Intsint, Learning and Motivation Flashcards

(148 cards)

1
Q

When was the word instinct first used in psychology?

A

By Wilhelm Wundt in 1870s

Defined it as any repeated behaviour

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

How did William James (1890) describe instinct?

A

Inherited tendency to seek a particular goal

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

When did study of instinct start up again after behaviourist era?

A

When ethology became popular in the 1950s and allowed the focus of study of animals under natural conditions to come back

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

What is instinctive behaviour?

A

Behaviour produced without learning - innate
Genetically predetermined
Stereotyped - similar on all occasions, in all individuals

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

Deprivation study: Grohman

A

Prevented young pigeons from moving wings but they flew as proficiently as other birds when constraints were removed
So, it was concluded that practice is not necessary for normal development of flight
This is a deprivation experiment as we take away certain stimulus to see the effect that this has

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

Evidence proving some experience is necessary to develop things that might have been thought of ‘instincts’

A

kittens deprived of light have abnormal depth perception and then do not avoid a drop, they used visual cliff experiments and showed no fear at the drop, which shows depth perception possibly is not innate in cats

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

Hailman,1966 - problem with instinct definition

A

pecking accuracy in Laughing Gull chicks, parents coach the chicks to improve and their accuracy improves over time
This is an issue with instinct definition as the behaviour should be performed perfectly straight away but it was not

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

Appetitive behaviours

A

Seek, find, approach etc.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

Consummatory response

A

Eating, drinking etc.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

Hall et al. (2000)

A

found that rats who were deprived of water drank more water than rats who had not previously been deprived of water when they were deprived again

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

When does experience begin? - Grier et al.

A

exposed incubating eggs to sound or no sound, found that all chicks showed an interest in the sound but the chicks who heard the sound showed a preference for the sound

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

When does experience begin? - Schaal et al. (2000)

A

a study where women either ate or did not eat a diet which included anise during pregnancy, at a few hours old the babies were exposed to swabs their either smelled of anise or were blank and the babies behaviours were recorded
Shorter duration of negative facial expression if baby had already been exposed to anise compared to baby who had not been exposed to it
Babies also showed more mouthing activity if their mothers had ate anise compared to babies who’s mothers had not

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

When does experience begin? - Ronca et al.

A

took rat pups to space where they did not experience gravity and as they did not have the previous experience of gravity they did not initially have the righting response but once they were back on earth they developed this after around 1 week

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

Issues with instinct

A

 Difficult to test – endless number of deprivation experiments
 Behaviour produced without learning should be perfect the first time? Pecking accuracy
 When does experience begin?

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

What did Freud argue about incest avoidance?

A

as children, siblings naturally lust after one another so societies need to create incest taboo to inhibit these feelings

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

What did Westermarck (1891) argue about incest avoidance?

A

argued the reverse of Freud – sexual disinterest/ aversion in other children one is raised with = sexual negative imprinting, which has a cascade effect on society

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

Inbreeding depression

A

inbred individuals have poor health and fertility due to higher frequency of recessive, deleterious traits in homozygous form when close relatives breed

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

What does the superb fairy wren do to avoid inbreeding?

A

They divorce their partners and leave the territory to avoid inbreeding with her son when the father dies and the son takes his mate and territory

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

How can we test sexual negative imprinting?

A

Evidence from Israeli Kibbutz, Spiro (1958) and Shepher (1983) – children raised together from birth to adolescence in peer groups of 6-8, they found that 2769 marriages in 211 Kibbutz, only 20 within-Kibbutz marriages, no marriages between individuals living in the same peer group for the first 6 years

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
20
Q

What can we conclude about how attitudes to incest are determined?

A

determined by co-residence, non-conscious, attitudes not fixed, its strength varies with experience, not a sensitive period but perhaps a sensitive gradient

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
21
Q

Human leukocyte antigen

A

Genes in major histocompatibility complexes (MHC) that help code for proteins that differentiate between self and non-self and play a significant role in disease and immune defence

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
22
Q

What does MHC stand for?

A

Major histocompatibility complex

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
23
Q

Major histocompatibility complex (MHC)

A

Group of genes that code for proteins found on the surface of cells that help immune system recognise foreign substances
Found in all higher vertebrates
In humans called human leukocyte antigen (HLA)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
24
Q

Is smell important for partner choice?

