Exam #2 Complete Book Notes

Psych 101 Test #2 Summaries p. 421-428 Sexual Development Differentiation= children learn how people are different from each other and how they are different from other people Biologically Genetic sex Morphological sex= possession of a vagina and ovaries or a penis and testes Psychologically Gender role= society has different expectations about how the 2 sexes should act Parents talk to their male and female kids differently= ?Joey? vs. ?Janie? When kids play with toys deemed inappropriate= disapproval Girls are allowed more latitude Margaret Mead= New Guinea and Arapesh Both men and women expected to be assertive, aggressive, and emotionally unresponsive Androgenized females= congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) born with ovaries and a uterus but with external genitals that resemble a male?s Girls end up being tomboys Men and women are more alike than different= when there are differences between the sexes it is a difference of averages Neither sex is more intelligent than the other Males do outperform women on math ability Testosterone contributes? better visualization tasks like mental rotation women do worse on math tests if asked to record gender before the test begins Gender identity Gender constancy= achieved at the age of 5 Cloacal extrophy= genetic males born lacking normal male genitals ?Bruce/Brenda?= the guy whose penis was cut off and passed as a girl biology is not destiny Sexual orientation 4% American men exclusively homosexual 13% American men and 7% American women are predominantly homosexual but have had heterosexual experience cultural taboo against homosexual behavior is not universal (classical Greece) first real sexual attraction begins around age 10 hormone storms trigger sexual feelings; they don?t direct feelings toward any particular target homosexual is not a hormonal imbalance genes and sexual orientation= levels of prenatal hormones, especially the male hormone androgen genetics are not all that matter, otherwise identical twins would have same sexual orientation 100% of the time several anatomical and physiological differences between gay and straight men gays left handed, specific acoustic response in inner ear, hypothalamus structures same size as in heterosexual women can?t say whether the hypothalamus structures are a result of homosexuality no evidence that strength of fathers determine homosexual offspring no evidence that homosexuality is imitation (esp. from parents) no evidence in the ?seduction? proposal homosexual or bisexual orientation is not a psychological disorder or defect Chapter 12= Social Cognition and Emotion Social psychology/cognition= how we think about, feel about, and behave toward other people Attribution causal attribution our conclusions about Mary and our actions toward her in the future will be very different depending on our interpretations of her scientist needs to know whether the cause and effect covary (correlate) situational attributions= factors external to a person dispositional attributions= factors internal to the person individualistic cultures= rights, needs, and preferences of an individual one stands out by achieving personal goals fundamental attribution error= people ascribe others? behavior to dispositions and not to situations observers judged the quizmasters to be considerably more knowledgeable than contests, even when they knew that their roles were determined by chance in the experiment didn?t take into account that quizmasters could pick their expertise in obscure knowledge and not have the contestant?s knowledge Motorcycle accident where driver could have done more to help the victim= Americans thought he was irresponsible or in a state of shock collectivist cultures= importance of maintaining the norms, standards, and traditions of families and other social groups more likely to create plans according to the wishes and expectations of others and to change the plans when the situation demands people ascribe others? behavior to situations, not dispositions Hindu Indians gave twice as many situational explanations as dispositional explanations Motorcycle accident where driver could have done more to help the victim= Hindu Indians said the driver had a responsibility to be at work Chinese newspapers blame murders on availability of guns, social isolation, or interpersonal rivalry rather than psychological issues Actor-observer differences in attribution When we watch another person, our attention is on her and this vantage point encourages an interpretation of her behavior in terms of specific qualities ex. watching one person in a conversation makes you think that she dominates the conversation what are in view are the various constituents of the situation Person Perception and Cognitive Schemas extroverted vs. introverted implicit theories of personality= influence how we remember other people, how we perceived them, and how we interpret their actions entity theorists= people who believe personality is fixed, generalize more incremental theorists=personality is changeable, more cautious and specific generalizations rely on what we?ve learned in past encounters Stereotypes= schemas about the characteristics of whole groups affective/emotional component= other groups are ?bad? behavioral component= discrimination cognitive component= the stereotype itself out group homogeneity effect= much less exposure to other groups so perceive the group as merely a mass of more or less similar people confirmation bias illusory correlation= overestimate a correlation that is actually quite low stereotypes still subtlely influence other