Ch 4 Physiological Needs

The most interesting thing about this chapter is how strong our needs are. We have needs that drive our appetite, growth and adaptation, and our relationships. A need is any cognition within the person that is essential and necessary for life, growth, and well-being. Physiological needs avoid tissue damage and maintain bodily resources, so thirst, hunger, sex. If a person hasn’t had water all day, they body reacts to that and tells the brain that they are thirsty and need water. Same with hunger, the body monitors blood glucose levels and when it senses low levels, it sends ghrelin hormones to the brain to get us to eat. Psychological needs are used to orient ones development toward growth and adaptation. When starting a new job, you may not feel comfortable with new equipment or programs, and that might make you nervous or anxious about job performance. But after a week, you get the hang of it, and you are now used to the program and have adapted to the new setting. Social needs are used to preserve our identities, beliefs, values, and interpersonal relationships. When starting at a new job, you want to make friends with the other employees. After a few days you may have two or three new friends and that can give you the feeling of achievement.
The concept of set point or settling points was unclear to me. In the sea analogy, the body is constantly changing hunger and thirst levels. So the body has a set point that allows the body to get to that level before wanting to restore them. I just feel that the book didn’t explain the difference between set point and settling points.
Physiology and physiological reactions relate to motivation because the body is always trying to maintain homeostasis, or a steady state of equilibrium. When the body is low on water, we drink. If the body has low blood sugar, we eat. Negative feedback helps in this because this system controls our drive activating behaviors. This keeps up from sleeping too long or eating too much. Drive arises from a number of different sources and motivates a number of different goal directed behaviors. Deficiency needs generate tension-packed, urgent emotions. If a person is homeless and doesn’t know when their next meal will be, their sense of hunger is more urgent than someone who is able to eat 3 meals a day. Environmental influences also effect physiological motivations. Water is tasteless, so there is no incentive value besides replenishment and homeostasis, but flavoring water can change drinking behaviors. Now a person is drinking water because it is sugary and has a taste. While it can be good that they are drinking more water, only drinking sugary water can have negative health consequences. Human sexual behaviors is influenced by, but not determined by hormones. As discussed in chapter 3, hormones kick start puberty, and cause changes in the body. The purpose of puberty is to allow humans to reach sexual maturity so that they are able to reproduce. The physiological need of sex arises from hormones. The body wants to reproduce, but the person has the choice of engaging in sexual activities or not engaging in them.

Terms: need, physiological needs, psychological needs, social needs, homeostasis, negative feedback, drive, deficiency needs

There are three types of needs in humans. These are physiological, psychological, and social. The physiological needs of humans are built into our biology at birth, and must be met in order to sustain life. Psychological needs involve consciousness, meaning they are needs that people are aware of for the most part and meeting these needs helps people feel important in the environment. Lastly, social needs are formed through experience, thus arise over one’s life within society. This means that social needs vary from person to person. The term psychological drive is also introduced, which come from physiological needs not being met. Psychological drive is made up of seven core processes: need, drive, homeostasis, negative feedback, multiple inputs/multiple outputs, intraorganismic mechanisms, and extraorganismic mechanisms. Next we look at the biological reasons behind thirst, motivation, and sex, as well as the motivations behind wanting to drink, eat, and have sex.
I found this entire chapter to be the most interesting thus far this semester. The most intriguing parts of the chapter for me were those on the motivation behind eating and sex. I generally found reading about the environmental factors that influence eating to be engaging. There are so many factors that go into how much someone eats in a sitting. Some of these factors being how many people are present, how many choices there are, and how available the food is to them. All being important factors that influence how much people eat. I also enjoyed reading about how to diet correctly and how certain situations affect dieters and non-dieters differently. Specifically, it is more often that dieters tend to binge eat more often than non-dieters. Binge eating among depressed dieters typically leads to them gaining weight whereas non-dieters who are depressed typically lose weight. Bringing the need for food under a more cognitive control rather than a physiological control is what makes dieters so much more susceptible to this binge eating when depressed, anxious, or stressed. This section on eating taught me the best ways to diet, even though I don’t diet, and I really enjoyed this because now I can show my family and friends some reasons behind the holes within dieting.
Secondly, I found the idea of physiological arousal and psychological desire being different among men and women to be very interesting. Not only was it interesting, but it also helped fill in so many gaps on knowledge of the topic, which was nice! Overall, sexual behavior among men is stimulated by physical motivation, whereas sexual desire among women beings with intimacy and emotion. Both sexes have different forms of motivation to have sex, and the route both sexes take to become aroused are completely different, but both have a motivation towards the same outcome.
Most of the concepts listed within the chapter were very clear to me. I think this is because I was genuinely intrigued about these topics.
Physiology and physiological reactions mostly come from motivation. Yes, evolution have taught us that we must eat, drink, and reproduce to stay alive, so our bodies typically aren’t motivated to do these things simply because we have to. But when we’re hungry, we want to eat, and when we’re thirsty, we want a drink, and when we’re turned on, we want to have sex. So I say physiology and the physiological reactions that occur are because of motivation. People are motivated to keep existing and because of that motivation, we participate in the actions required to continue living.
I believe the difference between physiological mechanisms and brain mechanisms is that the brain mechanisms are all of the places that these actions come from whereas the physiological mechanisms are what help us carry out these processes. For example, the amygdala is our primary source for responding to emotion and motivation. The amygdala being the brain mechanism that stores the ways in which we can respond. But then when your with a friend and they persuade you to go out to eat ice cream with them, even though you’re on a diet, this would be an extraorganismic mechanism, or physiological mechanism.

Terms: Physiological needs, drive, homeostasis, extraorganismic mechanisms, intraorganismic mechanisms, physiological arousal, psychological desire, environmental factors, motivation, emotion, amygdala, negative feedback, multiple inputs/multiple outputs.

Chapter 4 looks more in depth on the topic of physiological needs and how it influences motivated behavior. It begins, as most chapters do, with a brief overview of what a “Need” is, along with some reminding definitions (IE: Clark Hull’s Drive Theory) that we would need to recall so that we could follow along with the remainder of the chapter. After nailing down definitions, the chapter began and concluded on discussing the three main needs that arise in humans: thirst (osmometric vs. volumetric), hunger (short-term appetite vs. long-term energy balance models), and sex (gender differences, orientations, etc.).

The most interesting concept that was presented to me through the whole chapter was the concept of sexual orientation. To begin, I am a homosexual raised in a rather conservative environment, so talks on orientation were nearly 100% avoided. As such, I find any time that I get to expand my knowledge on psychological understanding of sexual orientation extremely interesting. Being completely out of the loop, the only way I have come to understand orientation is through my own personal experiences. I knew the popular idea of today’s society is that your orientation simply is how you are and is not a choice or a phase. However, this chapter brought up an interesting point. It states that orientation exists upon a continuum that spans from fully heterosexual to bisexual to homosexual. To say that one is not mutually exclusive from the other, but that we all wander an ever-expanding grey area between seems to be, to reference Kuhn once more, the big paradigm of science today. From the days of old psychology where thought and behavior could only be born of one thing to today’s psychology when we realize that all schools of thought were technically correct, they just were incorrect in attempting to answer all of psychology’s questions with one answer. Also, I’m going to look up more on this prenatal hormonal development research that the chapter brings up at the very end of the orientation discussion. While no theories (I guess) have yet been proven about those of homosexual/bisexual orientation, the hormonal development theory sounds close to correct. Heck, I’ll take being called hormonally imbalanced over being labeled with “Sexual Orientation Disturbance” back in 1973.

