PSYC 201 Unit 10

Theory of instinct

• Charles Darwin

  • Innate behaviour

    • Survival and reproduction

  • Individual differences

  • Cultural differences

• Not a reflex-instincts (spider spinning webs, birds flying south in v formation)

• Maternal instinct-rush of hormones to induce care for a child

• Mating instincts-mirrors/appearance, sex was not taught “get horny and figure it out” Theory of Drive

• Homeostasis

  • Motivated to stay balance

• Threshold

  • Deficits

• Decreasing tensions

• Theory of arousal (Hebb)

  • Decrease when stressed

  • Increase when bored

  • Extroverts/introverts

  • Bell curve peak performance (shifts for individuals)

  • Extroverts are understimulated

  • Introverts are more susceptible to being overstimulated-migraines?

  • Does not explain emotions

  • Limitations

    • Too biological

      • Cognitions

      • Emotions

      • Social skills

23/01/2023

Hunger motivation

• Cues

  • Food clip art, pop can, smell, ads

• Time

  • Time of day, lunch

• Location

  • Fridge, candy bowl

• Overeating causes

  • Availability (plate size, serve yourself, family style eat more), diversity (different types=eat more), sizes

Short-term Appetite

• Glucostatic hypothesis

• Hypothalamus

  • Drop in blood sugar cues

  • Not eat=high sugar foods cravings

• Stomach distension

  • Stretch sensors

Long-term Energy Balance

• Ghrelin the gremlin (released by adipose tissues)

  • Appetite stimulator

  • Emotional eating (crying releases ghrelin)

  • Dieting raises baseline ghrelin levels

• Leptin (from stomach lining)

  • Antagonistic to ghrelin

  • Appetite suppressor

• Set-point theory (can never get rid of fat cells, body will attempt to return to the highest body weight it has been)

  • Biologically determined

  • Size of fat cells

  • Rises with age

  • Rises with each (re)gain

Sexual motivation

• Pyhsiological and psychological

• Testosterone (10x more in men)

  • Physiological and psychological arousal are linked in men

    • Hard to talk about sex without getting aroused

• Oxytocin (10x more in women)

  • Not inherently connected to a physiological response

• Sexual response cycle (cis men)

  • Desire (stage 1)

    • Look and see someone who looks attractive

  • Arousal (stage 2)

    • “petting and touching”

    • Blood flow to crotch

  • Orgasm (stage 3)

    • “the big moment”

  • Resolution (stage 4)

    • Can get tired after

    • Refractory period in the neuron

• Sexual response cycle (women)

  • Desire is same

  • Arousal is same

  • No orgasm

    • May not be experienced even in healthy and happy relationships

  • One orgasm

  • Multiple orgasms

  • Spike in oxytocin can create a desire to cuddle

• Sexual selection

  • Men

  • Need to spread genetics

    • Fertility-focus on fertility of partner (wider hips, body fat, child-bearing age, healthy skin, symmetry, “boobies”, blonde may indicate fertility in some cultures)

    • Paternity (less likely want to adopt, make sure their genetics survive)

    • Access to mates (more interested in higher number of potential partners, may need to fight for mates-money/peacocking, height, athletic ability, dominance

  • Women

  • Need to invest in limited offspring (only can get pregnant so much)

    • Intersexual competitions-(less common to fight other women for access to mate), pickier about sexual partners “that don’t impress me much-Shania Twain”

    • Genetic desirability-Physiological or psychological atypicalities-more judgemental,

    • Resources-interested in providers, help build the nest

Sexual orientation

• Spectrum

  • Kinsey scale

• Finger lengths

• Hair swirls

• Brain development

  • Straight men and lesbians have similar type brains???

  • Straight women and gay men have similar type brains???

• Understand 5 categories of spectrums

Self-Determination

• Ryan & Deci

• Innate

  • Autonomy

    • Do it on your own

    • Freedom over self (toddlerhood and grows through lifespan)

    • No autonomy=no motivation

  • Competence

    • Feel like they can do things themselves

    • Positive reinforcement

  • Relatedness

    • Make feel connected to others or something larger than themselves

    • Looking for attention means looking for a connection

    • Hiking can make you feel connected to nature-have a choice in going for a hike and ability to survive hike

    • Don’t demean someone when they do something you want

  • May grow into secondary need

  • Power motivation (autonomy)

    • Influential

      • Good/evil (leaders, Martin Luther King, not for profit)

    • Competitive-win/be recognized

    • Inspirational

    • Civic engagement

  • Power saturation (autonomy)

    • only focus on power on not success—-Kanye West, Sauron (LOTR), Hitler, Stalin

    • Low success (if one person high in power saturation the group does not do as well)

    • Relationships (divorce, don’t llisten to the other person)

      • Poor coping strategies

    • Health risks

      • Higher rates of alcoholism

    • Aggression

    • Prestige

Intimacy motivation

• Thinking about relationships

• Pleasant emoptions

• Smile, laugh, eye contact

  • Body language

• Listening skills

• Self-disclosure

  • Be vulnerable so the other can be vulnerable

• Well-adjusted (high intimacy motivation)