people?s behavior tested people using words like ?old? or ?retired? and then timed the walk to the elevator self-fulfilling prophecies= stereotype leads the targeted group member to behave in such a way that the target confirms the stereotype ?bloomers? (the more intelligent group) of students were randomly chosen but showed increases in test scores as a result of teachers? heightened expectations men talked differently when they thought they were interacting with an attractive woman difference on men?s side changed the way the women acted if they believe we are attractive, we end up sounding more attractive stereotype threat= expectations for a group rather than expectations for an individual test takers fear that the stereotype is to some extent correct, and this fear leads test takers to lower their expectations bringing people together= camp rivalry supplied conflict researchers disrupted the camp?s water supply and stalled the camp?s truck; kids worked together to solve problems Self-Schema not only does our sense of self influence the social world, but is also influenced by that world ?looking glass self? self schema= implicit theory of ourselves helps to organize responses to the world and makes certain situations more relevant and important than others people in interdependent collectivist cultures view themselves as having certain traits but only in specific situations individualistic cultures view themselves as made up of relatively stable internal traits that apply in all settings possible selves= ideal self and ought self promotion focus= pursue valued goals and results in pleasure prevention focus= motivated to avoid doing harm, feelings of relief ?hot? cognition= emotional and motivational ?cold? cognition= dispassionate and analytical Self Esteem and Self Enhancement self-esteem trait self-esteem= one?s typical self-esteem state self-esteem= varies from moment to moment self-esteem is more an effect of good things than a cause of them internal readout of how one is faring socially participants who were well liked by fellow group members at one session had higher self esteem at the next session individualistic cultures= people seek to distinguish themselves through personal achievement and other forms of self promotion, resulting in increased self esteem collectivist cultures= to be a ?good? person, one should seek to be ordinary self enhancement= need to be different from and superior to other people leadership ability; 70% said they were better than average 94% of college professors thought they were better than their colleagues we search our memories and showcase the occasions in the past on which we have behaved well each of us starts with the hypothesis that we have behaved well meanings of traits are ambiguous self aggrandizement brings disharmony= 50% of Japanese students rate themselves as above average self-serving attributional bias= attribute their success to internal factors and failures to external factors self-handicapping= related pattern arises before an event to help people protect themselves against failure and disappointment arrange an obstacle to performance if she fails an exam, it looks as if she didn?t study enough rather than that she is stupid Japanese and Pacific Islanders showed no self-serving bias, Indians a moderate bias, Chinese and Koreans a large bias Social Identities and Group Enhancement Social identity theory Minimal groups paradigm, in-group members and out-group members in-group favoritism= dangerous basis for self-esteem after derogating the Jewish women, the participants reported higher self-esteem Discrimination= unfair treatment of out-group members People in independent, individualistic cultures may be more prone to in-group favoritism Japanese students rated closest family members and universities less positively than did Canadian students= no strong preferences means less favoritism Chinese exhibited neither in-group enhancement nor out-group derogation Measuring Attitudes Attitudes= beliefs that do not on first viewing appear to be ?social?, are tinged with feeling and can be powerful spurs to action Different stereotypes, different attributions, different emotional reactions to their voting patterns Attitudes measured using self report Implicit measure of attitudes Facial movements associated with positive or negative emotional responses How quickly people respond to attitude-related questions Implicit Association Test (IAT) Do Attitudes Predict Behavior? Major inconsistency between people?s attitudes as verbally expressed and their behavior 85% of people interviewed at the poles voted in line with their previously expressed preference people choose to hide or disguise their true attitudes situational pressures strength of attitude no correlation between women?s attitudes toward birth control and their likelihood of using oral contraceptives strong correlation between their attitudes toward birth control pills and their actual use of the pills we often take an action (or fail to) without pausing to reflect on whether it is consistent with our values and priorities increase participants? self consciousness participants agreed that assigning themselves the positive task was not the right thing to do; when a mirror was placed in front of them, only 50% of participants gave the attractive task to themselves Attitude Formation classical conditioning operant conditioning observational learning Attitude Change= Persuaded by others central route to persuasion= we track the information we receive with some care and mentally elaborate its arguments with yet further considerations if an issue is one that matters