Through the reading, I was a tad bit confused about the resurgence of drive theory into the discussion, From the history in Chapter 2, I assumed that we would discuss the theories of the past and move on. To bring back the drive theory confused me because I thought the chapter had said new ideas had since made the topic irrelevant. However, I went back and skimmed over Chapter 2 to ensure that my suspicions were correct. Then I read over the Grand Theory vs. Mini-theory argument once more and realized that no theory of psychology has entirely died. In fact, most of those theories were used to answer certain mini-aspects of psychology. The entire premise of Mini-Theories is that science, especially regarding motivation and emotion, must be answered in smaller increments and not in one, all-encompassing theory. Besides that, this chapter seemed rather straightforward to me, and no other confusing aspects really presented themselves.

Our physiology is essentially why we are motivated to do anything. If we remained in a state of constant homeostasis, all our needs satisfied constantly, we wouldn’t have any reason to move, adapt, or improve. Motivation is born of a need, and the need is born of a physical deficit (IE: Starvation activates the Hunger motivation). The need activates when the deficit is prolonged, and upon being born, the need continues to intensify. When the need becomes too intense, the body takes notice, and the conscious mind realizes that it must act to satiate the need, and the motivated behavior occurs to quell the need.

To use my above example, starving yourself for one day is going to result in motivated behavior to satiate that hunger. The physiological occurrence is the body is starved of food. It needs fuel to survive, and the loss of this fuel presents a clear and present danger to the body’s well-being. We consciously experience hunger (the need) as a deficit of food within our body, so we become motivated to satiate that need. Upon satisfaction, our body monitors how much food we are intaking, and deploys certain negative feedback measures (IE: Leptin) to ensure that we do not eat ourselves to death like the Gluttony victim from Se7en.

The relationship between the brain and physiological mechanisms is one of cooperation. They both work in the same body, and it is in their best interest to keep their body alive and well. This chapter presents the physiological mechanisms as sentries. Organs like the liver and kidneys monitor the body for signs of impending disaster and work as a first-alert system. Upon noticing deficits within the body, the organs will send messages to the brain through hormones. The brain then reciprocates by motivating the body to solve this deficit and unites the body in that common effort. Without these physiological organs and parts, the brain would be completely powerless to perform any function. As is the case with any supercomputer, the functioning is only as good as the data it receives. Without data, a computer is just a fancy light box you keep (oftentimes) embarrassing yet (partially) funny pictures on. Likewise, without the data coming from the organs, the brain is just a small lump of neural fibers sitting inside a bone dome atop a six-foot-one meat sack.

Terms used:
Grand Theory – Pg. 26
Clark Hull’s Drive Theory – Pg. 30
Mini-theory – Pg. 35
Thomas Kuhn’s Paradigm Shift – Pg. 39
Need – Pg. 77
Homeostasis – Pg. 80
Negative Feedback – Pg. 81
Thirst – Pg. 83
Osmometric Thirst – Pg. 84
Volumetric Thirst – Pg. 85
Hunger – Pg. 88
Short-Term Appetite Model – Pg. 88
Long-Term Energy Balance Model – Pg. 90
Sex – Pg. 96
Sexual Orientation – Pg. 102

Chapter 4 took us through how the physiological needs of us as humans impacts our motives and behavior. Of course our physiological needs being thirst, hunger, and sex, which are all needed to survive and reproduce. We learned how physiological needs turn into psychological drives, which then motivate us to bring our bodies back to a state of homeostasis or balance. This innate ability of our bodies to actively monitor and maintain an optimal state of balance is quite amazing, as the book refers to this feat as “The Wisdom of the Body”. This reminded me of a statement that a professor of mine once told the class. He stated that our bodies are constantly trying not to die and that they will do just about anything to avoid death. I feel this statement correlates well with this desired state of homeostasis.

I found the section on face metrics interesting mostly because of figure 4.9. This figure shows a generic face broken down into specific parameters and each one relates to a segment or landmark on a human face which could alter how attractive someone perceives a person as being. This brings to mind how important first impressions can be. For example, going into an interview. The first time the interviewer sees your face they have likely already created their own perception of what type of person you are. The facial features most associated with beauty in women were the neonatal features, which are youthful characteristics. For men, the facial features that correlated with physical attractiveness are related to sexual maturity. While the prefered features for each gender may be different, both men and women are seen as being more attractive, at least at face value, when showcasing positive facial expressions such as higher eyebrows and larger smiles. Happier looking people come off as being more attractive.

I also found it interesting that who we look for in a partner and/or mate tends to reflect ourselves and our own lives. If you hold your own physical fitness to a high standard, say you’re an athlete, then you will likely look to date someone who is also into physical fitness. Same goes for wealth, appearance, etc. What we look for in potential significant others is typically what we also possess ourselves, or at least desire. The book refers to this as “likes attract”.

A somewhat unclear section for me was the discussion on hunger in relation to adipose tissue, or fat cells and their size and number. According to set-point theory, each person inherits a certain amount of fat cells via their genetics and then their hunger and satiety depend on the size of the fat cells and not the number. From my knowledge and background of study as a Movement and Exercise student, both would potentially be a factor, as by shearly having a larger amount of fat cells would directly impact how much each fat cell holds. The body wouldn’t add more fat cells for storage unless it needed too, likely due to the existing fat cells being full. This is more of a physiological misunderstanding rather than a psychological one, and really I’m just being picky. In general, the concept of set-point theory in relation to fat and hunger is confusing to me.

Physiology and physiological reactions go hand in hand with the body’s desire to maintain a state of homeostasis. We experience different physiological forms of encouragement when our bodies are lacking something relevant to our survival. These deficits develop gradually over time and progressively increase the amount of psychological drive we possess for satisfying each need.

I don’t believe that there is a whole lot of difference in the brain mechanisms and the physiological mechanisms. The brain and body are an intricately connected system that should be looked at as one unit rather than two separate entities. Without the brain, all of the physiological signals will not be processed and monitored. Without the body, there are no organs, muscles, peripheral and central nerves, and all the other good stuff that allows us to function. The brain controls the body but the body nourishes the brain. Neither one truly exists without the other.