  • Stress

  • Better coping techniques

  • Longer sustaining relationships

  • Substances

    • Less likely to abuse substances

Achievement motivation

• Standards of excellence

  • Task competition

    • Just get the degree, just finish it, doesn’t matter how well

  • Self competition

    • To some degree it is okay, improve cake decorating over time, get personal best, be better version of yourself

    • Can go wrong if it’s unrealistic for yourself

  • Competition with others

    • Not content with high gpa, win scholarship that compares you with others

    • Can be okay if it is realistic for you

• Moderate challenge

  • Find it very engaging

  • Succeed with reasonable amount of effort

• Feedback

  • Different from praise, more informational

• Personal responsibility

  • Detest group work

Self-actualisation

• Maslow

  • Plagiarized from indigenous communities

• Base level=security, safety, physiological

• Medium level=self-esteem/belonging

• Top level=self actualisation

• Transcendance

  • Everything makes sense and feel like you’re on the right path

  • Feel satisfied with your path

  • Can be a goal (graduation, married)

  • Can be in nature

  • Can be spiritual

  • Only 2% make it to self-actualisation

Theory of emotion

• James-lange=physiology

  • Arousal—physiological reaction—emotion

    • Physiology causes emotion

    • ‘Bullshit’

    • No appraisal

• Lazarus=appraisal

  • Arousal—appraisal—physiological—emotion

    • Interpretation of arousal will cause the physiological and therefore emotion

• Schachter-singer most likely=both at the same time

  • Arousal—appraisal (fore brain)—emotion

  • Arousal—physiological (lymbic system)—emotion

Primary emotions (joy, sadness, anger, fear, contempt, disgust, surprise)

• Ekman

  • Very good at analyzing facial expressions and micro expressions

• Facial expression

  • Culturally universal

• Culture

  • Individuals blind from birth exhibit the same facial expressions

• Motivation

• Joy

  • Success

  • Broaden attention

    • Physical broadening of chest

  • Thoughts, behaviours

  • Relationships

    • More interested in relationships

  • Genuine smile

  • Submissive smile

    • Walk into crowded elevator

    • Politeness

    • Non-threat

    • Hardwired for good?

  • Schadenfreude

01/02/2023

• Primary emotions may not feel great but still necessary

• Socialization affects displays of certain emotions

• Cultural differences in emotions or expression

  • Boys don’t cry

  • Grief-Britain (don’t show emotions), Italy (screaming widow through the streets)

  • Pride/happiness-Asia (Don’t gloat), America (boasting)

  • Women cannot be angry, men can’t show love

• Sadness

  • Strongest emotion-impacts brain imaging the most

  • Loss, failure

  • Reflection

  • Support

  • Physiological changes

    • Slow, eyebrows up in the middle, slowness in chest and arms, shoulders curl, muscles feel numb and slow, lose energy when sad, cry, time to contemplate and grieve loss-cognitively restructure and process the loss, crying brings others to comfort you-signal for help

  • Anger over being afraid over being sad (safer than fear safer than sadness)

• Anger

  • Obstacle to success

    • Anger when something blocks you (car going slow, person being loud when trying to relax, politicians may block your goals)

  • Gain power and control

    • Respond by trying to dominate the obstacle

  • Physiological changes

    • Chest gets hot (vagus nerve), shoulders flexing, energy rising, feel taller, voice deepens and becomes louder, in warm rooms people are more prone to anger, brow furrow

  • Biofeedback

    • Change one thing, the others may begin to change as well

• Surprise

  • Short lived emotion

  • Novelty (precursor to other emotions)

  • Information gain

    • Gather more information to determine if something is harmful or good, etc.

  • Physiological

    • Eyebrows up in middle, mouth open, heart might flutter/“skip a beat”

• Fear

  • Identifying threat

    • Real present threat = fear, not anxiety

    • See a bear, hydroplane, covid o Seeking protection

  • Physiological responses

    • Eyebrows go up, eyes wider, corners of mouth wider, eyes dilate, tension, tightness in chest, power goes to legs,

• Contempt

  • Judging others as inferior

    • “Why do you think this is reasonable”

    • Putting them in their place

    • “This is what im contributing to the project” “you think that’s good”

    • Resting bitch face (neutral expression perceived as contempt)

  • Maintain social hierarchy (evolutionary purpose)

  • Physiological changes

    • Facial expressions (often asymmetrical-eyebrow raise, smirk), not much response below the neck, body language (hands on the hips)

• Disgust

  • Repulsion

    • Biological

    • Can be conditioned to be repulsed by other things (can be people)

  • Contamination

    • Gag at (prevent ingestion of substances)

    • Wrinkle nose/squint (prevent ingesting mood spores)

  • Physiological reaction

    • Maybe nausea