A

Animals and humans are said to use MHC and HLA to help choose their mate
MHC-heterozygosity means offspring will be more resistant to many forms of infectious disease
This can be detected through odours and females use this odour to pick a mate with MHC dissimilar to their own

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
25
Kallman syndrome
Genetic disease, discovered a post-mortem of a 40-year-old man that had a specific set of characteristics and they were due to one gene which led to these characteristics
26
What specific gene led to Kallman Syndrome?
Gene Kal-1 on the X chromosome ( two other unidentified genes on other chromosomes also influence the condition = polygeny)
27
How does KAL-1 gene lead to Kallman Syndrome?
The gene encodes anosmin-1 (cell adhesion protein) which effects neurons in the brain that have effects on the olfactory bulb cells which leads to problems with smell Also due to effect of neurons in the brain,the hypothalamus fails to secrete GnRH (gonadotropin releasing hormone) which leads to issues with gonad development and then this means the testes release less testosterone so libido is effected 3 Pleiotropic effects of KAL-1 gene
28
Bobrow, Money & Lewis (1971) - Kallman’s Syndrome
5 patients with Kallman’s Syndrome Social development and participation were delayed Dating behaviour was limited before and after treatment for all the patients, and sexual interest was low even for the 3 that were married Potential treatment of testosterone but some developmental aspects can not be altered
29
X-linked recessive
Genes on the X chromosome Less effect on females Females can often be carriers
30
Y linked
Gene on Y chromosome Only males affected All sons of a man with this disorder will be affected
31
Autosomal recessive
Requires two copies to develop disorder | Have 1 copy and you are a carrier
32
Autosomal dominant
1 copy sufficient to develop disorder Men and women affected equally Children of those with disorder have 50% chance of developing it too
33
Heritability
a statistic used in the fields of breeding and genetics that estimates the degree of variation in a phenotypic trait in a population that is due to genetic variation between individuals in that population
34
Heritability (h)
proportion of variation due to genetic variation between individuals Example – height: if people differed in height due to differences only in their genotype, h = 1 and if people differed in height due to differences in only their environment, h = 0
35
What did study find about heritability and socioeconomic status?
 Study found that heritability increases with socioeconomic status (SES)  Impoverished families – 60% of the variance in IQ is accounted for by the environment, and the contribution of genes is close to 0  Affluent families – almost exactly the reverse
36
Is heritability the same as genetic influence?
No
37
Hebb’s analogy
It makes no sense to ask: ‘How much of the area of a field is due to its length and how much is due to its width?’ There is a single area that us the product of both This is the same with behaviour it is the product of both genotype and environment So instead, we try to discover how genes and environment influence behaviour?
38
Delay discounting
Tendency to choose smaller sooner rewards over larger later ones
39
Heuristic
Mental shortcut, allows quick problem solving and judgement making
40
Ways to disentangle genes and the environment:
* Twin studies – known variation in genome, monozygotic twins and dizygotic, these studies assume the environment is identical but is it? * Adoption studies – monozygotic twins reared apart; can we quantify all of the environmental differences? * More flexibility with non-human animals: cross-fostering studies – manipulated developmental history, babies with same/ similar genome will be split and reared differently
41
Maturation
changes in behaviour due to physical changes in neural and muscular systems for example with a baby from crawling to walking
42
Example of maturation
the increased pecking accuracy with the gull chicks, it was found that even those reared in the dark still improved which suggests they did not need to observe the behaviour they just needed to mature the muscles/ neural system
43
Discrimination (learning)
Narrowing the range of stimuli that elicit a response
44
Example of learning discrimination
Example: Human language • 4–6-month infants – respond to subtle phonetic (sound) differences between syllables in unfamiliar languages and own languages • 10-12-month infants – discrimination narrowed with experience, responds differently only to different sounds commonly used in own language
45
Generalisation (learning)
Broadening the range of stimuli that elicit a response
46
Example of learning generalisation
Polecats attack a stationary rat only after experience with a moving rat
47
Aposematism
Coloration/ markings serving as a warning
48
Sensitive periods
Some early experiences must occur within a certain time window to influence development For example imprinting in ducks and geese must occur in first few hours
49
Language development as a sensitive period
