PSYC101 Exam 3

What is drive-reduction?

An old theory on physiological needs where an aroused state drives an organism to reduce the arised need

What is homeostasis?

A balanced internal state. Based off of temperature, blood glucose levels, and water levels within the body.

What do changes in temperature, blood glucose levels, and water levels have an effect on?

1. When temperatures get cold, blood vessels constrict 2. When blood glucose levels change from a certain level, huger is triggered 3. When water levels within the body are low, thirst is triggered

What are the hunger mechanisms?

1. Blood glucose levels, insulin, leptin 2. Hypothalamus monitors levels through feedback from stomach, liver, intestines, etc 3. Based on these levels, the hypothalamus signals hunger/satiety

What does the lateral hypothalamus do? What is it stimulated by? What causes the destruction of the lateral hypothalamus?

It signals hunger. It's stimulated by eating. It can be destroyed when someone doesn't eat even if they're starving.

What does the ventromedial hypothalamus do? What is it stimulated by? What causes the destruction of the ventromedial hypothalamus?

It signals satiety (how full/satisfied you are). It's stimulated by stopping eating. It can be destroyed by overeating even if you're full.

What are some factors that can influence obesity?

1. The size and number of fat cells within the body 2. The person's set point/metabolism (basal metabolic rate) 3. Genetics 4. The person's environment

How can you change your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)?

Calorie control. Ex: Restricting calories *lowers* one's BMR

What is intrinsic motivation? What is an example?

Intrinsic motivation can be defined as "the doing of an activity for its inherent satisfaction rather than for some separable consequence." Some key words are: personal gain, enjoyment, competence, self-actualization, self-esteem. Some examples: - Learning how to paint to a Bob Ross video just because you enjoy the experience - Reading a book in your free time

What is extrinsic motivation? What is an example?

Extrinsic motivation can be defined as "motivation that is driven by external rewards". Some key words are: grades, approval of others, rewards, money, deadlines. Some examples: - Buying a scratch-off/lottery ticket - Going to the study session for this test - Making a quizlet for this test - Studying this quizlet for the test

How do animals control their hormones differently than humans?

While animals have a more straightforward relationship with their hormones (female's estrogen peaks at ovulation and becomes receptive, male testosterone constant); humans can get a little more complicated. For female humans, sexual desire raises only slightly during ovulation and sex is possible throughout the menstrual cycle. Additionally, their sexual desire is more closely related to testosterone levels.

What can human sexual motivation be influenced by?

1. Physiology ex: someone's appearance, someone's hormone levels, state of mind, etc 2. External cues (environment) ex: culture, sexual education, etc 3. Imagination ex: 🥸

What are "women's" sexual strategies according to evolutionary psychology?

They focus on quality. 1. Economic capacity (present/future) 2. Social status 3. Age (preferably older than themselves)

What are "men's" sexual strategies according to evolutionary psychology?

They focus on quantity. 1. Youth 2. Physical beauty (body shape, symmetry) 3. Health

Which sex (in humans) has the greater investment in reproduction?

Women of the female sex because they cannot reproduce after menopause and have a limited number of eggs.

What is the ideal waist to hip ratio in women according to men?

0.7 is the most attractive

What are some physiological cues that our ancestors had casual sex?

1. Human males have a relatively large testicle size to body weight ratio 2. The longer couples are separated the more sperm per ejaculate that are produced by the man

What are some psychological cues that our ancestors had casual sex?

1. Men desire more sex partners in any given time interval and over the span of their lives 2. Coolidge effect 3. Men pursue and have more affairs than women 4. Men have more sexual fantasies (more likely to have strangers, multiple partners, or anonymous partners in it) 5. Women more likely to fantasize about familiar partners

What is the Coolidge effect?

When males become sexually rearoused upon presentation of a novel female

What are the casual sex standards for men?

Standards for most attributes considered important for long term mating including attractiveness and age decrease

What are the casual sex standards for women?

Standards stay more consistent except these are more important for short term mating. a. spends a lot of money on then b. gives them gifts c. has an extravagant lifestyle d. is generous with resources

What factors constitute a healthy well-being?

Biopsychosocial Model

What is stress?

A pattern of behavioral and physiological responses to events that match or exceed an organism's ability to respond in a healthy way

What kind of stress is bad for you?

Stress in your early life and chronic stress

What factors contribute to stress?

Environment (job status, learned helplessness, etc)

What are the physiological effects of stress?

1. HPA Axis activation 2. Increase in cortisol (decrease in immune function) 3. Increase in atherosclerosis (main cause of heart disease) 4. Gender Differences 5. Memory and concentration

What is the HPA axis?

Hypothalamus --> Corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) --> Pituitary gland --> Adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) --> Adrenals 1. --> Cortisol (increase energy, suppress immune function) 2. --> Catecholamines (sympathetic activation)

What are some gender differences in stress?

1. Hostility in men is a significant predictor of heart disease 2. Women "tend & befriend" - combo of estrogen & oxytocin

What was found in the Whitehall study?

The best predictor of heart attacks in British civil servants was job status

What was found in the Seligman & Maier / Glass & Singer study?

Seligman & Maier - Lack of control / Learned helplessness

What is the relationship between drug use and stress (animals)?