Terms Used:
- Hunger
- Set-Point Theory
- Neonatal
- Physiological Needs
- Psychological Drive
- Homeostasis

Chapter 4 of our texts discussed the various physiological needs of individuals. These physiological needs were categorized as: hunger, thirst, and sex. The chapter focuses on explaining the various factors that enhance or decrease these physiological needs among different people.
One of the topics that I found interesting in this chapter pertained to the section that discussed hunger. Although I knew basic information pertaining to hunger and hunger stimulation, this chapter went more in depth about the types of hunger and the manner in which our body stimulates it. Short-term appetite was discussed as the moment in which your blood glucose stores drop and the liver sends a signal to the lateral hypothalamus in order to provide your body with the sensation of hunger. I found it interesting to note that there are two separate sections of the hypothalamus that control hunger. The lateral hypothalamus stimulates hunger, while the ventromedial hypothalamus suppresses it. I also found it interesting that the hormones of leptin and ghrelin ensure that our bodies don’t overeat and are able to consume efficient amount of calories to function. The lipostatic theory and set-point theory were two theories that I found difficult to understand. I wasn’t quite sure on what the lipostatic theory was describing in terms of fat stores in the body. I would also want to know more about the set-point theory and other research that supports this particular theory that individuals are born with a set weight and fat stores.
The other physiological concept that I found interesting was the physiological regulation among both males and females. I found it interesting that aside from hormones such as testosterone and estrogen, there are other factors that affect the behavior of individuals. It was also interesting to note how facial metrics can also effect the perception that one person has over another. The different facial characteristics such as youthfulness, happiness, and strength that certain facial characteristics demonstrate was fascinating. Although facial characteristics were an important factor in determining a possible mate, this chapter also discussed other characteristics that were crucial such as education and earning potential.
Physiological reactions are an important factor in the manner that people choose to act under various circumstances. One example is the fact that we have a need to eat and drink, and as a result we may choose to consume large amounts of water or food depending on how hungry or thirsty we are at the given time. Environmental factors also play a role in our physiological reactions. Chapter 4 discussed one study in which people were put in a room alone or with a group of people while eating ice cream. The individuals who were in a group ate more ice cream than those who were secluded. This study showed that environmental factors may motivate an individual to eat more or less. When an individual is thirsty, they will need water as a type of rehydration. However, if an individual is presented with a sweeter alternative such as tea or a type of alcohol, the may be motivated to drink more than they would had it just been water.
The difference from physiological mechanisms and brain mechanisms can be described as the manner that motivates action. An example of this is when someone feels hungry, the hormone ghrelin will receive a signal and as a result will provide the sensation of hunger. This brain mechanism motivates an individual to eat. The physiological response is for an individual to begin eating, however their motivation to eat may differ depending on the circumstance which can be seen from the ice cream example.

Terms:
Hunger
Environmental Factors
Physiological needs
Brain Mechanism
Testosterone
Estrogen
Lateral Hypothalamus
Ventromedial Hypothalamus
Motivation
Hormones
Lipostatic Theory
Set-Point Theory
Hunger
Thirst
Sex

Chapter 4 was all about our physiological needs and how they influence our motivation. During the chapter, three types of needs were discussed, and those are physiological needs, psychological needs, and social needs. The chapter also described the difference between intraorganismic mechanisms and extraorganismic mechanisms. Intraorganismic mechanisms are the internal biological regulation systems in the body that manage physiological drive, while extraorganismic mechanisms describe all the environmental influences that motivate psychological drive. The chapter also discussed facial metrics and judgements of attractiveness in males and females. This was the most interesting section of the chapter for me, and I was curious to learn what differences of attractiveness were found among males and females. This topic relates to relationships and interactions of humans, which is what I am interested in for a career, so this section of the chapter was helpful in teaching me about how facial features specifically create attraction.

In the section of facial metrics, the term was defined as the study of people’s judgments of the attractiveness of facial characteristics. Within this field of study, three categories were found to describe attractive faces; these categories are neonatal features, sexual maturity features, and expressive features. Neonatal features are associated with youth and agreeableness, while sexual maturity features were found to be associated with strength, status, and competency. Expressive features, on the other hand, were found to be associated with characteristics of happiness and openness. The chapter makes the statement that “youthfulness, status, and happiness-openness are beautiful, and faces just happen to be a conduit to communicate that information about the person.” I found this claim very interesting in the fact that we are attracted to personality traits, not necessarily facial features of attractiveness.

One concept that I am still a little confused about is the difference between a drive and a need. A need is defined as a condition which is essential for life and growth, but how exactly a drive differs from that is unclear to me. I am understanding it is a motivation that is created from the need, but am not 100% sure. Based on this understanding, I can say that physiology and physiological reactions relate to motivation by the fact that our physiological needs motivate us to act in a way that satisfies those needs, such as the need for food or water. The chapter talks about the motivation for drinking stems from the need for water. Thirst, a psychological experience, comes from a physiological need for water, and this psychological experience generates the motivational urge to drink and satisfy the physiological need. Physiological mechanisms and brain mechanisms differ in the way that they create motivation. Brain mechanisms, the hypothalamus for example, send messages of awareness to other brain mechanisms when a physiological mechanisms is in need. For example, if the intraorganismic mechanism (internal body regulation) is in need of water, that physiological mechanism triggers the hypothalamus (brain mechanism) to send a message that motivates the body to satisfy the feeling of thirst. The chapter describes how these mechanisms all work together to motivate the body into action.

Terms: Need, physiological need, intraorganismic mechanism, extraorganismic mechanism, facial metrics, attraction, neonatal features, sexual maturity features, expressive features, drive, hypothalamus

Chapter four explains to us what a need is. Needs are necessary for life, the growth of an individual, and also the well-being of that individual. If these needs aren’t met, damage can occur to our bodies. Motivation steps in before this happens, however, and drives us to fulfill these needs before we get to that point. This chapter focuses on the physiological needs such as hunger, thirst, and sex. Physiological needs involve biological systems. When all of these needs are met at one time, our body is then in a state of homeostasis.
The idea of extraogranismic mechanisms was a somewhat unclear idea to me. I understand the concept, it just doesn’t necessarily make sense to me how it works. I can see how outside influences such as the cultures opinion on calories could persuade you to take in less, I just find it hard to understand how these ideas or beliefs can play a role in our needs. Our bodies are hard-wired to survive and do anything they can to survive, so if you are hungry, I would think that your drive to eat would outweigh the risks or fear of becoming overweight.
Physiology relates to moviation because when these needs aren’t met, our body creates a drive. I think that the need-drive behavior sequence from the book does a good job of explaining how this relates to motivation. When our body is deprived from a physiological need, we slowly become more fixated on the idea of obtaining whatever it is that we are deprived of. After so long of that need not being satisfied, we obtain a physiological drive for that need and it begins to consume our thoughts. Instead of focusing on work or school, we sit and focus on how hungry we are. We only care about getting something to eat. It consumes our thoughts are we are motivated to obtain what we need. Number 5 on that list states that when we are deprived enough of the need that we have “Goal-directed motivated behavior that occurs as an attempt to gratify a drive.” Needs are all things that when ignored, will cause motivation to occur. This is part of our body’s attempt to survive and continue to thrive.
The difference between a physiological mechanism and a brain mechanism is that physiological mechanisms lead to brain mechanisms working. For example, when we are hungry or low on water, our hypothalamus releases hormones into the blood that tells different organs to different things; such as telling the kidneys to reserve their water resources. Without this need to water, our bodies would never create the psychological state that tells us that we are thirsty and need to find something to drink soon. Without physiological needs, the way our brain would work to motivate us in many aspects would be much different. People would likely only eat or drink for pleasure, instead of doing it because our physiological needs say that we need to do it in order to survive.

