Lesson 6: Sex and Senses Flashcards
visual
sight
Smell
olfaction
Hearing
audition
taste
gustation
Touch/Feeling
tactile experience
what are the senses
- Sight
- Smell
- Hearing
- Taste
- Touch/Feeling
the totality of our sensory experiences and perception. Our bran organizes and interpret numerous stimuli into meaningful ideas useful for our choices and behavior.
Sensorium
postulates that in many cases, cognitive processing (i.e., higher order thinking) plays a lesser role compared to our emotional responses in eliciting behavior.
Affective Primary Hypothesis
• Our emotions take precedent primarily because there are only processed and modulated by the
limbic system
the emotional part of the brain which is more primitive compared to the ones responsible for higher order thinking (e.g., neocortex).
limbic system
It is where sensorium and human affect meets
limbic system
what are the Three basic emotional responses
fight, flight, freeze
we face adverse/dangerous stimuli squarely
fight
move away from dangerous stimuli
flight
startled and unable to move to make choices
freeze
Requirement to make choice or corresponding actions:
✓ We should sense the environment
✓ Organize the stimuli we receive
✓ Interpret the stimuli
some studies have explored gender differences in visual stimuli and sexual arousal.
visual experiences
respond more to visual sexual stimuli and tend to be influenced by the sex of the actors in a sexual scenario (i.e., how the other person looks physically or what the other people is wearing).
men
are more influenced by context and to the sexual content of a visual stimuli; nature of relationship (i.e., is the other person someone they know and can trust). Women and men differ in strategies of viewing sexual stimuli.
women
while human have limited olfaction (lesser level of olfaction), recent
studies suggest that sense of smell may play an important part in our sexual response.
olfactory experiences
• Study of Muscarella, Arantes, and Koncsol (2011) found that heterosexual females tend to prefer floral-sweet scent and want musky-spicy scent for their partners; heterosexual males and homosexual females preferred musky-spicy scent and liked their partner to floral-sweet scent; homosexual males preferred musky-spicy scent for themselves and their partner.
olfactory experiences
theuniquewaythatindividualsmells
signature odor
a set of proteins signaling our immune system the presence of foreign substances. Studies shows that humans are attracted to other people with diff. MHC.
Major Histocompatibility Complex
substances putatively excreted by our glands which signals mood and affects social behaviors.
Pheromones
(of opposite sex
act as attractants
of same sex
repellants
Scientist think that pheromones:
• act as attractants (of opposite sex)
• Repellants (of same sex)
• Stabilizer of mother-infant bond
• Modulators of menstrual cycle
touch is often observed as an element of intimacy. Elements of touch (experience relative to the object being felt): tactile (rough, smooth); thermal (warm, cold); and vibrational (pressure strong, weak, steady, moving, etc.).
tactile experiences
sensitive to touch; can become arousal points; often involved in reproductive and sexual act
erogenous zones
mouth, anus, genitals, and nipples
primary erogenous zones
back, neck, cheek, buttocks
secondary erogenous zones
When we touch, our body produces a hormone called
oxytocin
often referred to as the love hormone; influence tribal behavior and maternal bonding.
oxytocin
social interactions are not only visual but
are also auditory processes.
auditory experiences
words that trigger sexual response (i.e., during sex)
verbal erotic encourage
words that manifests feelings (e.g., I love you, I miss you)
verbal expression of affection