Sensitive period for first exposure to language, in order for it to develop normally Up to age 6, after this the ability declines Rare after puberty Findings from natural experiments
50
Case study: Isabelle
At 6.5 years she and her mute mother escaped silent imprisonment in grandfathers house Unable to speak but her hearing was intact 9 days – first vocalisation, ‘buh’ for ball 10 days later – increase in vocabulary 2 months later – simple sentences ‘open your eyes’ 1 month later – more complex sentences ‘I don’t want you to go home’ Finally at 8 years – full language
51
Case study: Genie
 At 13.5 years she was released from horrific confinement  Sensory an emotional deprivation  Permanently incapable of full grammar  4 months on – spontaneous use of words: yellow, balloon  12 months – 3–4-word sentences: want more soup  2 years – complex sentences  Very communicative, bur never mastered grammar, had semantic ability but could not learn syntax
52
What likely causes the sensitive period?
Synaptic pruning and channelling
53
Synaptic pruning
process of synapse elimination that occurs between early childhood and the onset of puberty in many mammals, including humans After acquisition synaptic pruning saves metabolic cost by reducing neural tissue
54
Channelling
Possible routes for development are increasingly constrained over time
55
Self-regulation
Modifying behaviour to compensate for environmental change
56
Examples of self-regulation
Compensatory feeding in rats after food deprivation Compensating with extra play for loss of social contact as kittens Compensating for cognitive decline in humans – found that 71.4% of over 65-year-old drivers reported sometimes or always avoiding certain driving situations – drivers with cognitive impairment reported more self-regulation Compensating chronic illness in humans – found 4 types of self-regulatory behaviours: faith, diet, rest and emotional expression
57
Equifinality
Many developmental routes that reach the same end | Mechanisms of plasticity and self-regulation
58
Example of equifinality
Case study: 26-year-old man in 1970s, very intelligent, large head and movement mildly uncoordinated, brain scan was not normal due to hydrocephalus in early life but he still reached the same end through equifinality and brain reorganisation
59
Non-associative learning
result merely of exposure to stimulus for example, mere exposure and liking, imprinting, habituation and song learning
60
Mere exposure effect
repeated, unreinforced exposure to a stimulus is sufficient to enhance attitudes towards it
61
Habituation
A learning process that produces a decremental response to repeated stimuli
62
Observational learning
learning by watching other individuals
63
Associative learning
requires association of exposure to stimulus with some consequence
64
Association
one event provides information that a second event may happen
65
Classical conditioning
when a stimulus evokes a response because of being paired with a stimulus that naturally evokes a response
66
Examples of classical conditioning
Ivan Pavlov - Pavlov’s dogs | Watson and Rayner (1920) - Little Albert
67
Unconditioned stimulus
something that reliably produces a naturally occurring reaction in an organism
68
Unconditioned response
a reflexive reaction that is reliably elicited by an unconditioned stimulus
69
Conditioned stimulus
a that does not produce the response that is eventually conditioned by pairing with a US
70
Conditioned response
a reaction to a conditioned stimulus by pairing it with a US
71
Acquisition
the time scale of how the behaviour is learned, the pairings need to be repeated many times in order for the conditioned response to be acquired, how many trials before the behaviour is learned?
72
Second-order conditioning
a stimulus will be conditioned and then this conditioned stimulus can be associated with something else
73
Extinction
if the conditioned stimulus stops predicting the coming of the unconditioned stimulus then the association will become extinct
74
Spontaneous recovery
after extinction the pairing returns slightly with new exposure
75
Generalisation (classical conditioning)
the same response can occur for a similar stimulus to that of the conditioned stimulus – for example little Albert was scared of all small fluffy things
76
Discrimination (classical conditioning)
there will be no reaction to something that is very different to the conditioned stimulus
77
Operant conditioning
behaviour that an organism produces that has some impact on the environment, which in turn changes because of that impact
78
Edward Thorndike: cat puzzle box
to try and see how the cat will escape the box to retrieve food outside of the box, there were different things the cat could do to get out for example press a lever, so it was a trial-and-error learning, gradual improvement, not a sudden insight The cat was instrumental in gaining its reward through its own actions
79
Law of effect
When a response is followed by a satisfying state of affairs, that response will increase in frequency
80
Skinner box for rats