Homeostasis
Needs
Extraogranismic mechanisms
Drive
Physiological Mechanism
Need-Drive Behavior Sequence

The information in chapter 4 was very intriguing. Needs are conditions within the person that are essential and necessary for life, growth, and well-being. We are then motivated to satiate these needs, fulfilling either a physiological, psychological, or social need. Motivational states then provide the force and energy to fulfill our needs before any damage could occur to our body if we neglected them.

The most interesting thing that I learned in this chapter were the different categories of needs based on the need structure. Our physiological needs consist of thirst, hunger, and sex. These needs can induce life-threatening emergencies generating many motivational states that demand our consciousness. For example, as I am writing this assignment my stomach is growling because I haven’t eaten yet. If I were to continue ignoring this need, it could be damaging to my body. After the need has been met, it is forgotten about until I get hungry the next time. The psychological needs are autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Similarly to our social needs, which are achievement, affiliation and intimacy, and power, our psychological needs involve central nervous system processes. These needs will always be present in our consciousness, even to the littlest extent. These needs are satisfied in environmental conditions that the individual deems worthy. Unlike our physiological needs, psychological and social needs satisfaction is objective to the individual.

Some concepts that I was confused on were intraorganismic mechanisms, as well as extraorganismic mechanisms. I understand that the 3 main categories of the intraorganismic mechanisms are the hypothalamus (brain structure), glucose and insulin hormones (endocrine system), and the stomach and liver (bodily organs). In the book it states that they activate, maintain, and terminate physiological needs that underlie drive. Essentially these mechanisms are what create our drives? Extraorganismic mechanisms are similar in the sense that they also activate, maintain, and terminate drive although this mechanism works for psychological drives opposed to physiological?

Physiology and physiological reactions relate to motivation through drive reduction theory, multiple inputs/outputs, as well as drive being an intervening variable. The reduction of drives is the primary force of motivation in the entire human body, whether that be through satiating hunger, thirst, or just getting warmer. The book gave us an example of how drive has multiple outlets as well as inputs that will trigger behavioral responses that will satisfy our drive. When we are cold, we can put on a jacket, turn our heaters up, exercise, or shiver. Every behavior achieves the same outcome of being warm, but with different inputs. We are motivated to warm our body temperature up to fulfill our physiological needs. If we use pain as an intervening variable, it explains the motivational process that occurs immediately after encountering a dangerous situation on a physiological level. Getting your hand hit by a hammer yields an immediate response of shaking said hand to try and remedy the pain.

Our physiological mechanisms require our consciousness and effort. Our brain mechanisms will tell us the needs that aren’t satisfied, generally leading to a physiological response to solve the problem.

Terms:
Needs
Motivation
Need Structure
Extraorganismic mechanisms
Intraorganismic mechanisms
Drive Reduction Theory
Multiple inputs/outputs

Chapter 4 talked a lot about our physiological needs in terms of hunger, thirst, and even sex. Hunger, thirst, and sex, are three major needs that drive human behavior. Chapter 4 introduces seven fundamental processes for motivation which are physiological need, psychological drive, homeostasis, negative feedback, multiple inputs/multiple outputs, intraorganismic/extraorganismic mechanisms, and the homeostatic mechanism all work together to fulfill our needs as humans in terms of hunger, thirst, and sex. Thirst was the least complex idea in my opinion. Thirst is mostly motivated by biological needs to replenish water that you are losing constantly from day to day. However, there are some environmental influences that cause drinking such as taste or even peer pressure. Hunger is dependent on short-term and long-term regulation. In both theories a lack of glucose and lack of size in fat cells cause hunger. Once you begin to eat and glucose levels rise and fat cells grow huger begins to go away. As with drinking, there are many, many environmental factors that influence eating that are not hunger. This includes but is not limited to taste, availability, variety, and social situations. Sex is more or less gender dependent. Males crave more of the physical action of sex whereas women crave the intimacy part. Men and women are attracted to different things in their sexual partners. For men its youth and physical attractiveness but for women it is earning potential. Which makes sense when you start talking about sex and how things differ in arousal and the actual act of sex between men and women.

The most interesting thing that I found in this chapter was the gender differences when it came to sexual scripts and sexual partners. It was interesting to me that men have a high correlation between an erection and a strong desire to participate in sex whereas the correlation for women between vaginal lubrication and a high desire to participate in sex is low. It was also very interesting to read about the differences between the Traditional Sex Response Cycle for men and the Alternative Sex Response Cycle for women. How the Traditional Sex Response Cycle goes from desire to arousal to orgasm followed by resolution. The Alternative Sex Response Cycle is more complex. It goes from intimacy needs to sexual stimuli to sexual arousal to sexual desire to continue followed by enhanced intimacy. After reading the differences between these two cycles it makes more sense as to why there are so many gender stereotypes out there when it comes to sex and desires.

This chapter very briefly touched on sexual orientation. It sort of talked about why people have the sexual orientations that they do. One concept that was not necessarily unclear to me, but did not really touch base on would be the sex response cycles for homosexual males and females. Do these cycles remain the same based on gender? I’m sure there are going to be males that follow the Alternative Sex Response Cycle and females that follow the Traditional Sex Response Cycle, but does this change with sexual orientation? Likewise, how do things differ between what heterosexual males and females are attracted to and what homosexual males and females are attracted to.

Physiology and physiological responses are sort of a drive that motivate us to do things. When we are thirsty or truly hungry, our physiological needs become more and more noticeable to motivate us to take care of these needs. They then go away once fulfilled and come back when they need to be fulfilled all over again. We are more conscious of physiological mechanisms than we are brain mechanisms. When were thirsty or hungry or even want sex, our bodies have a way of clearly telling us what we want. The brain is more of a background player. It likes to stay in the shadows and be more of a subconscious player.

Key Terms:
physiological need, psychological drive, homeostasis, negative feedback, multiple inputs/multiple outputs, intraorganismic/extraorganismic mechanisms, the homeostatic mechanism, advances sex response cycle, traditional sex response cycle

