1. Sexual Motivation & The Need to Belong
1.1. Sexual response cycle: 4 stages of sexual responding: excitement, plateau, orgasm, resolution
1.1.1. Physiological response to sex
1.2. Sexual dysfunction: problem that consistently impairs sexual arousal or functioning
1.2.1. Biological influence
1.3. Paraphilia: experiencing sexual arousal from fantasies, behaviors, or urges involving nonhumans, the suffering of self or others, and or nonconsenting partners
1.4. Sex hormones:
1.4.1. Help develop female and male sex characteristics
1.4.2. Activate sexual behavior
1.5. Estrogen: sex hormones secreted in greater amounts in females than males, contributing to female sex characteristics
1.6. Testosterone: sex hormones secreted in greater amounts in males that contribute to male sex characteristics
1.7. External stimuli
1.7.1. Seeing, hearing, or reading erotic material influence sexual desire and arousal
1.7.2. Repeated exposure decreases effect
1.8. Imagined stimuli
1.8.1. Dreams, imaginations, fantasies can influence sexual desire and arousal
1.9. Sexual expression affected heavily by environment
1.9.1. American teen pregnancy rate higher than Europe
1.9.2. Factors contributing to teen pregnancy
1.10. Sexual orientation: enduring sexual attraction toward members of either one’s own sex or the other sex
1.11. Both homosexuality and heterosexuality has existed throughout time and in cultures worldwide and continues to exist, despite acceptance of it
1.12. Sexual orientation is not an indicator of mental health
1.12.1. Homosexuality itself is not a mental, emotional or social disorder
1.12.2. Feelings of rejection by loved ones, harassment and bullying leads to higher depression and suicide rates
1.13. Most psychologists today believe sexual orientation is not willfully chosen nor willfully changed
1.14. Erotic plasticity: women tend to be more fluid in attitudes and feelings of sexuality compared to men
1.15. Hundreds of studies have shown that homosexuality is NOT linked with:v
1.15.1. Problems in child’s relationships with parents
1.15.2. Hatred of people of the other sex
1.15.3. Levels of sex hormones currently in blood
1.15.4. Being victims of sexual crimes in childhood
1.16. Sexual Orientation
1.16.1. With each pregnancy with a male fetus, maternal antibodies may become stronger and may prevent fetuses’ brain from developing in a male typical pattern
1.16.2. Correlation with age of puberty
1.16.3. rain anatomy and responses to hormones
1.16.4. Genetics: identical twin studies show similarity in sexual orientation
1.16.5. Prenatal hormones
1.16.6. Increased research and studies indicate that sexual orientation has a strong biological connection
1.17. Values are both personal and cultural
1.18. Researchers try to remain value free as possible attempting to reduce researcher bias as much as possible
1.19. Research shows that sex is a socially significant act and impacts intimate relationships
1.20. Evolutionary trait: Hunters and foragers were stronger in groups than individually
1.21. People want to feel accepted and belong to other groups, increasing their self esteem, in all cultural groups
1.22. Much of our social behavior aims to increase social acceptance and inclusion
1.23. Because humans seek relationships and social interaction, isolation, ostracism, solitary confinement create depressed moods, withdrawal, affect self esteem, etc.
1.24. Cyber bullying, ostracism trigger the same pain sensation physical pain creates
1.25. Most teens do not lash out in violence, but ostracism is a risk factor in committing violence
2. Emotion
2.1. response of the whole organism involving a physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience
2.1.1. Some physical responses are easy to notice
2.1.2. Other emotional responses we experience without awareness
2.2. Emotional arousal: autonomic nervous system arouses the body in a crisis (sympathetic) and calms it when danger passes (parasympathetic)
2.3. Facial expressions and brain activity can vary with emotion
3. Expressed Emotion
3.1. Detecting emotion
3.1.1. Experience can sensitize us to specific emotions
3.1.2. Our brains detect subtle expressions
3.1.3. Introverts read expressions better, extroverts’ expressions are easier to read
3.2. Gender, emotion, and nonverbal behavior
3.2.1. Women tend to perceive, respond and be more expressive with emotion than men
4. Experienced Emotion
4.1. Joy, interest excitement, surprise, sadness, anger, disgust, contempt, fear, shame, guilt
4.2. other emotions were a combination of the 10
4.3. 2 dimensions that differentiate emotions
4.3.1. Positive versus negative valence
4.3.2. Low versus high arousal
4.4. Anger
4.4.1. Increases risk of heart diseases
4.4.2. Expression of anger differs between cultures
4.4.3. Best way to deal with anger:
4.4.3.1. bring down physiological arousal
4.4.3.2. Deal with it in a healthy way: exercising, playing an instrument, talking to a friend