same principle as Thorndike’s box, but this could leave to a positive or negative consequence
81
Positive reinforcement
receives pleasant stimulus for correct response, functionally a reward and increases fitness
82
Negative reinforcement
receives unpleasant stimulus if fails to make specified response, functionally has detrimental consequences and decreases fitness
83
(Positive) Punishment
individual receives unpleasant stimulus if it makes specified response, decreases fitness, positive as it adds something to the environment
84
(Negative) Punishment
A reinforcing stimulus is removed after an undesired behaviour, decreases fitness, negative as something valuable is removed from environment
85
When is a reinforcer most effective?
If it follows soon after the event
86
Primary reinforcer
Innate, for example food or social contact
87
Secondary reinforcer
Learned, for example money or winning
88
Neutrality of reinforcers
Premack principle- find the activity that someone prefers and use that to reinforce a non-preferred one
89
Lepper & Greene, 1978
Sometimes the presentation of a reward reduces performance of the behaviour – group A children were not given any reward for drawing, group B received a prize for each drawing and group B drew more but when the reward was removed group B drew less than group A
90
Over-justification effect
When external rewards undermine the intrinsic satisfaction of performing behaviour
91
Token economy
Token = secondary reinforcer Exchanged for primary reinforcer – used for ADD, tantrums Method: baseline behaviour, intervention and then measure how the behaviour has changed The token is just an example of a secondary reward which can be exchanged for a primary reward
92
Advantages of token economy
 Reduces delay between response and reinforcement  Can reward small improvements in behaviour  Can vary the number of tokens required for reinforcement  Can vary the nature of primary reinforcement
93
What did Glynn (1990) find about token economy
that learned behaviours are not usually maintained when the reinforcement is discontinued
94
Unintended effects of incentivising
Study found that when people were asked to recommended product to friend with or without money and those who were paid wrote shorter, lower quality, recommendations, which takes away the pleasure of using the product – over justification effect
95
The importance of neutrality of reinforcers
Something that is a reinforcer for someone may not be for another individual
96
Advantages of social reinforcers (smile, praise etc.)
easy and quick given immediately after desired behaviour (more effective) natural, so can continue after a programme/ study
97
How to human phobias indicate preparedness
 May arise by classical conditioning  For example, a dog bite may lead to fear of dogs  Common phobias are often things that have been dangerous to humans in evolutionary history – snakes, spider, heights, darkness etc.  Phobias to modern objects are not as common which could be due to their being less time for these have not been around long in our evolution – electric sockets, cars etc
98
Systematic desensitisation (treatment of phobias through behaviour modification)
1. Draw up an ‘anxiety hierarchy’ of fear-evoking events 2. Learn relaxation technique 3. Relax and experience lowest in hierarchy 4. If successful, move up hierarchy 5. Conditioned anxiety will be replaced by conditioned relaxation
99
Mental rotation in pigeons and humans – Holland & Delius (1982)
measured reaction times between pigeons and humans judging which image is the same but just rotated they found pigeons reaction times were a lot faster than humans and they made not that many more mistakes than humans
100
Bischof-Kohler hypothesis
Only humans can dissociate themselves from their current motivation to think about future needs
101
Evidence of future planning by western scrub-jays
they take food and hide the food to come back to it later to eat it studies that found jays can act in the present in a way that demonstrates planning for future events
102
Insight
Sudden solution to a problem
103
The mirror test (Gallop,1970)
Chimps exposed to mirrors | Marked on face under anaesthetic Mark directed responses recorded when animal is given a mirror
104
Self-recognition study (Toda,2008)
Pigeons were able to discriminate video image that reflected their movements with a 5-7 second delay from images that don’t reflect their movements In order to recognise itself in this task it has to have a memory of itself and association with its own movements
105
Is language unique to humans? Hayes & Hayes (1952)
o Chimp Vicki they raised the chimp alongside their children and attempted to teach Vicki to speak but they failed o This could be due to the vocal apparatus in chimps not designed to speak
106
Is language unique to humans? Gardner & Gardner (1966)
Chimp Washoe Taught American Sign Language (ASL) and he learned thousands of signs Trained by reward in two ways – imitation and moulding Could indicate location, action, object and attribute Study not systematic in recording all signing and what initiated it, so origin of signing was uncertain
107