to us peripheral route to persuasion= content and arguments matter little if we don?t care much about an issue Attitude Change= Persuaded by ourselves cognitive dissonance= people put a high value on being consistent with themselves, and so any perceived inconsistency is highly aversive from guilt= removed if we change our view a bit participants were paid $1 or $20 to tell the next participant that the tasks were interesting poorly paid participants claimed that the monotonous, menial tasks were fairly interesting insufficient justification/underjustified= taken at face value, the participants would look like casual and unprincipled liars, so they reevaluate the task used justification in people who make great sacrifices to attain a goal= marked as high value because our only choice is to value what we attained newly accepted members of a group tend to value their membership even more if their initiation was especially harsh participants in collective cultures (like Japan?s) don?t react to dissonance at all= wrong they do experience dissonance but only when led to evaluate their actions in light of others? opinions Asian Canadians show dissonance effect when making choices for their friends but not when making choices for themselves Self-perception theory= there is no need to postulate the emotional distress that accompanies cognitive dissonce; we understand only in terms of info available to partipants Foot-in-door technique= if they accept the small request, they?ll accept the larger request Having agreed to put up the small sign, they now thought of themselves as active citizens involved in a public issue Used for persuading the uncommitted Overjustified behavior= situation should produce an attitude change in the negative direction If they paid me that much to lie, the task was not just boring but was awful Kids playing with felt-tipped pens= once they got paid it became work and they lost interest Dissonance theory provides the best way to understand attitude change when clearly defined preexisting attitudes are inconsistent with behavior Self perception theory is best to understand what is happening when weak or ambivalent attitudes are inconsistent with behavior Both dissonance theory and self perception theory: Require awareness of discrepancy between attitude and action; awareness triggers change Attitude Stability Persuasion by intergroup contact and tendencies toward cognitive consistency people stay in the same social and economic environments we are surrounded by people with attitudes not so different from our own Theories of Emotion our emotions and motivations color our thinking about almost any topic emotions= behavior, subjective experience, physiology clear object or target briefer than moods common sense= emotional experiences cause emotional behaviors James-Lange theory of emotion= emotional behaviors cause emotional experiences What turns this perception into genuine emotion is our awareness of the bodily changes produced by the arousing stimuli Our bodies? nervous and glandular responses are relatively slow= our emotional responses would also be delayed Bodily changes associated with anger are similar to the changes associated with happy excitement= we should have difficulty telling them apart Injections of epinephrine= triggered biological effects similar to fear and rage; reported physical symptoms but only ?cold emotion?, not the real thing Facial feedback hypothesis= our facial movements feed back to our emotional experience Those who puckered rated the cartoons less amusing than those who smiled Attached golf tees to eyebrows and when they furrowed they touched together; those who did this more had more reports of sadness in response to negative pictures Cannon-Bard theory of emotion= a stimulus elicits an emotion first and causes physiological changes and emotional experience itself Schachter-Singer theory of emotion= perception and interpretation of changes Emotion depends on a person?s judgements of why her body and physiology have changed Confederate received shots and in one case acted irritated and in the other acted happy Confederate= someone who appeared to be a participant but was actually part of the research team, set up as a ploy Participants who knew the true physiological consequences (sweaty palms and jitters) of the action experienced less emotion Participants who were misinformed about their symptoms would note the same effects but have no immediate explanation for them Misattributed arousal to the setting; concluded that they were emotional and ended up feeling emotion Initial results of experiment did not meet traditional standards of statistical significance Antecedents of Emotion Antecedents= precursors (of emotion) Appraisals= interpretations that people offer for the situations they find themselves in We need the appraisal in order to have the emotion Can often be reached quickly and without conscious awareness Emotional Responses Our facial expressions are actually vestiges of our ancestors? basic adaptive patterns Could not have learned to make expressions through imitation= typical emotion-expressive behavior in children born blind Tested expressions of members of relatively isolated non-Western cultures If research participants, no matter where they live, have been exposed to Western movies or television, their responses would indicate impact of these media New Guinea tribesmen asked to portray facial expressions appropriate to various situations Even though perception of emotions are similar in all cultures, the display is not Display rules When Japanese participants watched the films while being interviewed by an experimenter, the Japanese covered up their emotions Between genders Classification scheme, ?clusters?