaxation training, and exercise programs that reduce stress have all had positive consequences for HIV positive people But the benefits are small, compared with available drug treatments Although AIDS is now more treatable than ever before, preventing HIV infection is a far better option This is the focus of many educational programs, such as the ABC (abstinence, being faithful, condom use) program that has been used with seeming success in Uganda In addition to such progams that seek to influence sezual norms and behaviors, today's combination prevention programs also include medical strategies (such as drugs and male circumcision that reduce HIV transmission) and efforts to reduce social inequalities that increases HIV risk

how does stress effect cancer?

Stress and Cancer Stress does not create cancer cells Stress increases cancer risk? Mixed results Researchers agree that avoiding stress and having a hopeful attitude cannot reverse advanced cancer Stress does not create cancer cells, but in a healthy, functioning immune system, lymphocytes, macrophages, and Nk cells search out and destroy cancer cells and cancer damaged cells To explore a possible connection between stress and cancer, experimenters have implanted tumor cells in rodents or given them carcinogens (cancer-producing substances) They then exposed some rodents to uncontrollable stress, such as inescapable shocks, which weakened their immune systems Those rodents were indeed more prone to developing cancer Their tumors developed sooner and grew larger than in non stressed rodents Some studies find that people are at increased risk for cancer within a year after experiencing depression, helplessness, or bereavement In one large Swedish study, the risk of colon cancer was 5.5 times greater among people with a history of workplace stress than among those who reported no such problems This differences was not attributable to group differences in age, smoking, drinking, or physical characteristics Other studies, however, have found no link between stress and human cancer Concentration camp survivors and former prisoners of war, for example, do not have elevated cancer rates One danger in hyping reports on emotions and cancer is that some patients may then blame themselves for their illness A corollary danger is a "wellness macho" among the healthy, who take credit for their "healthy character" and lay a guilt trip on the ill. Dying thus becomes the ultimate failure STRESS DOES NOT CREATE CANCER CELLS At worst, it may affect their growth by weakening the body's natural defenses against multiplying malignant cells Although a relaxed, hopeful state may enhance these defenses, we should be aware of the thin line that divides science from wishful thinking The powerful biological processes at work in advanced cancer or AIDS are not likely to be completely derailed by avoiding stress or maintaining a relaxed but determined spirit And that explain why research consistently indicates that psychotherapy does not extend cancer patients' survival

what are the health related consequences with stress? What is psychoneuoimmulogy

Stress and Susceptibility to Disease A psychophysiological illness is any stress-related physical illness such as hypertension and some headaches Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) is a developing field in which the health effects of psychological, neural, and endocrine processes on the immune system are studied Health Related consequences Stress can have a variety of health related consequences Persistent stressors and negative emotions can result in the release of stress hormones or unhealthy behaviors (smoking, drinking, poor nutrition, and sleep The release of stress hormones results in immune suppression, heart disease, and autonomic nervous system effects (headaches, hypertension), immune suppression, heart disease Psychoneuroimmunology: During stress, energy is nobilized away from the immune system making it vulnerable Not so long again, the term psychosomatic described psychologically caused physical symptoms In common usage, the term came to mean that the symptoms were unreal To avoid such connotations and to better describe the genuine physiological effects of psychological states, most experts today refer instead to stress-related PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGICAL ILLNESS, such as hypertension and some headaches Psychophysiological illness: literally, "mind-body" illness; any stress-related physical illness, such as hypertension and some headaches Stress also leaves us less able to fight off diseases The field of PSYCHONEUROIMMUNOLOGY studies these mind body interactions Psychoneuroimmunology: the study of how psychological, neural, and endocrine processes together affect the immune system and resulting health

how does stress effect the heart?