Is language unique to humans? Terrace (1973-77)
Chimp Nim Meaning of signs could be ambiguous but could sign well Nim saw a swan and would sign ‘water bird’ Could Nim create a sentence? Signs need to make sense in their context, and he was able to do this, mechanism of sentence production, syntax: 18 months to 3 years: 19,000 utterances of 2-16 signs and 5,000 types of sequences But linguistic ability was very limited For example, from 2-4 years utterance length increased from 1.1 to 1.6 signs Spontaneous for signing – only 10% of his signing was spontaneous He interrupted rather than taking turns in conversation Chimps reach the equivalent of the ‘two-word utterance stage’ of children 18-24 months of age
108
How is aggression in red deer caused?
external causal factor (another male near) | internal causal factor (deer could have a spike in testosterone)
109
How does aggression in male deer develop?
Influences from genotype and environment If there is a deer that grows up in an environment that fuels aggressive behaviour and also has a genotype prone to aggression, we will see more aggression from that deer
110
What is the function/ goal/ purpose of aggression in red deer?
Ultimately to increase fitness | By the deer increasing aggression he will get more mates and there will be more chance for this deer to have offspring
111
Motivational system
a set of functionally related behaviours = behaviours with a common goal, and their motivational control
112
What is the function of the motivational system?
promoting survival and promoting reproductive success
113
What does seeing a sign stimulus lead to?
An innate releasing mechanism | Then a fixed action pattern
114
Sign stimuli
visual releasers, auditory releasers and chemical releasers that are meant to produce a certain response in another individual
115
Tinbergen - male stickleback study
Noticed that males attacked other males with a red belly but not females with a grey, more rounded under-belly So, he decided to create models to test to see how the males would react to things with a red belly The males attacked the models with the red under-belly which suggests this is a signed stimulus in these fish and causes a fixed response of attacking
116
Relative size of head releases gaping response in baby thrushes (Tinbergen 1939)
The baby thrushes gradually start to recognise the shape of other birds so that they only open their mouths when they see a bird instead of just to every stimulus The shape is the sign stimulus and the position of their head, and the gaping is a fixed response pattern
117
Catharsis
the process of releasing and thereby providing relief from strong or repressed emotions
118
What did Freud say were the 3 source energies that made up the Id were?
Libido, self-preservation and death instincts
119
What did Freud say was the cause of aggression?
The 3 sources of energy in the Id and due to this energy anger builds up and aggressive behaviour releases this energy which allows catharsis
120
Lorenz also had the idea of energy build up
Psych hydraulic model = endogenous drive-catharsis model Action specific energy (ASE) accumulates since last performance of action Applied to aggressive behaviour, action specific energy accumulates over time and the likelihood of aggression increases with time since the last encounter, then energy is dissipated by action and the intensity of aggression declines through encounter so motivation will be low at the end of the aggression (=catharsis)
121
Critiques of Lorenz’s energy build up model
Aggression does not always increase with time since last encounter Once started encounters often escalate not decline in intensity No evidence for energy accumulation
122
Control theory approach
Control theory provides a framework for building theories – not a theory itself Derived from engineering Feedback essential for control behaviour, feedback motivates behaviour
123
Homeostasis
the tendency towards a relatively stable equilibrium between interdependent elements, especially as maintained by physiological processes
124
Test of computer model – mouth and stomach feedback
 Corbit (1969) proposed that only plasma and cell fluid control drinking – no immediate control by mouth or stomach  Test by Toates & Oatley – experiment: hypertonic saline injection in rat  Model: include & exclude control by mouth and stomach  They compare what the model showed to the evidence from the rat and the findings were actually very similar to each other
125
Cognitive evaluation theory: locus of causality
Perceived interests/ desires are the cause of our own actions = more enjoyment Perceived actions are caused by external contingencies/ incentives = feeling controlled, less enjoyment/ motivation
126
Complex reasoning
some people may have a more fixed locus of control, others may show more flexibility with this
127
Formal thinking
either fully rejecting or fully accepting one side of a contradiction by polarising contradictory propositions, and then choosing only one proposition to believe
128
Dialectical thinking
accepting seeming contradictions by viewing things in a multiple-dimensional way
129