= describe emotions in terms of dimensions Each emotion involves a certain type of feeling, specific subjective experience= cultural? Ifalik= fago (compassion, love, sadness mix) in a one-way dependent relationship Schadenfreude= special pleasure derived from another?s misfortune Can someone feel Eastern-style shame (a socially focused emotion) if he believes that he is ultimately beholden to no one? Cannon= perceptions of bodily differences among emotions may actually be illusions Induced fear and anger= diastolic blood pressure and increased respiration rate Affective neuroscience= emotions arise in multiple circuits Medial prefrontal cortex for emotions Specific emotions= amygdala for fear and cingulated cortex for sadness Functions of Emotion Fear= sympathetic nervous system activity that prepares muscles for fighting or fleeing Joy helps us to recover from stress Positive emotions= greater cognitive flexibility Negative emotions= focus our attention more narrowly on specific aspects of a situation Interpersonal, social intent Embarrassment= signal that we have committed a faux pas, making amends, highly aversive state, motivate us not to commit the same mistake twice Emotion Regulation Emotion regulation= influencing which emotions we have, when we have them, and how we experience or express them Cognitive reappraisal= tries to decrease emotional response by changing the meaning a situation has More effective Feeling less negative emotion when reappraising Activated the prefrontal regions in the brain associated with self-regulation and decreased activation in the amygdala Suppression= someone tries to decrease the emotion he shows on his face or in behavior Review We do unto ourselves what we do unto others= we use the same schemas to make sense of our own thoughts, behaviors, and feelings First type of processing is automatic= quick and effortless Second type of processing is thoughtful= combat stereotypes, respond to persuasive communications via central route, correct our initial dispositional attributions, reappraise our situation Chapter 13= Social Influence and Relationships Social coordination= conformity, obedience, compliance Conformity Participants? task was to judge how far the light moved (it actually remained in place)= autokinetic effect When participants viewed the light with one or two other people, their responses converged with the other members of the group Sherif?s situation was highly ambiguous 3 lines task= one line was an exact match to the sample line most participants wavered, many times yielding to the other participants? suggestions eliminated the informational and motivational pressure to conform when particpant was told she arrived late and would write answers on a sheet of paper while others discussed informational influence= people?s desire to be right confused about right answer, listen to what other people say we can alter the situation so that participants have less reason to listen to others social referencing= infants who confront a scary situation and do not know whether to advance or retreat will glance toward the caretaker?s face person saw the world as it is but believed that others saw it differently= felt embarrassed normative influence= people?s desire to be liked collectivist cultures= individuals are less distressed about conforming even when it means being wrong collectivists are more likely to conform with members of a group to which they are tied by traditional bonds they are less affected than individualists by people with whom they do not share close interpersonal bonds European Americans were much more likely to choose the unique pen than East Asian participants, who preferred not to stand out Minority influence= pressure to conform reduced because participant had an ally sharing his views Obedience It is appropriate that relevant persons be granted authority and that people obey their instructions Authoritarian personalities= highly obedient Motivational basis for conservative ideology Motivated social cognition= people respond to threat and uncertainty by expressing beliefs that help them to manage their concerns Adolf Eichmann Milgram= ?teacher? vs. ?learner, slippery slope To ensure that the teacher understood what the learner was experiencing the teacher was administered a sample shock Learner was kept out of sight in a separate cubicle 120 volts= victim shouted that the shocks were too painful 330 volts= unbroken silence participants usually turned to the experimenter for instructions experimenter claimed he took full responsibility and that the ?shocks were painful but there is no permanent tissue damage? 65% of subjects continued to obey to the bitter end= unaffected even when they learned of the learner?s heart condition, but many were seriously upset ethical questions before Milgram published his results, he described his study to several experts, including 40 psychiatrists, and they all claimed he would receive a considerable amount of defiance psychological distance= between one?s actions and the end result how each of us thinks about commands and obedience participant was still essential part of the experiment because if he stopped reading, the victim would receive no further shocks 90% of subjects just reading went to the limit victim sitting across from the teacher and teacher had to press victim?s hand on the shock electrode compliance dropped considerably 30% of subjects still obeyed to the bitter end dehumanization of the victim final solution, special treatment, fallout