Exam 2

Question 1

Why is this happening

Answer 1

Not everyone responds the same here
Humans vary in the number of receptors for Dopmaine dotting the tips of their synapses
People with high numbers of these receptors are far more likely pursue numerous sexual partners and struggle with addiction
Hamer (2002) reports a gene that codes for high number of Dopmaine receptors
About 30% of men possess this gene
They have, on average, 20% more sexual partners in life than other men

Question 2

Women presumably experience similar addiction to sexual novelty due to the increased uptake of dopamine, but that relationship has not yet been studied in detail

Answer 2

Merely one example of the way that, until relatively recently, female sexuality has garnered significantly less scientific study

Alfred Kinsey started looking at female sexuality
Discovered there are women who can orgasm just from a really good, prolonged kiss alone

Question 3

Oxytocin

Brain on other drugs casued by a good kiss

Answer 3

Fosters feelings of attachment and affection

I’ll speak more about oxytocin in an upcoming lecture

Question 4

Serotonin

Brain on other drugs casued by a good kiss

Answer 4

Serotonin can also cause obsessive feelings and thoughts about another person

Question 5

Serotonin

Brain on other drugs casued by a good kiss

Answer 5

levels of someone who reports having “just fallen in love” rival those of people with obsessive—compulsive disorder (OCD)

Question 6

Norepinephrine :

Answer 6

: Increases arousal and alertness, promotes vigilance, enhances formation and retrieval of memory, and focuses attention; it also increases restlessness and anxiety.
Also increasesheart rateandblood pressure
Triggers the release ofglucosefrom energy stores
Increasesblood flowtoskeletal muscle
Likely what gives people that “weak in the knees feeling”

Question 7

Epinephrine (adrenaline):

Answer 7

Secreted from adrenal gland and:
Same as norepinephrine, except it also lowers anxiety/stress
Also primes the body for contact
Can also distort your perception

Question 8

Kissing has special impacts on memory, likely due to the flood of neurotransmitters when it’s a good kiss:

Answer 8

Bohannon (2010a; 2010b)
Most people can recall up to 90% of the primary details of a first romantic kiss
In a study of 500 people, found that most remembered their very first romantic kiss more vividly than their first sexual encounter.

What’s more, it doesn’t matter how much time passes; the memory stays clear

Question 9

Women are from Venus, Men are easy

Answer 9

We get a lot of mixed messages these days about similarities and differences when it comes to men and women
Social skills and capacities are often similar
As a general rule when it comes to communication skills, men and women are largely indistinguishable
Physically, we’ve been learning how men and women experience attraction at the biochemical level, including where differences may lay

Question 10

Women are from Venus, Men are easy

Answer 10

How this translates into what we think the other sex might like, physically, is often skewed, bizarre, and full-on wrong
Pop sources (e.g., Cosmo) are notorious for promoting such things, much of which is simply made-up, offering unconventional and peculiar stuff meant to be edgy and informed
Amy Schumer Sex Tips

Question 11

The same thing certainly applies to kissing

Answer 11

For instance, here is some current advice that popped up on Men’sHealth.com
“Suck on her tongue mimicking the way you would suck on her clitoris. She’ll catch on quite quickly and perhaps after that you can let her suck on your finger so that she can return the favor.”

So… Good luck with that.

Question 12

As evidenced by Amy Schumer, major media targeting women aren’t doing much better.

Answer 12

iVillage,com featured a piece called “Kiss Your Way to Better Sex,” which offered instructions to “guide him to better kissing.”
Here’s a tidbit from this masterpiece:
“To tweak his kissing style, it’s important that you use one-word directions, such as ‘lighter,’ ‘left,’ ‘right,’ etc.”

Question 13

When it comes to kissing, men and women prove to be quite different

Answer 13

Hughes, Harrison, & Gallup (2007)
Asked 1,041 heterosexual college students about their kissing preferences
Excluded people who had never romantically kissed someone
The scientists were interested in learning how kissing is involved in helping us choose a partner and bond with that person
Also interested in how kissing impacts sexual arousal and receptivity

Question 14

Hughes, Harrison, & Gallup (2007) cont.

A dramatic gender divide was immediately observed

Answer 14

Only 1 in 7 women answered that she would consider sex with someone she had not yet kissed
Majority of men said they would not be deterred
Women were more likely to see kissing as a good way to assess a potential mate or to initiate , maintain, and monitor a long-term relationship
Women also rated the breath and taste of a man’s kiss as highly significant in determining whether to continue kissing him in the moment or in the future

Question 15

Hughes, Harrison, & Gallup (2007) cont.

A dramatic gender divide was immediately observed

Answer 15

Women were far more interested than men in healthy-looking teeth
Overall, women valued the experience of kissing far more than did men
That includes before, during, and after a sexual encounter

Question 16

Hughes, Harrison, & Gallup (2007) cont.

Answer 16

Men, on the other hand, were much less picky about kissing and far more interested in facial and bodily attractiveness
For the men, “finding a good kisser’ might be enough to start a relationship
More likely than women to kiss someone who they knew “only wanted to have sex.”
Men placed less importance on kissing in relationships, regardless of how long they’d been dating someone
Men more likely than women to have sex with a “bad kisser”

Question 17

Kirshenbaum (2011)

Answer 17

Conducted study with wide range of ages, professions, educational levels, relationship statuses, and sexual orientations
Most men admitted to being eager to engage in sexual activities with or without a kiss
Women wanted kissing before sex (only 7% said they would even consider sex without having kissed the person yet)
When posed with the questions about sex with or without kissing, several of the female participants actually contacted the researcher and asked why they would be in that situation in the first place
Some asked if this was a study about prostitution

Question 18

Gallup (2011)

Answer 18

Argues that the cursory review of the kissing data may be misleading, causing some people to think that men don’t care about kissing
Instead, he argues the gestalt of the literature on kissing suggests BOTH men and women care about kissing, just in different ways

Question 19

Gallup (2011)

pt2

Answer 19

Goes back to our earlier arguments about the investment costs of making a baby
Men create hundreds of millions of sperm at the drop of a hat, whereas women have about 400 viable eggs across the course of their lifetime
Men can reproduce across their entire life after puberty, whereas women become less fertile starting around age 30, and it goes down fast (roughly 33 years of fertility)
Ultimately, women may be hardwired to be far more fussy and use kissing to help identify good reproductive partners