This chapter was super interesting and I found it to relate to a lot of our basic human needs. Needs in this chapter can be explained as necessary for the growth of an individual. If these needs are not met this can cause someone to have damage to their body. Everyone has these needs and when we satisfy these needs we succeed. We learn through this chapter that the drive theory has a belief that when our physiological needs are not met our body has a biological need that will start to show There are seven fundamentals that are involved with the regulatory system including psychological needs, physiological drive, homeostasis, negative feedback, multiple inputs and outputs, intraorganismic influences, and extra organismic influences. This chapter talks about basic human needs, and the categories are physiological, psychological, and social needs. The chapter discussed physiological needs, and this is described as survival needs. Survival needs are things such as sleep, food, air, and sex. The first main physiological need focused on was thirst. Thirst was described as either osmometric or volumetric. Osmometic is the lack of water in our cells while volumetric is lacking of water in our circulatory or inguinal system. This chapter gave a more in depth description of how hunger played a role in physiological needs. I thought this part of the chapter was extremely interesting. I was interested in all the motivation that goes behind eating, and with this the information given about dieting. I was able to relate some of the body functions from last chapter with this chapter, including hormones like leptin and grehlin. I found that these hormones are used to make sure that the body does not overeat and makes sure we eat the right amount of calories needed to function. Sex was discussed in this chapter as the behavior to reproduce. Men have a more physical motivation for wanting sex while females are emotional when it comes to sex. When it comes to hormones that influence these sexual behaviors, men and women both have them. Men’s hormones are influenced by testosterone while females are influenced by estrogen. Another part of this chapter that stood out to me was the part about relationships. Chapter 4 showed figure 4.9 which was a face broken down into smaller spaces, and each of these spaces on the face represented some type of attractiveness. The book shows that the most attractive features for a female is things that show her reproduction feature whereas the male’s most attractive features show physical features. The book gives insight about what we do when we look for a partner, and it tells that we look for someone who reflects ourselves. I never had thought about this, but as I look through who I dated I ended up being engaged to the person who most similar to me. When reading this chapter, I have found that physiological mechanisms will be more influenced by environmental while brain mechanisms will be more influenced by internal factors. Overall this chapter was fun to read and I was able to correlate a lot of the information learned with my life.

Terms:
Thirst
Hunger
Sex
Psychological needs
Physiological drive
Homeostasis
Negative feedback
Multiple inputs and outputs
Intraorganismic and organismic influences

Chapter four mainly focuses on physiological needs. Essentially, this chapter was based off of Hull’s Drive theory. This chapter starts off with explaining needs and the need structure. After this, the chapter goes on and explains the seven fundamentals of regulation such as physical needs and drives, homeostasis, negative feedback, multiple inputs and outputs, and the different mechanism we have. After this, the book describes to us the three basic needs we have as humans (thirst, hunger and sex). The chapter ends by explaining the failures to self-regulate physiological needs. This chapter explains how our needs go along with our motivations and emotions.

To me, the most interesting part of this chapter was the part about facial metrics. I think that the whole section was interesting to read, but one thing really stuck out more than others. The book stated that different cultures have different views on attractiveness. However, there are some things that are “universally attractive.” I found it interesting that even though there are totally different standards in different cultures, the three things that everyone could agree on is health, youthfulness, and reproductive capacity. This was not very shocking to read that these are the three things, but it was, but it was interesting to read considering how different cultures can vary.

This chapter had a lot of information, with a lot of different subtopics. After reading, one thing I am a little confused about still is the inputs and outputs. I do not fully get the example of using drive as an intervening variable. Other than this part, I think this chapter did a good job at explaining in detail most of the topics, so I do not have any questions from this chapter, but maybe when we talk more in class, some questions will be generated.

Physiology and physiological reactions relate to motivation because of the drive theory. Without these physiological needs, we would not feel encouraged or motivated to do things like eat, drink or reproduce. Our body needs these things, so it creates this drive for motivation. We might not realize it on the daily basis or constantly think about it, but our body does it for us. Because we need these for survival, our body creates the motivation for them, which is pretty cool.

The difference between physiological mechanisms and brain mechanisms is that the physiological mechanisms are essentially where the motivation of the needs come from. The two have to work together to make things work, but they come from different sources. The brain mechanisms come from inside motivation, and the physiological comes from more of an external motivation. So, the physiological mechanism is like physically going to get a glass of water, and the brain mechanism is like telling you are thirsty (without really thinking). Although these are slightly different, both of them are needed to maintain the homeostasis in our bodies, which is important to surviving.

Terms: drive theory, homeostasis, thirst, hunger, sex, mechanisms, facial metrics, needs, negative feedback, physiological needs, drive, attraction

This chapter focused on separating our needs into three different categories, such as physiological, psychological, and social needs. Physiological needs are all about thirst, hunger, and sex. Psychological needs are autonomy, competence, and relatedness. While social needs are for achievement, affiliation, intimacy, and power. Reeve also touches on deficiency motivation and growth motivation and how hunger and thirst fall into this category. The chapter gives details about homeostasis and how important thirst is.
Which brings me to what I think is the most interesting point throughout this chapter. Our bodies start to feel thirsty when we are down two percent and lead to dehydration at three percent. We lose water by peeing, sneezing, bleeding, and condensation. When we are thirsty, it is a different kind of motivation than when you are hungry which is why with a water deficiency for more than two days we would die. I have always understood that our bodies are two-thirds water, but the process of losing water and taking in water to maintain homeostasis has always confused me. Another important part of the chapter that sparks an interest in me was hunger. I find it oddly satisfying knowing and learning what it takes for motivation of hunger. There are many environmental factors behind influencing hunger. Some of those are how much someone eats in a sitting based on how many and who is present, how much different kinds of food there is, and how available the food is. The reason that this class and specifically this chapter is interesting to me is because of how relatable the consequences and the motives for the actions are. If I were to go to a buffet for dinner tonight, I would probably end up eating a ton of food. That food would not necessarily be healthy food, but it is readily available to me, there are many different kinds, and I would probably be with a friend who is just as hungry. If I were to go on a date to a fancy restaurant, I would not eat as much due to the motives that I am experiencing.
Physiological mechanisms consist of the intraorganismic mechanism, which is a part of the cyclical pattern of physiological drive. They include all of the biological regulatory systems within the person to activate, maintain, and terminate the physiological needs that underlie drive. Different brain structures generate specific motivations. The ventromedial hypothalamus; is the brain structure involved in termination of meals. This structure is the short-term appetites negative feedback system. The ventromedial hypothalamus gets stimulated by the liver’s detection of high levels of glucose, stomach distensions during eating, and the release of the gut peptide cholecystokinin.
To relate this chapter back to last chapter and pick out the differences, I would say that they differ from the way they talk about motivation. Chapter three was more about the ways the ways we use motivation unconsciously and chapter four uses motivation as a way to help and talk about why you do something, and then what you can do differently.
Terms: Motive, motivation, physiological mechanisms, ventromedial hypothalamus, intraorganismic mechanism, homeostasis, hunger, short term appetites negative feedback system