problem, preemptive attack, free-fire zone, body count, ethnic cleansing, and collateral damage inculcation is gradual, making it important that the initial act of obedience be relatively mild and not seriously clash with the person?s own moral outlook draftees go through ?basic training? to learn various military skills and to acquire the habit of instant obedience situation shapes behavior but situation does not influence every single person in the same way Compliance norm of reciprocity= accepting a favor leads to a sense of indebtedness Vietnam donations= when letter comes with a ?gift? of address labels, response rate doubles Bargaining= pressure on the buyer to increase his offer since the seller offered a concession Door-in-the-face technique= smaller request following the denied larger request (50% consented) That?s-not-all technique= compliance is produced by improving an initially rather modest deal Leadership Great-person theory= Napoleon?s initial successes were caused by circumstances, not by disposition (as people would claim with the theory) Should we attribute a person?s actions to dispositional qualities or to the situation? Leadership styles Laissez-faire= adult lets boys do as they wish Doesn?t work Autocratic= adult makes all decisions about the boys? activities Boys seem less involved in activities Democratic= adult encouraged the boys to decide amongst themselves which activities to pursue Situation itself matters, so the person who is an effective leader of one group may not be as effective with some other group Favorable situation= leader has considerable authority, task is clear-cut, group members get along Priorities?= get the task done or nurture relationships among group members so they can work well together in the future Behaving in Groups Group dynamics= each person in the group having an impact on every other person in the group Mere presence effects= from other people being present Social facilitation= presence of others enhances performance because it increases arousal, which strengthens the ability to perform highly dominant responses (the ones we?re good at) cyclists performed better when they competed against each other than against the clock Social inhibition= when the task gets harder (complex mazes) the dominant response is ineffectual, making the audience distracting Cockroaches learned to escape from a light by running down a simple alley or by learning a maze Changes in attention= participants were asked to report the color in which color words are presented If the dominant-response view were correct, social presence should compromise performance Social loafing= when individuals work as a group on a common task, all doing the same thing, they generate less total effort than they would if each worked alone Ringelmann= when a group of men pulled on a rope, each pulled less vigorously than if he were pulling alone Students cheering as loudly as they could Causes= less accountable, less motivated, contribution not crucial to group success Deindividuation= high level of arousal and anonymity releases impulsive actions normally under restraint Gustav Le Bon= people in crowds become wild, stupid, and irrational Role playing= ?play the part? Students asked to deliver an electric shock to another person Twice as much shock when wearing KKK robes Delivered less shock in nurse?s outfit Stanford Prison Study= how countrymen could behave in unconscionable fashion in Iraq Thinking in Groups Group polarization= group decisions are more extreme than individual decisions Risky shift= groups appear more willing to take risks and a more extreme stance, less cautious Individuals often state, restate, and restate again what their views are False consensus effect= tendency to exaggerate support for one?s position Cause of extremism= ?leading edge?, ?out in front? of group which makes the person seem distinctive Groupthink when the group is highly cohesive facing some external threat and is closed to outside information or opinions doubts and disagreements are downplayed ?moral? or ?superior? status of group?s arguments are celebrated enemies are stereotyped likelihood of success is overestimated, risks or challenges discounted or ignored ex. Challenger space shuttle Francis Galton= attendees of the fair judged the weight of a very fat ox and came within 1 pound of the actual measurement Diversity and independence of judgement Helping and Altruism Kitty Genovese= 38 neighbors had watched the murder occur from their windows Bystander effect= don?t know what should be done because the situation is ambiguous The greater the cost, the smaller the chance that she will help Pluralistic ignorance= saw that others had seen the drama on the street unfold and had done nothing Diffusion of responsibility= persuaded that someone else will respond to the emergency ?crowd size?= if the participant believed that she had been having just a 2-way discussion she might leave her cubicle to help guilt many city dwellers give 50 or 70 cents to a homeless person because it?s easier than to say no sexual attraction= passengers were much more likely to stop for a woman than for a man and the cars that stopped were generally young man driving alone I disagree= they?re more afraid of attack, so women are seen less as a threat and young men driving seem more like the psychotic European Americans also see less of a moral imperative to help someone who has helped them in the past taking care of ?number 1?