4.4.3.3. Mentally rehearse forgiveness, do not hold grudges
4.4.4. Controlled anger is helpful and necessary
4.4.4.1. Helps to resolve conflict
4.5. Happiness
4.5.1. Happy people perceive world as safer and feel more confident
4.5.2. Happy people are more cooperative and tolerant
4.5.3. Feel good do good phenomenon: people’s tendency to be helpful when already in a good mood
4.5.4. Subjective well being: self perceived happiness or satisfaction with life, used to evaluate people’s quality of life
4.5.5. Studies have shown that those who strive hardest for wealth tend to live less happy lives
4.5.5.1. Those who strive for intimacy, personal growth, and contribution to the community experience a higher quality of life
4.5.6. Adaptation level phenomenon: tendency to form judgements relative to a neutral level defined by our prior experience
4.5.6.1. Your very first phone was the best ever, but you keep wanting newer and the latest phones. Your neutral level continuously changes
4.5.7. You can control your happiness: manage time, act happy, engage your skills, sleep well, focus beyond yourself, count your blessings
4.5.8. People’s psychological well being can impact a nation’s production and economy
4.6. Emotional ups and down balance out during the week, during the day, and even after a tragic/traumatic event
4.7. Relative deprivation: perception that one is worse off relative to whoever they compare themselves to
5. Stress & Health
5.1. process of appraising and responding to a threatening or challenging event
5.1.1. Stress appraisal: how we appraise an event influences how much stress we experience & how we respond
5.2. Catastrophes: unpredictable, large scale events
5.2.1. Significant impact on emotional & physical health
5.2.1.1. Suicide rates tripled after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans
5.2.1.2. Trouble with sleep and concentration following 9/11
5.3. Significant life changes
5.3.1. Impact life, especially young adulthood greatly
5.3.2. Experiencing multiple significant events around the same period increases risk of stress and health problems
5.4. Daily hassles
5.4.1. Traffic, long lines, upsetting coworkers or friends can cause stress
5.4.2. Daily economic, prejudice, racial stressors can also impact health negatively
5.5. General adaptation syndrome (GAS): Selye’s concept of the body’s adaptive response to stress in 3 phases: alarm, resistance, exhaustion
5.5.1. Phase 1 Alarm - sympathetic nervous system activated
5.5.2. Phase 2 Resistance - fully engaged, adrenal glands pumping hormones into bloodstream
5.5.3. Phase 3 Exhaustion - body’s reserve runs out, you become exhausted at risk for illness, collapse, death
5.6. Prolonged stress causes brain to slow down new neuron production and telomere deterioration quickens
5.7. end and befriend: under stress, people often provide support to others and bond and seep support from others
5.8. Psychophysiological illness: any stress related physical illness like headache
5.9. Psychoneuroimmunology: study of how psychological, neural, and endocrine processes together affect the immune system and resulting health
5.10. Lymphocytes: white blood cells
5.10.1. B lymphocytes: form in bone marrow and release antibodies to fight infections
5.10.2. T lymphocytes: form in thymus/lymphatic tissue and attack cancer cells, viruses, and foreign substance
5.11. Macrophage: identifies, pursues, and ingests harmful invaders & wornout cells
5.12. Natural killer cells: pursues diseased cells
5.13. Body regulates stress hormones, which lessens the release of lymphocytes
5.14. Body diverts energy from immune system to your muscles and brain for fight or flight stressful situations
5.15. Stress alters our immune system, making it less resistant to infection
5.16. Reducing stress has helped patients with AIDS/HIV and cancer by working with their stress levels, but it is not a cure and its effectiveness varies, but stress does not cause AIDS/HIV or cancer
5.17. Coronary heart disease: clogging of the vessels that nourish the heart muscle; leading cause of death in many developed countries
5.17.1. Stress increases vulnerability to heart disease along with behavior and physiological factors
5.17.2. Type A personalities: Competitive, super motivated, impatient, verbally aggressive, and anger prone people have increased stress levels, making them more prone to heart disease
5.18. People with depression tend to
5.18.1. Exercise less
5.18.2. Smoke more
5.18.3. Drink more alcohol
5.18.4. Have an increase in anxiety
5.18.5. Have persistent inflammation, producing more problems
5.19. Our mind and bodies interact together and mental & emotional well being affects our physical well being and vice versa
6. Basic Motivational Concepts & Hunger
6.1. Motivation
6.1.1. need or desire that energizes and directs behavior
