Unit 8

Question 1

Instinct

Answer 1

A complex, unlearned behavior that is rigidly patterned throughout a species.

Question 2

Drive-reduction theory

Answer 2

The idea that a physiological need creates an aroused tension state (a drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy the need.

Question 3

Homeostasis

Answer 3

A tendency to maintain a balanced or constant internal state; the regulation of any aspect of body chemistry, such as blood glucose, around a particular level.

Question 4

Incentive

Answer 4

A positive or negative environmental stimulus that motivates behavior.

Question 5

Yerkes-Dodson law

Answer 5

The principle that performance increases with arousal only up to a point, beyond which performance decreases.

Question 6

Hierarchy of needs

Answer 6

Maslow’s pyramid of human needs, beginning at the base with physiological needs that must first be satisfied before higher-level safety needs and then psychological needs become active.

Question 7

Motivation

Answer 7

A need or desire that energizes and directs behavior.

Question 8

Glucose

Answer 8

The form of sugar that circulates in the blood and provides the major source of energy for body tissues. When its level is low, we feel hunger.

Question 9

Set point

Answer 9

The point at which an individual’s “weight thermostat” is supposedly set. When the body falls below this weight, an increase in hunger and a lowered metabolic rate may act to restore the lost weight.

Question 10

Basal metabolic rate

Answer 10

The body’s resting rate of energy expenditure.

Question 11

Sexual response cycle

Answer 11

The four stages of sexual responding described by Masters and Johnson-excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution.

Question 12

Refractory period

Answer 12

A resting period after orgasm, during which a man cannot achieve another orgasm.

Question 13

Sexual dysfunction

Answer 13

A problem that consistently impairs sexual arousal or functioning.

Question 14

Estrogens

Answer 14

Sex hormones, such as estradiol, secreted in greater amounts by females than by males and contributing to female sex characteristics. In nonhuman female mammals, estrogen levels peak during ovulation, promoting sexual receptivity.

Question 15

Testosterone

Answer 15

The most important of the male sex hormones. Both males and females have it, but the additional testosterone in males stimulates the growth of the male sex organs in the fetus and the development of the male sex characteristics during puberty.

Question 16

Emotion

Answer 16

A response of the whole organism, involving (1) physiological arousal, (2) expressive behaviors, and (3) conscious experience.

Question 17

James-Lange theory

Answer 17

The theory that our experience of emotion is our awareness of our physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli.

Question 18

Cannon-Bard theory

Answer 18

The theory that an emotion-arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers (1) physiological responses and (2) the subjective experience of emotion.

Question 19

Two-factor theory

Answer 19

The Schachter-Singer theory that to experience emotion one must (1) be physically aroused and (2) cognitively label the arousal.

Question 20

Polygraph

Answer 20

A machine commonly used in attempts to detect lies, that measures several of the physiological responses (such as perspiration and cardiovascular and breathing changes) accompanying emotion.

Question 21

Facial feedback effect

Answer 21

The tendency of facial muscle states to trigger corresponding feelings such as fear, anger, or happiness.

Question 22

Health psychology

Answer 22

A subfield of psychology that provides psychology’s contribution to behavioral medicine.

Question 23

Stress

Answer 23

The process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, called stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging.

Question 24

General adaptation syndrome (GAS)

Answer 24

Selye’s concept of the body’s adaptive response to stress in three phases-alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.

Question 25

Tend-and-befriend response

Answer 25

Under stress, people (especially women) often provide support to others (tend) and bond with and seek support from others (befriend).

Question 26

Psychophysiological illness

Answer 26

Literally, “mind-body” illness; any stress-related physical illness, such as hypertension and some headaches.

Question 27

Psychoneuroimmunology

Answer 27

The study of how psychological, neural, and endocrine processes together affect the immune system and resulting health.

Question 28

Lymphocytes

Answer 28

The two types of white blood cells that are part of the body’s immune system: B lymphocytes form in the bone marrow and release antibodies that fight bacterial infections; T lymphocytes form in the thymus and other lymphatic tissue and attack cancer cells, viruses, and foreign substances.

Question 29

Coronary heart disease

Answer 29

The clogging of the vessels that nourish the heart muscle; the leading cause of death in many developed countries.

Question 30

Type A

Answer 30

Friedman and Rosenman’s term for competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, and anger-prone people.

Question 31

Type B

Answer 31

Friedman and Rosenman’s term for easygoing, relaxed people.