Chapter 4 focuses on the physiological needs: thirst, hunger, and sex. The text describes a need as “any condition within the person that is essential and necessary for life, growth, and well-being” (pg. 77). We learn about the drive theory, which is allows our bodies to regulate and maintain a balance. The Drive Theory states that “physiological deprivations and deficits create biological needs, if the need remains unsatisfied, the biological deprivation generates psychological drive” (pg. 79). Thirst is a physiological need because our bodies are losing water through perspiration, urination, breathing, bleeding, vomiting, and sneezing. Hunger is more complex with short term and long term regulation. Short term operates under homeostatic regulation while long term operates under metabolic regulation and stored energy. Sexual motivation is influenced by hormones, external stimulation, external cues, cognitive strips, sexual schemas, and evolutionary presses (pg. 106). We also learn about what happens when people fail at self-regulation. When we try to consciously control our physiological needs, we are doing more harm than good. People can fail at regulating bodily appetites by underestimating the power of a motivational biological forces, inconsistent standards, and fail to monitor what they are doing.
The most interesting part of this chapter to me was the section about Facial Metrics. Facial Metrics is the study of people’s judgements of the attractiveness of facial characteristics (pg. 98). Health, youthfulness, and reproductive capacity are physical characteristics that are viewed as universally attractive. There are 24 structural characteristics being judged to determine level of attractiveness. I found it interesting that they are split into three categories: neonatal, sexual maturity, and expressive features. The neonatal features correspond to youthfulness and agreeableness. The sexual maturity corresponds to strength and status. The expressive features correspond to happiness and openness.
The concept of set point or settling points is unclear to me. After reading the sections, it seems that it is also an important question for behavioral neuroscientists and motivation researchers as well. Physiological motivations rise and fall and that is why Robert Bolles liked the idea of settling points, or settling level. How do they determine these homeostatic points/levels for drive and satiety?
Physiology and physiological reactions relate to motivation because our bodies need to maintain homeostasis. Our bodies have the amazing ability to maintain a stable internal state (homeostasis) as well as generating the motivation necessary to direct homeostasis-restoring behaviors. Motives arise from physiological deprivation, which creates needs. As the need intensifies, a motivated behavior occurs and a consummatory behavior occurs to satisfy the need to avoid damage to the body and maintain well-being.
The brain mechanism is involved with regulating physiological needs. There are structures in the brain that detect the physiological needs: hunger, thirst, and sex. Physiological need describes a deficient biological condition. Neural brain circuits, hormones, and bodily organs that detect life-threatening emergencies.

Terms used:
Physiological Need
Drive Theory
Homeostasis
Thirst
Hunger
Sex
Need
Facial Metrics

Ch 4 discussed physiological needs, and how the body controls them. The body needs its basic needs met, and will send messages to control our motivation based on what it needs. Things like thirst, hunger, sex, and what to do if these needs are not being met. The body is in a constant state of regulation, and keeping it as close to homeostasis as possible will help the species stay healthy and reproduce. The responses the body gives will be stronger and more urgent if the body needs it now, for instance the desire for water when a person wakes up in the morning is much stronger than sitting in class. When you wake up, you may go right to the sink and guzzle some water, but when you are thirsty in class you may be able to wait, because it is not as urgent.

The most interesting part of this chapter to me was the section on failure to regulate physiological needs. Many people fail to meet their goals because either they have standards that are too high, or ones that are conflicting. It is easy to lose motivation when it does not seem like you are making any progress toward your goal if it is set too high. Alcohol also has a lot to do with failure, whether it be because it decreases their self control, or their self monitoring. The key is to set attainable goals and feel the motivation of setting higher ones once a person reaches them. Rome was not built in a year, and remembering to keep pushing is one way to achieve a seemingly impossible goal.

One concept that is unclear is the section on facial metrics, and attractiveness. There are so many factors that go into attractiveness, it is hard to understand. Face, body, voice, and build are all things that go into whether or not someone is attractive, without considering personality. These factors are related to keeping the species going, and features found more attractive are ones that are more likely to help the species survive.

Physiology and physiological reactions relate to motivation because physiological reactions are internal motivations that lead to better physiology. When the body needs something, it has a reaction, e.g. the feeling of hunger, to correct the problem of a lack of food. When we go through the day, we use up some of our desire to stay away from things that we know are bad, but since we had such a rough day the extra soda and pizza does not look like a bad thing.

Physiological mechanisms and brain mechanisms are different in that brain mechanisms are what tells the body to feel a certain way, and physiological ones are motivations for survival. Though they are intertwined, and have many similar outcomes, brain mechanisms are more like feelings. When we are scared we feel it because the brain releases transmitters. Physiological mechanisms give us the desire to engage in a habit to keep the body functioning, while brain habits are internal motivations.

Terms:
Need
Homeostasis
Self Control
Physiological Mechanism
Brain Mechanism

A need is any state that is essential for life, growth, and well-being. Needs fall into three categories: physiological, psychological, and social. Chapter four focuses on three physiological needs: thirst, hunger, and sex. Before diving into these needs, some concepts of motivation must be established.
The type of motivation influences the outcome. Deficiency motivation originates from the urge to quiet a deficit. For example, hunger is deficiency motivation that originates from the urge to quiet a food deficit. This usually generates negative feelings, such as anxiety, pain, and stress. Growth motivation originates from the urge to advance development. For example, the need to seek out challenges is growth motivation. This type of motivation generates positive emotions, like interest and enjoyment.
Drive is the psychological urge that stems from a physiological deficit. Drive activates behavior, but negative feedback is what stops behavior. Negative feedback is the signal to the body that the physiological need was fulfilled, so the motivation ceases. Homeostasis is also a really important concept. Homeostasis is the body’s automatic maintenance of a stable state. For example, the bloodstream maintains fairly constant levels of oxygen at all times. Two more factors influence physiological needs. The first is intraorganismic mechanisms, which are all the biological regulatory systems. The second is extraorganismic mechanisms, which are all the environmental influences on physiological motivation. This can include cognitive, social, and cultural influences.
Returning to the main three physiological needs, thirst develops out of deficiency motivation because it’s the urge to consume water to fulfill the deficit of water that occurs through sweating, peeing, and so on. Intracellular fluid is the water within cells, and extracellular fluid is the water outside of the cells. Thirst usually develops because of an intracellular fluid deficit, or dehydrated cells. This only explains one of three reasons to drink, water replenishment. The other reasons people a driven to drink are sweet taste and addiction to a substance within water, such as alcohol.
The second main physiological need is hunger. There are three different models of hunger, which are short-term physiological models, long-term physiological models, and cognitive-social-environmental models. I thought the environmental influences were most interesting. Environmental influences include time of day, stress, sight, smell, and taste of food. If there’s more variety of food available, food intake is higher. If there is just more food available, food intake is higher. Plus, one is more likely to eat more food when eating with others versus eating alone.
The final main physiological need is sex. This was, by far, the most interesting need for me to read about because I love learning about differences between men and women. Sexual motivation in men is regulated by androgens, such as testosterone. For men, there is a strong correlation between physiological arousal and psychological desire. Sexual motivation in women is a little more complicated. Estrogen regulates sexual motivation for women, but there is a weak correlation between physiological arousal and psychological desire for women. Instead, psychological desire has a stronger correlation with emotional closeness, or intimacy, with the woman’s partner. This also impacts what men and women find attractive in a mate.

Terms: need, thirst, hunger, sex, deficiency motivation, growth motivation, drive, negative feedback, homeostasis, intraorganismic mechanisms, extraorganismic mechanisms, intracellular fluid, extracellular fluid, androgens, testosterone, estrogen

In this chapter the main concepts revolves around our physiological needs, which are necessary for life, growth, and well being. The structure of these needs are dependent on how they are maintained and satisfied to protect the damage that will occur if these needs are neglected. The force of motivation helps the body and mind act so damage can be prevented. The three basic physiological needs include thirst, hunger, and sex. Although this chapter focuses mainly on physiological needs; psychological and social needs also contribute to supply a person’s overall life growth, and well being.