= Americans say they are helping out of self-interest even when they are not unselfish deeds of the living The Social Animal Types of Relationships= relational models theory equality matching relationship= each partner gives something to the other and expects to receive something in return creates a web of mutual obligations that knits the members of a society together short term market pricing relationship= each participant is primarily concerned with making sure that what he is putting into the relationship is proportional to what he is getting out of it short term communal sharing relationship= ?self? is expanded to include the ?other? intended for long term authority ranking relationship= formal job descriptions rather than blanket description power= ability to control what happens either to oneself or to others dependent on the setting hierarchy= mutually understood roles assigned to each member of a group high power- high status individuals less systematic in how they think and are less inhibited in how they behave Fairness self interest= I do things for you because you?ll do things for me fairness depends on relationship type ultimatum task= ?divider?, take it or leave it proposal accept the proposal or reject it altogether dividers and deciders prize fairness over self-interest Attraction physical appearance proximity= more likely to meet and regular interaction breeds familiarity familiarity= the more often it is seen and heard, the better it will be liked photos of strangers? faces are judged to be more likable the more often they have been seen we ourselves prefer our mirror image, which is what we see most often similarity= homogamy, likes attract people who attract each other do differ in important personality characteristics behavioral patterns Love symptoms= feeling, physiological upheaval, desire for sexual union, set of living and parenting arrangements, sharing of resources, mutual defense and caretaking pact, merging of extended families love= intimacy, passion, commitment romantic love= passionate men tend to fall in love more often and more quickly than women do, women fall out of love faster state of physiological arousal= beliefs and attitudes that leads the person to interpret this arousal as passion men were approached by an attractive woman who asked them to fill out a questionnaire on a narrow, wobbly suspension bridge likelihood of their making the call depended on whether they were approached on the bridge or on land already in a state of fear and excitement, so they connected the feeling with the woman Romeo and Juliet effect= parental opposition intensifies the couple?s passion Companionate love= affection we feel for those with whom our lives are deeply intertwined No longer has the obsessive quality that it once had Popular American love songs are only half as likely as popular Chinese love songs to refer to loyalty, commitment, and enduring friendship Summary Simply having another person pay attention to us changes our behavior Social psychology also teaches that each of us is far from a passive and helpless player on the social stage Social forces we have discussed are complicated and can vary across time, place, and culture, but there is commonality p. 416-421 Moral Judgement Kohlberg?s test= in desperation for meds, the husband broke into the pharmacy and stole the drug, questioned the participants preconventional reasoning= moral judgements focused on getting rewards and avoiding punishment conventional reasoning= social relationships, conventions, and duties postconventional reasoning= ideals and broad moral principles studies of moral reasoning reveal no reliable sex differences on Kohlberg?s test low scores on Kohlberg?s test= members of less technological societies scores don?t mean that one society is more moral than others Turkish village= concrete morality gives greatest weight to care, responsibility, and loyalty Linkage between someone?s moral maturity and the likelihood that he will actually behave morally Moral behavior motivated by empathy, shame, and/or guilt Learning to be Moral Conscience= desire to act in a moral manner and guilt when one does not act morally Reward and punishment Freud= threat of punishment creates anxiety and anxiety becomes ?self punishment? Conscience less likely to emerge in children whose parents relied on severe or harsh discipline Spanking lead to decreased internalization of a moral code Disapproval is upsetting because it undermines social relationship= child avoids disapproval to preserve the relationship The better the quality of parent-child relationship the faster the child?s progress in developing a conscience See patterns are rigid and obligatory= what ?should be? Conversations about feelings Prosocial Behaviors and Empathy Prosocial behavior= seeks to help and comfort others Actually motivated by self interest? Preserve the esteem and support of friends empathy infants are less likely to cry in response to nonhuman noises of comparable loudness link between empathy and action is weaker for younger children= empathy does not lead to helping cannot figure out what caused the distress children need to learn how to help others Individual Differences in Prosocial Behavior children who tend to experience emotion without getting overwhelmed by it are most likely the ones to experience empathy temperamentally inclined toward positive emotions children often imitate others? helping and sharing Chapter 2= Evolution and the Biological Roots of Behavior Biological science= mechanism, comparative approach, evolutionary perspective Behavior biological mechanisms or learning, nature or nurture, processes shared with other organisms or humanistic Basic Principles of Natural Selection altruistic behaviors= curiosity, play Charles Darwin= evolution