Animal studies show that when stressed, drug self-administration is more likely to occur. These results are also found in adult animals that were stressed early in life or prenatally!

What is the relationship between drug use and stress (humans)?

Comorbidity between PTSD and substance abuse. Early stressful events are comorbid with later cigarette smoking.

What things can you do to minimize stress?

1. Increase social support (lower blood pressure, increased immune support) 2. Exercise (negative relationship between exercise and depressive symptoms) 3. Healthy diet (stress undermines self-regulation, can be fatigued due to stress) 4. Change ways of thinking, e.g.optimism 5. No smoking 6. Hardiness – commit, control, accept challenges 7. Gender differences 8. Rational coping – Exposure therapy 9. Relaxation therapy – Yoga, etc.

What are some of the specific results concerning the connection between social support and health and exercise & health?

1. Less socially integrated people have higher mortality rates (House, Landis, & Umberson, 1988) 2. Presence of supportive person led to lower blood pressure and heart rate changes (Gerin et al., 1992) 3. People with more diverse social networks were less likely to develop a cold after clinical exposure (Cohen et al., 1997) 4. Exercise improves symptoms of depression (Babyak at al., 2000; Blumenthal et al., 2007)

How are our gut bacteria beneficial to us?

Gut bacteria functions: • Digestion • Metabolism • Block harmful bacteria • Influences brain and behavior (gut has its own nervous system) Gut bacteria affect: • Neural Development • Brain Chemistry - Make about 95% of our serotonin • Behavior - Emotion - Pain - Stress

What have studies with BALB/C and NIH Swiss mice shown us?

1. BALB/c mice became more bold when given antibiotics (Bercik et al., 2011) 2. NIH Swiss mice became more timid when gut bacteria was changed 3. when fed a “bad” bacteria animals became more cautious 4. Bacteria influences eating and weight gain 1. “timid” mice fed probiotics (Bienenstock 2011) - more willing to enter exposed areas of the maze - less likely to give up on forced swim test - produced less stress hormone - had more GABA receptors

What are the ways in which gut bacteria can influence behavior and/or mental state?

1. Vagus nerve stimulation is being tried as a treatment for depression! 2. Early exposure to normal gut bacteria is vital to brain development, immune functioning, and behavior

What is the vagus nerve and what is it's relationship to a gut microbiome?

When severed, the behavioral effects of the gut biome disappear

What is the hygiene hypothesis?

Developed nations suffer from more chronic inflammatory diseases - Allergies - Autoimmune diseases - Inflammatory bowel disease - Anxiety and depression? Disruption of immunoregulatory circuits

Things that negatively affect our gut bacteria? What is important for normal development?

Things that negatively affect our gut bacteria: - C-section, bottle feeding, and early exposure to antibiotics create problems - Stress suppresses beneficial bacteria - Infants of startled mother rats had less beneficial bacteria - Mice exposed to social disruption had less beneficial bacteria - Students had less beneficial bacteria during exam week (Knowles 2008)

What is the definition of personality?

An individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting

What is psychoanalytic theory?

Our thoughts and actions are derived from unconscious motives (Freud)

What is the superego?

"how on ought to behave" a part of the unconscious that is the voice of conscience and the source of self-criticism (Freud)

What is id?

The primitive and instinctual part of the mind that contains sexual and aggressive drives and hidden memories (Freud) Pleasure principle - immediate gratification

What is the ego?

The realistic part that mediates between the desires of the id and the super-ego (Freud) Reality principle - personality chief

What are the psychosexual stages?

Id's pleasure seeking energies focus on erogenous zones 1. Oral stage (0-18 mo) 2. Anal stage (18-36 mo) 3. Phallic stage (3-6 years) 4. Latency (6-puberty) 5. Genital stage

What is fixation?

Maladaptive behavior results from unresolved conflicts

What are defense mechanisms?

Reduce or redirect anxieties (repression, projection, regression, etc)

How is the unconscious measured?

Projective tests - involve ambiguous stimuli 1. TAT (Thematic Apperception Test) 2. DAPT (Draw A Person Test) 3. Word association, complete the sentence 4. Rorschach inkblot test

What are the "big five" traits?

1. Emotional stability (secure v insecure) 2. Extraversion (sociable v retiring) 3. Openness (independent v conforming) 4. Agreeableness (trusting v suspicious) 5. Conscientiousness (organized v disorganized)

What is the MMPI?

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. Assesses abnormal personality traits (ex. depression, hysteria, psychopathic, deviancy, paranoia, schizophrenia, etc)

What is the "humanistic" perspective?

It focuses on the strivings of healthy people for self-determination and self-realization.

What did Maslow and Carl Rogers believe?

That people are basically good and want to self-actualize.

What did Carl Rogers focus on?

Person centered therapy

What are the key ideas/requirements of the humanistic perspective?

- Need to provide an environment that promotes growth (genuineness, acceptance, and empathy) - Acceptance (unconditional positive regard) - Self-concept (who am I?) - Ideal v Actual self

What are some key-concepts from Bandura?

Behavior is influenced by the interactions between persons, their thinking, and their social context

What is learned helplessness?

A state that occurs after a person has experienced a stressful situation repeatedly. They come to believe that they are unable to control or change the situation, so they do not try — even when opportunities for change become available.