Human Motivation

1
Human Motivation

• Chapter 4
• Passion, Love, and Sexual Behavior

2
Human Sexual Arousal (Passion)

• The Biological Component
• Human sexual behavior occurs in two major stages
• Nontactile stage becoming interested in person
  through visual, auditory, olfactory, or even
  cognitive cues.
• Tactile stage involves tactile stimulation.
• Human sexual behavior is a sensory event
• Sex is rewarding because it provides a
  pleasurable sensory experience.
• Sexual response is organized much in the same way
  for both males/females. Four stages
• (1) the excitement phase, (2) the plateau phase,
  (3) the orgasmic phase, and (4) the resolution
  phase.

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3
Human Sexual Arousal (Passion)

• The Learned Component
• Visual stimulus may elicit sexual arousal.
• Pictures showing two persons engaged in sexual
  acts elicits more arousal than simple pictures of
  nudity.
• Verbal descriptions of sexual behavior are
  sufficient to elicit sexual arousal in most
  volunteer subjects.
• Sexual Scripts mental schemata of how an
  interpersonal sexual episode should be enacted.
• Female scripts tend to focus on falling in love,
  whereas male scripts tend to focus mainly on
  sexual activity.
• Eventually, the females begins to adjust her
  script to include sexual arousal, which lays
  groundwork for eventual orgasm.
• Sexual pleasure is interaction of biological
  (sensory) and learned factors.
• Reward value of sex depends on participating in a
  satisfying sexual script.
• Males/females tend to react differently to same
  sexual behaviors.

4
Human Sexual Arousal (Passion)

• The Cognitive Component
• Sexual scripts are influenced by the beliefs and
  attitudes they hold.
• They come from the society at large, from peer
  groups, and from internalized values/ideals.
• Males and females tend to believe that the sex
  drive is stronger in males than females.
• Females tend to connect sex with feelings of
  affection and closeness.
• Males tend to perceive sex as an achievement, an
  adventure, a demonstration of control and power,
  or a purely physical release.
• Although, most men prefer that love and sex go
  together and value love far ahead of sex in
  overall importance in their lives.
• (These are statistical differences and do not
  reflect individual differences.)

5
Attraction, Passion, Love, and Reproduction

• The Biological Component
• Evolutionary perspective purpose of sexual
  behavior is to produce offspring so that genes
  may survive future generations.
• Pleasure motivates us to engage in sexual
  behavior on a repeated basis.
• Purpose of love- repeatedly engage in sex with
  mate and form long-term relationship.
• Love produces euphoric state (linked to
  dopamine/norepinephrine)
• Love linked to phenylethylanine (PEA)- levels
  begin to fall after two to three years.
• Divorce rate peaks around the fourth year of
  marriage.
• Endorphins mediate the attachment stage following
  the initial attraction.
• Produce feelings of well-being, maintain the
  immune system.
• Oxytocin stimulates nerves/muscles- promotes
  cuddling and enhances orgasm.
• Produces feelings of relaxed satisfaction and
  attachment.

6
Attraction, Passion, Love, and Reproduction

• Long-term female mating strategies
• Women need a mate who (1) has resources to
  invest in raising the offspring, (2) will invest
  those resources, (3) has the capacity to
  physically protect both her/offspring, (4) has
  good parenting skills, (5) is compatible, and (6)
  is healthy.
• Long-term male mating strategies
• Sociobiology theories suggest best strategies for
  males is to mate with as many females as
  possible.
• The problem with this is that females look for
  commitment, which limits the mating pool for men.
• Men willing to commit are able to access a
  greater pool of women and have better chances of
  producing offspring that will survive.
• Males prefer young, attractive women tend to be
  healthier and have longer period of fertility.

7
Attraction, Passion, Love, and Reproduction

• The Learned Component
• Wide range of factors play a role in sexual
  motivation and sexual attraction
• Chance meeting, thoughts about the other person,
  dating frequency
• Arousal increases attraction to an attractive
  opposite-sex target and decreases attraction to
  an unattractive opposite-sex target.
• Intimacy feelings of closeness, connectedness,
  and being bonded.
• Long-term commitment is defining characteristic.
• Established through self-disclosure.
• Is learned.
• Positive self-schema positive view of our
  ability to become attached and others are
  available/supportive.