merely favors the organism better suited to the environment currently in place Genes Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)= controls the production of other molecules (proteins and enzymes) Chromosomes, genome (catalog of all our genes) Dominant= exert its effect regardless of whether the other member of the gene pair calls for a different trait (ex. blue vs. brown/green eyes) Polygenic inheritance= organism?s attributes are influenced by a large number of gene pairs Genotype= genetic blueprint Phenotype= organism?s actual characteristics Personal and Genetic Survival Evolution via natural selection Evolution of Behavior Identical twins inherit exactly the same genetic pattern= usually end up more similar to each other in personality and preferences than other siblings Since other animals are less likely to be affected by cultural factors or complex decision making, finding parallels with other species would suggest a smaller role for these (distinctly human) influences Homeostasis= ?equal state? Claude Bernard= every organism has an external environment and an internal one (concentrations of body fluids) Even with large-scale fluctuations in the outside environment there is a constancy in the organism?s internal state Negative feedback= changes that are produced by an action but which then are used to stop or reverse that action Autonomic Nervous System Endotherms= organisms that maintain stable body temperatures Ectotherms Autonomic nervous system (ANS)= system of nerves, outside of the brain and spinal cord, that send control to the glands and to the smooth muscles of the internal organs and blood vessels Sympathetic branch= ?rev up? bodily activities Parasympathetic branch= restore body?s internal activities to normal Vasodilation= widening of the skin?s capillaries, sends warm blood to the body?s surface and results in heat loss by radiation (sweating, panting, etc) Vasoconstriction= squeezes blood away from the cold periphery and keeps it inside the body?s warm core (shivering, fur-ruffling, etc.) Hypothalamus= at the base of the forebrain, regulates many of the body?s internal systems Set Points Animals with big brains devote considerable energy (20% of total expenditure) to maintenance of cell activity in the brain Animals do act as if they have an internal ?appestat? Set points genetically determined Body compensates for caloric loss by reducing its metabolic rate Role of the Liver Mechanisms in the liver maintain a constant level of glucose in the bloodstream If glucose levels start to decrease then the process is reversed and glycogen and fatty acids are turned back into glucose Other Control Signals for Feeding Hypothalamus also contains cells that are sensitive to glucose levels in the blood Glucoreceptors Nutrients and not just the presence of the bulk that launches the signal Long-term store is provided by the fat (adipose cells) Fat cells, when full, secrete the chemical leptin into the bloodstream Inhibits the actions of several other neurochemicals, such as neuropeptide Y (NPY) Why So Many Signals? Sensory qualities of food itself Safety provided by backup systems Can be used to trigger the actual behaviors needed for feeding= cells activated when animal was shown a peanut or banana but only when animal was hungry Potentiate other cues= make other cues more salient and more persuasive Hypothalamic Control Centers Dual-center theory= lateral region of hypothalamus served as the ?go? center for eating while ventromedial hypothalamus served as the ?stop? center Increases appetite Increase the rate of fat storage Lateral hypothalamus is only one of the ?go? centers for feeding Obesity Body Mass Index (BMI)= someone?s weight in kg divided by height in meters BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 is normal BMI between 25 and 30 is overweight BMI over 40= morbid obesity (100 lbs over ideal) Obese individuals have a high set point Amount sets of twins gained varied substantially (with no exercise and bad food) from about 10-30 lbs; varied where weight was deposited Some people are less sensitive to leptin and thus are more vulnerable to effects of appetite stimulants ?thrifty gene? hypothesis= natural selection favored individuals with inefficient metabolisms and as a result stored more fat increase in weight= changes in diet and activity levels modern obsession with being slender Threat and the Automatic Nervous System parasympathetic peace, sympathetic surge parasympathetic branch= conservation of bodily resources, reproduction, and disposal of wastes peace= low and steady heart rate, peristaltic movements of stomach and intestines, secretions by digestive glands sympathetic branch has an activating function stimulates the inner core of the adrenal gland, the adrenal medulla, to pour epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine into bloodstream Emergency Reaction because of activation, more nutrient fuel is available to muscles and can be delivered rapidly through wide-open blood vessels Cannon?s fight or flight formulation is overly simple Disruptive Effects of Autonomic Arousal We are stuck in the same emergency reactions that our ancestors had, and so we keep ourselves armed physiologically against situations ew cannot really control Acute anxiety= bodily functions controlled by parasympathetic nervous system and so are inhibited by intense sympathetic arousal Makes us vulnerable to infection Aggression and Predation Comparative method= study nonhumans as well as humans to see whether there are commonalities that reflect some shared biological heritage Predatory attack is instead an outgrowth of