The chapter delves into the intricate relationship between emotion and motivation, exploring several theories that explain human behavior. The Yerkes-Dodson law describes how arousal levels impact mood and performance, while drive reduction theory focuses on how basic needs like hunger and thirst drive us to reduce unpleasant states.
Factors that Influence Sexual Activity:
Sexual satisfaction doesn't decrease with age but the frequency of it does.
Potential Influences on Sexual Orientation:
-Inherited tendency toward childhood gender nonconformity
-Sex hormones
-Prenatal Influences
-Brain differences
Myths on Sexual Orientation:
-Homosexuals adopt a masculine or feminine role
-Especially likely to abuse children and adolescents
-Usually inadequate parents
Four Stages of the Sexual Response Cycle
1. Excitement
2. Plateau
3. Orgasm
4. Resolution
Bulimia
Anorexia
Symptoms:
-Refuses to eat or eats extremely little
Symptoms:
-Eating large amounts of food in brief periods of time
-Followed by puking or frantic exercise (in order to drastically lose weight)
Positive Psychology
Positive psychology is a discipline that has sought to emphasize human strengths such as love, happiness, and life satisfaction.
Lie-Detector Methods
Controlled Question Test
Measures suspects' physiological responses following three major types of yes-no questions: relevant, irrelevant, and control. The downfall of this test is it tests general arousal, not guilty arousal so it produces many false positives (innocent people being labeled as guilty).
Guilty Knowledge Test
Relies on the premise that criminals harbor concealed knowledge about the crime that innocent people don't. However, the test has a high false-negative rate because many criminals can forget or not notice key aspects of the crime scene.
Polygraph Test
A polygraph test measures several physiological signals that often reflect anxiety - thus, assuming that dishonest people experience anxiety when lying. The problem with polygraph tests is that it's an arousal detector - meaning that some people may experience anxiety not because they're lying or a criminal. The person can experience anxiety from fear of being convicted for something they didn't do.
Unconscious Influences on Emotion
Emotional experiences are generated automatically but can also operate without us knowing. Examples being the knee-jerk reflex and the facial feedback hypothesis.
Chapter 11: Emotion and Motivation
Importance of Non-Verbal Expression of Emotion
Non-verbal expression of emotion is important because without non-verbal cues to our emotions, miscommunication happens. Physical touch, hand gestures, and posture can convey a lot about our emotional state.
Theories of Motivation
Incentive Theories: People are often motivated by positive goals.
Yerkes-Dodson law: There's an inverted U-shaped relation between arousal on the one hand and mood and performance on the other hand.
Drive reduction theory: Certain drives, like hunger, thirst, and sexual frustration, motivate us to minimize aversive states. All of the drives are unpleasant but when satisfied, give us pleasure.
Hunger, Eating, and Disorders
Determinants:
-The lateral hypothalamus "the feeding centre"
-The ventromedial hypothalamus
-Hormones
-Low glucose levels
-Neurotransmitters (leptin and serotonin)
Attraction and Love
Factors and Principles that Guide Attraction and Formation of Relationships:
-Proximity
-Similarity (Common interests)
-Reciprocity
-Physical Attraction
-Social Roles
Love Elements:
-Intimacy
-Passion
-Commitment
Types of Love:
-Passionate
-Companionate
Happiness
Realities (What makes us happy):
-Marriage
-Friendships
-Religion
-Political affiliation
-Exercise
-Gratitude
Myths:
-The Prime determinant of happiness is what happens to us.
-Money makes us happy.
-Happiness declines in old age.
-People on the west coast are the happiest.
Theories of Emotion
Two-Factor Theory (Schachter and Singer's Theory): Emotions are produced by an undifferentiated state of arousal along with an attribution of that arousal.
Cannon-Bard theory: An emotion-provoking event leads simultaneously to both an emotion and bodily reactions.
Antonio Damasio’s somatic marker theory: People unconsciously and instantaneously use their “gut reactions” – especially our autonomic responses to gauge how we should react.
James-Lange Theory: Emotions result from our interpretations of our bodily reactions to stimuli.
Discrete emotions theory: Humans experience a small number of distinct emotions, even if they combine in complex ways.