The biological systems in which these needs are met and motivated by include neural circuits, hormones, and bodily organs. The distinction of physiological needs apart from psychological and social needs is that if the basic physiological needs can only fail to be met for a certain period of time until the body dictates consciousness in a state of emergency. Because all types of needs generate some sort of energy, they differ between each other not by the amount of energy that is produced but by the different abilities to direct that energy to where it is needed to satisfy those needs.

Out of these different needs come two different ways in which motivation occurs. Deficiency motivation happens when things are fine and regulated until some state of deprivation which can produce emotions such as anxiety, stress, or relief. Growth motivation takes effect to enhance or develop a specific drive, like improving self discipline or relational values.

The book describes seven core processes in which the body psychologically maps out a sequence of need, drive, and behavior. These processes include need, drive, homeostasis, negative feedback, multiple inputs/multiple outputs, intraorganismic mechanisms, and extraorganismic mechanisms. This cycle of processes start with a satiated state, then physiological deprivation develops gradually, the prolonged physiological deprivation produces bodily needs, the needs intensifies and gives rise to psychological drive, then goal directed motivated behavior occurs as attempt to gratify drive, the consummatory behavior occurs and the drive is reduced. This cycle happens and is displayed frequently in our need of thirst, hunger, and sex. The rest of the chapter goes into each one of the needs and how they are activated and gratified psychologically and physiologically.

This chapter clearly laid out very clearly how our physiological needs are met without even being completely conscious of the drive and motivation that helps us survive. I found the topic of drive really interesting because the complexity of our bodies and minds consistently lives and survives on the basis of what drives us. Whether what drives us to do something is physiological, psychological or social. Last chapter, the brain mechanisms were explained to help us understand how our brain works to motivate behavior and emotions, whereas this chapter explained physiological mechanisms to help us understand where the drives and needs come from that communicate to our brain that we need to do something to satisfy a specific need, like thirst, hunger, or sex.

Terms: extraorganismic mechanisms, intraorganismic mechanisms, drive, need, deficiency motivation, growth motivation, thirst, hunger, sex, self regulation, homeostasis

Chapter four is full of interesting information pertaining to topic of need. The body has endless needs that need to be met in order for the body to function properly. A few of these needs include but are not limited to thirst, hunger, and sex. However, these are only physiological needs. The body also has psychological needs which include autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Humans also have social needs such as achievement, affiliation and intimacy, and well as power. All of these needs need to be met in order for a human for function healthily and happily.

The most interesting thing I learned in this chapter is that how water tastes impacts how much of it humans drink. If water is tasteless humans will drink a standard amount of water; simply enough to replenish their thirst and maintain a healthy level of fluids in their body. Suppose sugar is added to water, giving it a sweeter taste, humans are inclined to drink more of it because of its pleasing taste. On the opposite side of sweet, if water is bitter or sour, humans will not be motivated to drink a standard amount of water which may lead to dehydration in extreme cases.

There are no concepts or ideas that are completely unclear; however, I would like to learn more about intraorganismic and extraorganismic mechanisms. These two topics seem complex and I would like to learn about how they work inside the human body.

Physiology and physiological reactions relate to motivation in several ways. Firstly, if there is a physiological deprivation a biological need will be created, which means the human will be motivated to fulfill this need whether it pertains to hunger, thirst, or sex. Once this need is met, the motivation the human once had will deplete until the need occurs again. Secondly, and lastly, if a physiological deprivation occurs and the need is not met, the situation suddenly, and sadly, becomes life – threatening.

Physiological mechanisms and brain mechanisms are different from each other because the term physiological mechanism refers to a behavior and the action used to carry out that behavior. The term brain mechanism relates to the actual structures in the brain such as neurons and regions within the brain, such as the amygdala and the hippocampus, as well as hormones within the brain. These two topics differentiate from each other because one, physiological mechanisms, refers to the physical action taken to fulfill the need of the human whether it be a physiological need, psychological need, or social need. The other, brain mechanism, refers to the brain telling the body there is a need that needs to be met.

TERMS USED:

Affiliation
Amygdala
Behavior
Brain
Hippocampus
Hunger
Motivation
Need
Physiological
Psychological
Sex
Social
Structure
Thirst

Chapter four spends majority of the time discussing our basic physiological needs which include hunger, thirst, and sex. A big chunk of our motivations as humans are to satisfy these three basic needs. It is very rare for a person to go an entire day without having anything to eat unless they are purposely avoiding it or they are distracted by other motivations to get things done. There may be days where I hardly eat anything at all, but I always eat something. Our bodies have a high motivation to eat food in order to provide an energy source for us to be able to function properly. It is also rare for humans to go without any kind of fluids in a day’s time span. We need to keep liquids in our bodies because we run out when we urinate or sweat. I am bad at drinking liquids unless I need it to wash down my food, but I will drink something at some point. Finally, sex is a basic need because we constantly have hormones secreting throughout or bodies. There are environmental cues and as a species we are basically here to reproduce to keep our species going. The chapter explains that the brain mechanism responsible for our three basic physiological needs is due to the hypothalamus. This brain region also focuses on maintaining the body’s homeostasis and involves emotional activity.
One of the most surprising or interesting information I learned in this chapter is that our bodies as a human species have a predetermined average weight that we are supposed to be at. This does make sense because almost all doctors probably have a chart that takes your height and then it says what your average weight should be. This also helps scale underweight, overweight, and obese for those that may need help with their body size problems. The average weight that it says basically means that your body is sitting comfortably in the way that it’s not working extra hard to either get its nutrients or energy or that it’s not working too hard to keep a steady heart rate and pump blood throughout the body. The biology behind why a person should be at a certain weight for their height makes sense and is really important which is something I should work on myself.
An interesting yet confusing concept to me is the part of the chapter that describes the facial metrics within the different sexes. I have learned in the past that one of the main aspects of physical attractiveness is symmetric features on the face such as eyes being the same size and having a proportionate nose. This makes sense to me, because it would be odd looking if a person had different sized eyes or something, but it is hard to realize that that the face is the main seller for being physically attracted to someone. This is surprising because there are a lot of other aspects that are important as well such as mind, body, skills, and so on. One part of this that does make sense is that in order to reproduce and keep our species going you may want to be with the most attractive person you know. This is that will create attractive offspring and so on so that others will keep wanting reproduce with them. I’ve also had a hard time understanding what is so attractive to men about a woman with an hour glass shaped figure. I know that it means they may seem more fertile (again the sex and reproduction basic needs), but I’m not sure what is so wrong with other bodies. Personally, I do not care if a guy has huge muscles or abs or has a perfect body. This may have to do with majority of men being a little more shallow and narrow minded when choosing a partner than women are. Women tend to care a lot more about status, finances, and overall good, protective personality.