8
Attraction, Passion, Love, and Reproduction

• The Cognitive Component
• Staying in love depends on making the decision
  that you love someone and are willing to invest
  the time and energy necessary to stay in the
  relationship.
• Commitment involves
• Satisfying the needs of two distinct individuals.
• Accepting that there are going to be differences
  or problems to be resolved to mutual satisfaction
  of both parties.
• Willingness to invest time and energy.
• Passion physical/emotional aspects of love
• Intimacy feelings of closeness, connectedness
• Commitment time/effort invested to make
  relationship work

9
Attraction, Passion, Love, and Reproduction

• Sternbergs Interaction Model of Love
• Passion infatuated love (attractions)
• Characterized by bodily sensations, warm sensuous
  feeling.
• Intimacy liking (friendships)
• Characterized by feeling close and connected
• Commitment sterile love
• Characterized by no physical attraction/emotional
  involvement
• Passion intimacy romantic love
• Enjoyment of being together, closeness, with no
  feeling of it lasting.
• Passion commitment fatuous love
• No intimacy, therefore, true commitment never
  develops.
• Intimacy commitment companionate love
• Long-term committed friendship.
• Intimacy passion commitment consummate
  love
• Hard to attain and harder still to keep.

10
Biological Differences Between Men and Women

• Sex Hormones
• Males and females have same sex hormones, but in
  different amounts
• Male sexual behavior governed by
• Androgens (testosterone)
• Female sexual behavior governed by
• Estrogen (estradiol)
• Progestins (progesterone)
• Sex hormones are produced by the adrenal glands
  and the gonads (testes- male, ovaries- female)
• Amount of sex hormone present at any time is
  governed by the pituitary gland, which is
  ultimately controlled by the hypothalamus.

11
Men and Women

• Men and women do not differ in terms of
  intellectual function, but they do seem to differ
  in certain specific ways
• Some of these differences can be linked to
  hormone levels
• Example Men tend to be superior on
  visual-spatial tasks. Women with high
  testosterone perform better on spatial task.
• Sex hormones cause differences in behavior
• Strong evidence comes from research on play.
• Example Females who have had prenatal exposure
  to high androgen levels show a tomboy pattern-
  rough, active outdoor play, high interest in
  practical clothing, boy toys and playmates.
• Structural differences in the brain are due, at
  least in part, to the effects of sex hormones.
  These differences are small.
• Critical period of development occurs either
  shortly before/after birth.

12
Sexual Orientation

• The Biological Component
• Evolutionary considerations
• Premise 1 Sexual desire and romantic love are
  functionally independent
• Premise 2 Romantic love is not intrinsically
  oriented to same-gender or other-gender partners.
• Premise 3 The links between love and desire are
  bidirectional.
• Heritability estimates account for only about 50
  of same-sex orientation. (Twin studies)
• Seem through twin studies.
• Other hormonal effects on human sexuality are
  difficulty to assess because studies are
  dependent on experiment of nature to determine
  effects.

13
Sexual Orientation

• The Learned Component
• It is no longer self-evident that homosexuality
  is acquired or is the result of choice.
• Learning plays an important role, but there is no
  clear explanation of how.
• The Kinsey Institute Study
• Sexual orientation is determined before
  adolescence.
• Homosexual behavior emerges from homosexual
  feelings.
• History of heterosexual experiences are found
  unsatisfying.
• Identification with either parent played no
  significant role.
• No evidence of any particular type of mother that
  produces homosexual children.

14
Sexual Orientation

• The Cognitive Component
• There is little or no evidence that homosexuality
  is actively chosen, except in unusual
  circumstances (prison)
• Extensive evidence suggests cognitive factors
  play important role in how homosexuals come to
  think about/express themselves.
• Cases Six Stages of Homosexuality
• Stage 1 Identity confusion. Stage 4
  Identity acceptance.
• Stage 2 Identity comparisons. Stage 5
  Identity pride.
• Stage 3 Identity tolerance. Stage 6
  Identity synthesis.