Stress and the Heart Stress that leads to elevated blood pressure may result in CORONARY HEART DISEASE, a clogging of the vessels that nourish the heart muscle Prolonged stress takes a toll on our cardiovascular system Daily pressures may be compounded by anti-gay prejudices or racism, which like other stressors can have both psychological and physical consequences Thinking that some of the people you encounter each day will dislike you, distrust you, or doubt your abilities makes daily life stressful Such stress takes a toll on the health of many African Americnas driving up blood pressure levels Pessimism and Heart Disease Pessimistic adult men are twice as likely to develop heart disease over a 10 year period Pessimism seems to be similarly toxic One study followed 1306 initially healthy men who a decade earlier had scored as optimists, pessimists, or neither Even after other risk factors such as smoking had been ruled out, pessimists were more than twice as likely as optimists to develop heart disease Stress is much more closely linked to CORONARY HEART DISEASE, North America's leading cause of death Coronary heart disease: the clogging of the vessels that nourish the heart muscle; the leading cause of death in many developed countries Hypertension and a family history of the disease increase the risk of coronary heart disease So do many behavioral factors (smoking, obesity, a high fat diet, physical inactivity), physiological factors (an elevated cholesterol level), and psychological factors (stress responses and personality traits) In some classic studies, Meyer Friedman, Ray Roseman, and their colleagues tested the idea that stress increases vulnerability to heart disease by measuring the blood cholesterol level and clotting speed of 40 US male tax accountants at different times of year From January through March, the test results were completely normal Then, as the accountants began scrambling to finish their clients' tax returns before the April 15 filing deadline, their cholesterol and clotting measures rose to dangerous levels In May and June, with the deadline past, the measures returned to normal Stress predicted heart attack risk for these men

what are facial feedback effect?

The effects of facial expression Facial feedback hypothesis: if facial expressions are manipulated, mood is manipulated This FACIAL FEEDBACK EFFECT has been repeated many times, in many places, for many basic emotions Facial feedback effect: the tendency of facial muscle states to trigger corresponding feelings such as fear, anger, or happiness Just activating one of the smiling muscles by holding a pen in the teeth (rather than with the lips which activates a frowning muscle) is enough to make cartoons seem more amusing A heartier smile made not just with the mouth but with raised cheeks that crinkle the eyes, enhances positive feelings even more when you are exacting to something pleasant or funny Smile warmly on the outside and you feel better on the inside When smiling, you will even more quickly understand sentence that describe pleasant events Scowl and the whole world seems to scowl back You face feeds you feelings Depressed patients reportedly feel better after between the eyebrows botox injections that paralyze the frowning muscles Two months after the treatment, 9 of the 10 non frowning patients given this treatment were no longer depressed Follow up studies have found that botox paralysis of the frowning muscles slows people's reading of sadness or anger related sentences, and it slows activity in emotion related brain circuits In such ways, botox smooths life's emotional wrinkles When people mimicked expressions of emotion, they experienced those emotions As William James struggled with feelings of depression and grief, he came to believe that we can control emotions by going through the outward movements of any emotion we want to experience "To be cheerful, sit up cheerfully look around cheerfully and act as if cheerfulness were already there" he advised Studies of the emotional effects of facial expressions reveal precisely what James might have predicted Expressions not only communicate emotion, they also amplify and regulate it In the expression of the emotion in man and animals, Charles Darwin contended that the free xpression by outward signs of an emotion intensifies it, he who gives way to violent gestures will increase his rage James Laird and his colleagues subtly induced students to make a frowning expression by asking them to contract these muscles and pull your brows together (supposedly to help the researchers attach facial electrodes) The students reported feeling a little angry So too for other basic emotions People reported feeling more fear than anger, disgust or sadness when made to construct a fearful expression Izard (1977) isolated 10 emotions. Most of them are present in infancy, except for contempt, shame, and guilt

what is the biopsychosocial effects on sexual motivation?

The psychology of sex: 1. Hunger responds to a need. If we do not eat, we die. In that sense, sex is not a need because if we do not have sex, we do not die 2. Hunger and sex are different sorts of motivations. a) Hunger response to a need. If we do not eat, we die b) Sex is not in this sense a need. We may feel like dying but we do not c) Nevertheless, there are similarities between hunger and sexual motivation d) Both depend on internal physiological factors e) Both reflect the interplay of excitatory and inhibitory responses- the body's acceleration and braking systems f) And both are influenced by external and imagined stimuli and by cultural expectations 3. Biological: a) Sexual maturity--go through puberty for consensual activity b) Sex hormones, especially testosterone c) Sexual orientation 4. Psychological: a) Exposure to stimulating conditions b) Sexual fantasies 5. Social-cultural: a) Family and society values b) Religious and personal values c) Cultural expectations