psych 4 Flashcards
sexual motivation hormones:
Organizational effects
- renatal exposure to androgens alters the neural circuits in brain and spinal cord, Adult behaviour of androgenized subject is masculine
Activational effects:
- alteration of adult levels of hormones can alter the intensity of a behavior that is modulated by that hormone
- Pheromones
- Environmental cues
Evolutionary Analysis of Human Sexual Behavior
- Parental investment
- Patterns of sexual activity
- Differences in mate preferences
- jealousy
Affiliation Motives
- Need to associate with others and maintain social bonds.
- Companionship, friendship, and love
- Evolutionary bases
Safety, grooming, survival - Rejection, Loss of intimate, Loneliness (anxiety, jealousy, and depression)
Achievement Motives
Need for Achievement
- need to do well, to succeed, and to avoid failure
- Persons who have a high level of need for achievement tend to choose moderately difficult tasks
-Enjoy being challenged
- Avoid failure
- Work more persistently
- Enjoy success
Emotion
Emotions have valence:
-positive or negative
Emotions have 3 components:
- Physiological arousal
- Subjective experience
- Behavioural expression
Taxonomy of Emotions
How many basic emotional states?
Between 5 and 9 basic states:
The common 5 include
- anger, fear, happiness, sadness, and disgust
Additional emotional states include surprise, contempt, shame, guilt, joy, and trust
Taxonomy of Emotions
Emotional valence may be related to activity in the nervous system
Positive: activity of dopamine systems
Negative: activity of norepinephrine systems
Neuropsychology of Emotion
Dual processing of emotions:
- Activation of the amygdala produces visceral responses
- Cortical activation allows for use of memory in understanding emotional stimuli
- Limbic system
Schachter and Singer
cognitive judgements are a critical part of emotional experience:
Subjects are aroused by an injection of adrenaline and then exposed to anger or happiness cues
The emotional cues played a prominent role in emotional experience
Happiness as an Emotion
- characterized by a positive valence
- related to cultural values (highest in individualistic cultures, lowest in collectivist cultures)
- Highly correlated with number of uninterrupted years of democracy in a country
NOT RELATED TO:
Gender
Age
Wealth
sex
properties of people that determine their classification as male or female
used to classify sex, including chromosomes, gonads, hormones, genitalia, and secondary sex characteristics
Chromosomes
- packages of DNA that carry our genes
- humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes, with one of each pair provided by each parent
- The 23rd pair differs across the sexes and is referred to as the sex chromosomes because the pair determines a person’s genetic sex
chromosomes
females
Both sex chromosomes are alike and are called X chromosomes because they each look like an X
chromosomes
males
Have one x and one y chromosome—the latter looks similar to an upside-down y
growth spurt
- Girls (starts at age 9, peaks at 11½)
- Boys (starts at age 11½, peaks at 13½)
gonads
- Part of the endocrine system
- Glands that produce sex hormones
Generate ova (eggs) in females and sperm in males—the cells used in reproduction - female gonads are ovaries
- male gonads are testicles
Androgynous
- Having attributes that are typically associate with both genders
- People who are low on both dimensions are referred to as undifferentiated
Variances in Sexual Development?
An infant with a VSD might have genitals that are not typical, or their genitals may appear to be female or male when the child’s genes indicate the opposite sex
Social Cognitive Accounts
- Experience influences sense of gender
- Socialization (rewards, punishments, modeling)
Social Role Theory
- Division of labour
- Natural differences become expected/valued differences
Gender Stereotypes
Overly general beliefs and expectations about what women and men are like
Gender Differences in Agression
- Overt aggression (physical/verbal harm)
Males more than females - Relational aggression (harm social standing)
Females more than males
Orientation is influenced by
Genetics
Prenatal hormones
Brain structures
Social factors (gender non-conforming behaviour)
What Constitutes Sexual Behavior?
Infidelity or loss of virginity
Activities involved in reproduction
Arousal and sexual response
Unusually intimate and personal activity as defined by the participants
Stages of Our Sexual Response?
William Masters and Virginia Johnson (1966)
Four phases: excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution.
