Exam 2-2

Question 1

gonads

Answer 1

The glands, testes in men and ovaries in women, that (among other effects) produce the sex hormones testosterone and estrogen, respectively

Question 2

cortisol

Answer 2

a collective term for the glucocorticoid hormones, which are released into the bloodstream by the adrenal cortex as a response to physical or psychological stress

Question 3

BOLD Signal

Answer 3

Blood Oxygen Level-Dependent signal.

Measures brain activity in fMRI by detecting changes in blood oxygen levels. Active brain areas consume more oxygen, increasing oxygenated blood flow. This change reveals neural activity, helping researchers map brain functions.

Question 4

evolutionary mismatch

Answer 4

the idea that traits that were adaptive in an ancestral environment may be maladaptive in a modern environment

Question 5

aggression

Answer 5

can help a person to protect territory, property, and mates and also lead to dominance in the social group and higher status. But the same tendency can also lead to fighting, murder, and the industrial-scale murder called war.

Question 6

altruism

Answer 6

A tendency to aid and protect other people, especially close relatives, might help ensure the survival of one’s own genes into succeeding generations,

Question 7

inclusive fitness

Answer 7

an explanation for altruism that focuses on the adaptive benefit of transmitting genes, such as through kin selection, rather than focusing on individual survival

Question 8

individual differences

Answer 8

variations among people in their thinking, emotion, personality, and behavior

Question 9

frequency-dependent

Answer 9

They adjust their prevalence according to how common they are in the population at large

Question 10

reproductive instinct

Answer 10

The idea that people tend to want many offspring is not valid. There are individual differences. Theorists argue that the instinct need not be conscious.

Question 11

conservative bias

Answer 11

a tendency to favor familiar, existing ideas over new information or changes.

Question 12

Human flexibility

Answer 12

a general lesson of psychology is that humans are extraordinarily flexible creatures with a minimum of instinctive behavior patterns, compared with other species.

Question 13

Biological determinism

Answer 13

the idea that human behavior and traits are controlled by genes and biology alone, with little influence from the environment.

Question 14

personality trait

Answer 14

A pattern of thought, emotion, or behavior that is relatively consistent over time and across situations

Question 15

genetic confounding

Answer 15

The possibility that an association between parenting style and child outcomes might be due, instead or in part, to the shared genes of parents and children.

Question 16

alleles

Answer 16

a particular variant, or form, of a gene; most genes have two or more alleles.

Question 17

epigenetics

Answer 17

nongenetic influences on a gene’s expression, such as stress, nutrition, and so forth.

Question 18

Evolutionary Personality Psychology

Answer 18

Evolutionary psychology attempts to explain behavioral patterns by analyzing how they may have promoted survival and reproduction in past generations.

Question 19

sociometer

Answer 19

according to Mark Leary’s theory, that assesses the degree to which one is accepted by the group. A decline in self-esteem might be an evolved signal that one is in danger of being shunned.