In chapter one, we learnt in the Hierarchy of the Four Sources of motivation that our internal motives are directed by needs, cognitions and emotions. Chapter 4 shows us what some of this internal motives arise from: 1) physiological needs that avoid bodily damage and maintain resources, 2) social needs that preserve our identities, beliefs, values and relationships and 3) psychological needs that orient people’s development toward growth and adaptation. We all share the same physiological needs because they are inherent within the strivings of human nature but psychological and social needs vary considerably from one person to the next. Psychological needs depend on the environment people were raised in, currently live in or attempt to live in and social needs are shaped by emotional or socialization histories.This chapter mainly focuses on the three physiological needs of hunger, thirst and sex.
The term drive is introduced and refers to a psychological discomfort that energize and direct our behavior in order to cover our biological deprivations and deficits. Our physiological needs follow a cyclical pattern with seven core processes, which are: need, drive,homeostasis, negative feedback, multiple inputs/multiple outputs, intraorganismic mechanisms and extraorganismic mechanisms. I am a little confused about some sections in this cycle, like in the multiple inputs/multiple outputs where in the example of the party, it mentions “our motivated behavior depends on the intensity of our hunger (drive) and not on the lure of the popcorn or on the easy availability of the food”. I understand that there are many other different variables that are hard to control or measure, but I do not understand why it directly considers the intensity of hunger as the main cause of the action.
I find a lot of analogies between physiological mechanisms and brain mechanisms. The brain is a well structured organism with different parts that have specific functions and work under the influence of chemical messengers (neurotransmitters). The body works in a similar way, for example, in the short-term appetite mechanism, a body organ (the liver) monitors level of blood glucose and sends excitatory signals to the lateral hypothalamus which is the brain center responsible for generating the psychological experience of hunger.
The most interesting thing that I found in this chapter is how different males and females are in our physiological arousal and psychological desire. When sexual desire emerges from an arousal trigger, men show a triphasic sexual response cycle which consists of desire, arousal and orgasm. Women’s sexual desire cannot be predicted or explained in the context of their physiological need or arousal, but for highly responsive factors such as emotional intimacy.
To summarize, physiology and physiological reactions are very closely related with motivation; motivational states provide us the impetus to act in order to cover our needs.

Terms used:
hierarchy of the Four Sources of motivation
internal motives
physiological needs
social needs
psychological needs
psychological discomfort
homeostasis
negative feedback
multiple inputs/multiple outputs
intraorganismic mechanisms
extraorganismic mechanisms
lateral hypothalamus
physiological arousal

Physiological needs are about sustaining life, growth, and well-being, and is especially driven by a need to avoid damage (to the body, emotional or social damage). We can divide the motivational energy of physiological needs into deficiency versus growth motivation. The former are associated with unpleasant emotions we strive to relieve, while the latter with pleasant emotions we strive to get or sustain. Drive theory, following Hull, focused a great deal of attention on understanding the regulating mechanisms at play in physiological need. The actual bodily need (e.g., hunger) produces a psychological drive to meet that need. Still, the body tends to try to maintain homeostasis in functioning (a relatively stable equilibrium), and uses feedback mechanisms to send signals that motivate behavior towards meeting a need and avoiding the potential dangers of too much need fulfillment. So when one’s cellular water volume drops it creates osmometric thirst which leads to fluid seeking behavior to avoid the dangers of dehydration. Yet, too much water can be life threatening as well, so there are negative feedback mechanisms that inhibit continued efforts to find and consume fluids once water volume levels are restored to the homeostatic level. The causes of thirst can be multiple (e.g., a hot environment, exercise, or an extended period going without consuming), as can the means to satisfy the need (e.g., whether I consume food with high water content, drink water, stop exercising, or get out of the heat). The drive mediates between these multiple inputs and outputs. Beyond some of the internal regulatory mechanisms that send signals that drive psychological drive to meet a need, needs are impacted by other internal and external triggers that can impact behavior. For instance, I do not have to have low blood glucose levels to be motivated by hunger to consume food, but food appearance, the abundant availability, diversity of food, peer norms, can all lead me to consume even if I am no longer hungry.

With each of the three main physiological needs discussed (thirst, hunger, sex), there were often multiple regulatory mechanisms and processes, combined with environmental cues, that impacted motivational energy, direction of behavior, its intensity, changes in behavior, and at times disruption of the homeostatic regulating functions. Often the monitoring of homeostasis takes place in some organ peripheral to the brain (e.g., blood glucose being monitored by the liver or adipose tissue releasing the hormones ghrelin and leptin based on fat cell size dropping below or rising above homeostatic levels), which in turn send signals to the hypothalamus in the brain. But with thirst, the reading seems to imply that monitoring of cellular water volume is done in the hypothalamus itself. The hypothalamus in both cases is then triggering the motivational feeling of hunger and thirst. Yet even in the case of thirst, there are other internal signals being received that influence the motivation or inhibition to drink, such as number of swallows. Further, many environmental cues that motivate behavior are largely brain mediated (e.g., social expectations and pressure like some of the group eating dynamics) or are not as directly connected to the main organ system responsible for homeostatic monitoring (e.g., feeling cold increasing appetite).

I have had a lot of prior interest in hunger, and have read up a lot, so while this is an interest, there was little new to either pose a puzzle or pique my interest further. Thirst was more intriguing, especially when it came to the way in which osmometric thirst seemed to be significantly more important than volumetric thirst. While this made sense, I was a bit curious about the connection between the hypothalamus’ signals to the frontal lobes in the neocortex, as this later part of the brain is some of the more uniquely human comparatively. Given that thirst operates in animals without this evolutionarily newer structure, I wanted to know more about what particular wrinkles this caused in humans and other primates. I was also left wanting to know more about the connection between thirst and alcohol consumptions, as I work with clients with alcohol use disorders. Alcohol can both satisfy and trigger thirst, depending on a number of factors, and I found myself trying to think through the implications of the basic information the reading gave and wishing there was more detail that might be clinically useful.

The discussion of sex was both very interesting, and a bit unsatisfying. For instance, a lot of the studies cited seemed to be very culturally specific and not necessarily generalizable to humans as a whole. The facial metrics research, while it seems to indicate that there are some universal tendencies in what we find attractive across racial and ethnic differences, did not specify if the studies were done in the U.S., or had been replicated in non-Western cultures where norms of beauty are mediated through mass consumer culture. Similarly, the studies that looked at gender differences that both heterosexual and homosexual individuals would seem to more class, ethnicity, historical, and cultural specific than the studies cited seemed to imply. Again, I wanted to know how much this was considered in the studies. Finally, I struggled to try to reason out how sexual scripts worked. At one level, having the partners’ scripts match up or not leading to greater satisfaction of the sex need made sense. At another, I was puzzling the extent to which this scripts were malleable or resistant to disruption and reconfiguration? What about the sexual schemas and therefore sexual identity? Do they tend to remain fairly stable, and if they change, is this a relatively constant process or more sporadic responses to environmental cues or life stage changes?

Terms
physiological need, psychological drive, Drive theory, Hull, thirst, hunger, sex, regulation, homeostasis, negative feedback, multiple inputs, multiple outputs, hypothalamus, liver, osmometric vs. volumetric thirst, deficiency vs. growth motivation, facial metrics, sexual scripts, sexual schemas, alcohol, internal vs. external.

Terms: Drive, needs, homeostasis, lateral hypothalamus, ventromedial hypothalamus, physiological needs, psychological needs, social needs