- Excitement
- Plateau
- Orgasm
- Resolution/Male Refractory - Period
Stages of Our Sexual Response?
Helen Singer Kaplan (1974)
Added Desire
To Masters and Johnson’s four phases of sexual response
Pedophilic Disorder
- liking kids
- more common in men than women
WEIRD STUDY
Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic participants
Psychodynamic Views of Personality
Topographical model: argued for 3 levels of consciousness
- Conflict occurs between the different aspects of consciousness
- Requires compromise formation
- Id, ego, superego
Freud’s Developmental Model
Human behavior is motivated by two drives:
- Aggressive
- Sexual
Libido refers to pleasure-seeking and sensuality as well as desire for intercourse
Freud’s Developmental Model
Libido follows a developmental course during childhood
- Stages of development
- Fixed progression of change from stage to stage
- Notion of fixation at a particular libidinal stage
Ego Defense Mechanisms
unconscious mental processes protecting conscious person from anxiety
- Repression: anxiety-evoking thoughts are kept unconscious
- Denial: person refuses to recognize reality
- Projection: person attributes their own unacceptable impulses to others
- Reaction Formation: person converts an unacceptable impulse into the opposite impulse
- Sublimation: person converts an unacceptable impulse into a socially acceptable activity
- Rationalization: person explains away their actions to reduce anxiety
- Displacement: diverting emotional feelings from their original source to a substitute target
Projective Tests
Projective tests assume that persons presented with a vague stimulus will “project” their own impulses and desires into a description of the stimulus
- Rorschach Inkblots
- Thematic Apperception Test
Evaluation of Freud’s Contributions to Personality Theory
contributions
- Emphasis on unconscious processes
- Identification of defense mechanisms
- Importance of childhood experiences in shaping adult personality
Evaluation of Freud’s Contributions to Personality Theory
Limitations
- Theories are not solidly based on scientific observation
- Excessive emphasis on drives such as sex and aggression
B.F. Skinner (1904-1990): Radical Behaviorism
- scientific analysis of behavior
- personality -> a collection of behavior patterns
black box theory - explanatory fictions (e.g., freedom, “the self”)
Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory
Observational (Vicarious) Learning
- people learn by merely observing what others do and what happens to them
two processes:- acquisition
- acceptance/performance
- consequences are an important influence
Albert Ellis: Rational Emotive Therapy (RET)
- Assumes all humans have fundamental goals, purposes and values (e.g., stay alive, be satisfied)
- if people choose to stay alive & try to be happy/satisfied they are acting “rationally”
- when people think/emote/behave in a way that interferes with these goals, they act “irrationally”
Evaluation of Cognitive-Social Personality Theory
contributions & limitations
Contributions
- emphasis on the role of thought and memory in personality
Limitations
- Overemphasis of rational side of personality
- Avoidance of explanations of unconscious processes in personality
Humanistic Personality Approaches
- reject the behaviorist and psychodynamic notions of personality
- emphasize the notion that each person has a potential for creative growth
- The intent is to assist the person in developing to their maximal potential
Roger’s Person-Centered Approach
- Rogers believed that humans are good by nature (in contrast to psychodynamic view of human nature)
- Rogers emphasized the notion of self-concept
Each person has multiple selves:- True-self: the core aspect of being
- False-self: the self that is created by distortions from interpersonal experiences
Ideal-self: what the person would like to be
Evaluation of Humanistic Personality Theory
Contributions & Limitations
Contributions
- Focus on how humans strive to determine the meaning of life
Limitations
- Humanistic approach is not a complete theoretical account of personality
- The approach has not generated a body of testable hypotheses and research
Trait Approach
TRAIT: Consistent patterns of thoughts, feelings, or actions that distinguish people.
ASSUMPTION 1: traits are stable over time
ASSUMPTION 2: traits are stable across situations
- people differ on continuous variables or dimensions
- traits exist on a continuum
basic differences between people are quantitative
- traits are used to understand and predict behaviour
- emphasizes measurement of traits through tests
The Big Five Factors of Personality
- Openness to experience
- Conscientiousness
- Extroversion
- Agreeableness
- Neuroticism
OCEAN…