6.2. Aron Ralston story: After 127 hours of being stuck mountain climbing, used a dull pocket knife to cut off his arm after breaking his arm bones to set himself free, hiked 5 miles until he finally found someone else to help him
6.3. Instinct: Complex unlearned behavior rigidly patterned throughout a species
6.3.1. Human babies root and suck as an instinct to feed, ducklings imprint on walking things they see as their caregiver, salmon swim back to where they came from to lay eggs
6.3.2. Instincts and genetic predispositions influence human motives and behavior
6.4. Drive-Reduction Theory: physiological need creates an aroused tension state that motivates an organism to satisfy the need
6.4.1. Homeostasis: tendency to maintain balanced or constant internal state; regulation of any aspect of body chemistry
6.4.2. Incentives: positive or negative environmental stimulus that motivates behavior
6.4.3. Need + Incentive = stronger drive
6.5. Animals tend to be curious by nature
6.6. Motivated behaviors try to increase arousal
6.6.1. Children are always curious, monkeys play with new things, people want to climb mountains
6.6.2. Seek out stimulation, new knowledge, and increase arousal
6.6.3. Too much stimulation causes stress, then we try to decrease arousal
6.7. Hierarchy of needs: Maslow’s pyramid of human needs
6.8. Hunger could affect motivation
6.8.1. Hungry people do not have the desire to do other things
6.8.2. Studies show people that were hungry had obsessive thoughts of food, found less humor in things, less sexual arousal, etc.
6.8.3. Hungry people buy more food at the store, order more food, etc.
6.8.4. Stomach contractions occur when hungry
6.8.5. sugar that circulates in blood, source of energy, hungry when low
6.9. Memory affects hunger
6.10. Biology
6.10.1. Tense/Depressed states causes cravings in starchy/carb heavy food items
6.10.2. Conditioning
6.11. Culture
6.11.1. Acquire taste based off of culture
6.11.2. Neophobia
6.11.3. Adaptive traits
6.12. Situational Influences
6.12.1. People tend to eat more when eating with others
6.12.2. portion sizes offered affects how much people eat
6.12.3. the more variety, the more we eat
6.13. Obesity
6.13.1. Fat stored as energy for when food was scarce BMI of 30 or above
6.13.2. BMI of 30 or above
6.13.3. increases risk for: High blood pressure Diabetes Arthritis Cancer Cognitive decline in women
6.13.4. Stereotypes
6.13.5. Weight discrimination
6.13.6. Obesity contributes to depression, and depression fosters obesity
6.13.7. When overweight and weight drops below set/settling point, hunger increases and metabolism decreases
6.13.8. People’s weights resemble biological parents and not adoptive parents
6.13.9. dentical twins have similar weights
6.13.10. Sleep loss contributes to obesity
7. Motivation At Work
7.1. Personnel Psychology: focuses on employee recruitment, selection, placement, training, appraisal, development
7.2. Identify people’s strengths and match it to positions
7.3. Structured interview: interview process that asks the same job relevant questions to all applicants, reducing interviewer bias
7.4. 360 degree feedback: Rating of performance by self, supervisor, peers, subordinates, customers
7.5. Organizational Psychology: examines organizational influences on worker satisfaction and productivity and facilitates organizational changes
7.6. Study employee satisfaction: satisfied employees happy with work conditions produce more results
7.7. Effective leadership: have both task and social leadership
7.8. Human Factors Psychology: explores how people and machines interact and how machines and physical environments can be made safe and easy to use
7.9. Help design efficient environments
7.10. Study and try to reduce car accidents, flight errors, etc.
8. Promoting Health
8.1. Humans must cope and deal with stress effectively
8.2. Problem focused coping: attempting to alleviate stress directly-by changing the stressor or the way we interact with that stressor
8.3. Emotion focused coping: attempting to alleviate stress by avoiding or ignoring a stressor and attending to emotional needs related to one’s stress reaction
8.3.1. Can be maladaptive: go to a party instead of study
8.4. Perceived loss of control predicts health problems
8.5. The more optimistic and positive outlook on life, the better they are at coping during stressful times, the healthier they tend to be
8.6. Feeling liked and encouraged promotes happiness and health
8.7. Social support calms us, supports immune system, reduces blood pressure and stress hormones
8.8. Have someone to talk to and confide in
8.9. Exercise: increases arousal, leads to muscle relaxation and deep sleep, body produces mood boosting chemicals
8.9.1. Aerobic exercise: sustained exercise that increases heart and lung fitness; may alleviate depression and anxiety
8.10. Relaxation & Meditation
8.10.1. Helps to lessen anxiety and improve mood, leading to less stress