Study by Yi, Sheldon, Liu (2015) found that those with dialectical thinking may be less susceptible to over-justification effect
* There was an interaction between thinking style and extrinsic motivation on intrinsic motivation * Those high in DT showed little change in intrinsic motivation when extrinsic motivation changed * Those low in DT showed more intrinsic motivation when extrinsic motivation was low, they showed much less intrinsic motivation when extrinsic motivation was high
130
Aggression
Behaviour that’s goal is to harm another individual or to threaten to do so
131
Agonistic behaviour (definition)
Range of aggressive behaviours
132
Agonistic behaviour
Start with display Escalate slowly Many end without physical contact – because there is a high cost to the high risk of injury from fights So communication provides clue to who will be more likely to win
133
Resource holding power/ potential (RHP)
the ability of an animal to win an all-out fight if one were to take place
134
Intention (motivation) signals
some displays signal probability of attack and therefore influence the likelihood that competitor will flee
135
External causal factors of aggression
1. RHP of competitor - stable attribute of individual 2. Intention of signals from competitor – fluctuating motivational state 3. Value of resource (benefit of fighting and winning)
136
Internal causal factors (T)
 Testosterone (T) and aggression  T is produced by testes and ovaries  T enhances aggression: males generally more aggressive than females, T and aggression increase in breeding season  Heightened levels of testosterone may play a causal role in fighting in red deer
137
Booth et al. (1989) can T be a consequence of aggression?
 T rises in the face of a challenge – anticipatory to impending competition  T rises in winners and declines in losers
138
What other hormones may be involved in aggression?
Cortisol and adrenaline
139
Bushman (2002) experiment suggested catharsis does not alleviate anger and prevent aggression
 Catharsis group that hit punching bag were angrier and more aggressive  Control group that sat quietly and had reduced aggression  Bushman introduced cognitive neo association theory – behaviour elicits associated thoughts & feelings  Cognitive associations are important for human aggression
140
Archer’s (1976) Control Theory Model of aggression/ fear
1. An event occurs (input) 2. Compare internal representation based on past experience of events with the present event/ environment 3. Aggression is one result of discrepancy between the current and desired environment/ event 4. Discrepancy is removed with action decided by negative feedback
141
Same sex non-relative killings
 Mainly explained through sexual selection  Male parental investment (PI) less than female PI (cost of sperm versus egg)  Therefore, optimal number of offspring greater for males  Therefore, optimal number of mates is greater for males  With 1:1 sex ratio this makes male-male competition for mates inevitable
142
Evolutionary perspective of infanticide and child abuse
 Selection acts far more strongly against aggression to a biological child than to a stepchild  As only the biological child may carry the parents genes  Injury/ murder of stepchild does not prevent the spread of the parents genetics  Male lions kill all unrelated offspring when taking over a pride
143
Causal (motivational) question of infanticide
 Parental affection elicited by early contact with infant |  Likely that a stepchild will come into family later so less chance to develop this affection
144
What is romantic love?
It is a unique human phenomenon, with roots in mammalian biology & psychology, a complex phenomenon with motivational, emotional and cognitive aspects Romantic love is a powerful feeling that is subjective, complex emotion – physiological correlates of feelings
145
The properties of love (Fisher, 2004) Why we love?
 Responses were pretty similar across age and gender  Lover as focus – loved one centre of attention, idealisation, magnify positive qualities  Feelings for loved one – yearning for emotional union, emotional dependence and separation anxiety, empathy involuntary and uncontrollable thoughts  Sex – sexual desire, less important than emotional union, sexual possessiveness, jealousy  Physiological effects – energising, intense feelings, shy, tremble, dizziness, increased heart rate, butterflies in stomach
146
Jankowiak & Fischer (1992) analysed 166 societies to see if love is universal across cultures
 They found that 147 out of the 166 (89%) exhibit romantic love  In the places that it was not find was likely only due to lack of data
147
Sternberg’s (1986) Triangular Theory of Love
 Intimacy – closeness, warmth  Passion – drive to romance, physical attraction, sexual consummation (motivation)  Decision/ commitment – short-term – decision that one is in love, long-term commitment – decision to maintain love (cognition)
148
Fisher (1998) – mammals, including humans – 3 separate systems
1. Lust – sexual feelings and behaviour 2. Attraction – to 1 individual 3. Attachment – commitment and emotional union in humans