hunger motive and is controlled by the same brain sites as eating Male Aggression and Hormones Human females are also aggressive, but their aggression tends to rely on verbal or social assaults Sex hormone testosterone Territoriality Struggles are generally about a scarce resource Humans do have a tendency to regard the physical zone surrounding them as ?theirs? Misunderstanding is almost inevitable Cultures also differ in how territories are conceptualized Patterns of Human Aggression Aggression is motivated by complex beliefs We also vary enormously in how aggressive we are Some factors are biological, other factors are tied to the individual?s personality, others are rooted in the person?s culture Social provocation are more likely to inspire aggression if the person provoked has unrealistically high esteem Sensation seeking Impulsivity Quakers= eschew violence; gang violence= prescribe violence Learning to be Aggressive Through learning= involves our picking up subtle cues Prime-time television programs contain an average of 5 violent acts per hour Children who are not particularly aggressive become more so after viewing TV violence The most obvious remedy to media violence is some sort of broad censorship Causality is uncertain Is Aggression Inevitable? Some of the limits on aggression hinge on the fact that animals are keenly sensitive to the strength of their enemies Animals use a variety of strategies to proclaim their strength with a goal of winning the battle before it starts Dominance hierarchy= each member of the group has an assigned status We humans have a range of conciliatory gestures we use to avoid combat= body postures and words of appeasement Careful studies indicate a consistent decline in the number and intensity of armed conflicts in the world Hormones and Animal Sexuality Follicles in the ovary mature under the influence of pituitary secretions and produce the sex hormone estrogen Hypothalamus responds by directing the pituitary to change its secretions Follicle growth is accelerated until the follicle ruptures and releases the mature ovum 2nd phase= Estrus (period of sexual receptivity) estrogen production peaks and stimulates certain structures in the hypothalamus progesterone= thickening of uterine lining if the embryo is not received, the uterine lining is reabsorbed and another cycle begins= menstrual flow when female rats? ovaries are removed, they soon lose all sexual interest= restored by appropriate injections female courtship behavior can trigger the release of testosterone copulation produces reproductive readiness if the guy ejaculates too quickly and leaves the female inadequately stimulated, no pregnancy results if a man or woman has abnormally low hormone levels, injections of hormones will generally increase his or her sex drive women?s preferences and behavior change as they move through their menstrual cycle Selecting a Mate= sex is inherently social evolutionary psychology attractiveness matters more for men when they are choosing a mate than it does for women people tend to associate physical attractiveness with a variety of other positive traits (intelligence, happiness, good mental health) ?halo effect?= tendency to assume that people who have one good trait are likely to have others infants prefer to look at faces that adults consider attractive= innate ?average faces?, clear skin, shiny hair, no visible deformities average females= big eyes, full lips, small chin average males= strong chin, large jaw, prominent brows preferred body dimensions vary from culture to culture women are perceived to be more attractive if their ratio is approximately 7:10 7:10 waist to hip ratio in women is indicative of a mature pelvis and an adequate supply of fat wide variety of health problems can lead to asymmetrical faces people do not seek the most attractive of all possible mates= balance desire for attractive mate with down-to-earth perception of their own desirability and attractiveness matching hypothesis= people seek and prefer people similar to themselves Differences between the Sexes in Mating Strategies female makes the final choice of whether to mate or not= the female shoulders the major costs of reproduction exceptions= the phalarope and the seahorse men generally prefer younger women whereas women prefer older men both men and women value kindness and intelligence in their prospective mates female?s point of view= long term commitment is highly desireable she is better off having just a few offspring and doing all she can to ensure the survival each, whereas men want to have as many kids as possible social and financial status of partner= ?marry wealth? is best strategy for gathering resources for themselves and for their young female wants emotional commitment from mate so that he remains loyal to her male impregnates many females in one season= possibility of sexual relationships without commitment it should be very troubling for a male if his mate is sexually unfaithful almost all men (98.9%) and women (99.2%) want to settle down investigator focused on people who had had an actual experience with a mate cheating and asked how they felt about infidelity men said they wouldn?t care if she loved someone else but would if she were cheating women said they wouldn?t care if he slept with someone else but would if he loved someone else actual experience= both cared if they cheated emotionally Evolutionary Perspective in Perspective fossil record tells us a lot about our ancestors? anatomy, but little about their behavior= hard to test evolutionary hypotheses psychology needs to be a biological science but only in part