Deck 2: Evolutionary Antecedents of Motivation

Question 1

The concept of human nature emphasizes

A) the commonality in motivation among humans as a result of evolution.
B) the commonality in motivation among humans as a result experience.
C) the commonality in motivation as a result of different values.
D) how different experiences produce different motives.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

The rectangle metaphor about heredity (nature) and environment (nurture) illustrates that

A) only environment contributes to motivation; heredity makes no contribution.
B) how much heredity and environment contributes to motivation depends on the behavior.
C) both heredity and environment contribute equally to motivation, i.e., 50% each.
D) only heredity contributes to motivation; environment makes no contribution.

Answer 2

B

Question 3

The main idea of gene-environment correlation is that

A) people react to their environments
B) people's prior experiences determine the choice of their environments
C) people's genes determine their choice of environments
D) people's environments determine their personality traits

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Universal motives assume all of the following except:

A) Universal motives rely heavily on nature or heredity.
B) Universal motives are shaped by natural selection or sexual selection.
C) Universal motives are similar in societies all over the world.
D) Universal motives rely heavily on nurture or experience.

Question 5

What is the main point of evolutionary psychology for the study of motivation? The main point is

A) how human genetic history or genetic past determines what motivates people today.
B) that people are often unaware of the incentives that motivate them.
C) how a person's value system determines what incentives attract or repel her.
D) how an individual's personal history or past determines what motivates him today.

Question 6

Brown's term of universals refers to

A) how emotions are expressed differently in various cultures.
B) the commonality of needs, emotions, and values in all cultures.
C) the commonality of motives that resulted from identical personal histories.
D) behaviors that serve as exceptions to general laws of motivation.

Question 7

What are psychological mechanisms?

A) These are knowledge schemas that are necessary for behavior to occur.
B) These are brain or mind components or units that represent cultural customs and rules.
C) These are human traits that evolved to solve problems of adaptation in our evolutionary past.
D) These are physical structures like hands that allow a person to interact with the environment.

Question 8

The outcome of the nature versus nurture (heredity versus environment) debate is that

A) neither nature nor nurture are important for determining behavior
B) nature is more important for determining behavior.
C) nurture is more important for determining behavior.
D) the combination of nature and nurture is more important for determining behavior.

Question 9

What role do genes play in regard to universal motives?

A) Genes transmit recipes for building brain structures, which express universal motives.
B) Genes have no function in regard to universal motives.
C) Genes are the way that universal motives are learned in a culture.
D) Genes directly transmit universal motives across generations.

Question 10

According to the evolutionary mismatch hypothesis,

A) psychological mechanisms operate smoothly in the current social environment.
B) psychological mechanisms motivate behavior that is detrimental to a person's well-being.
C) people can mix and match the environments they want to live in.
D) people's experiences motivate behavior that is beneficial to their well-being.

Question 11

A person's partner begins to require extra care. A rational person would abandon his/her partner. But people do not abandon their partners because of

A) evolutionary mismatch.
B) universals.
C) romantic love.
D) sexual desire.

Question 12

Romantic love evolved to solve

A) the mismatch problem
B) the universal problem
C) the choice dilemma problem
D) the commitment problem

Question 13

Over time, a person discovers unique aspects of his or her partner. The person discovers that my partner has a good sense of humor, satisfies my psychological needs, is sexually attractive to me. This discovery process describes

A) relational mate value
B) an evolutionary match
C) sexual selection
D) beauty process

Question 14

Suppose a person rates a 7 on a Mate Value Inventory of 1(low) to 10 (high). In seeking a partner, that person will most likely seek to contact an individual with a mate value of

A) 7
B) 8
C) 3
D) 5

Question 15

What governs mate selection according to the good-genes hypotheses?

A) Good genes govern mate selection because the genes indicate beauty.
B) Beauty governs mate selection because we like beautiful people
C) Beauty governs mate selection because beauty signals good genes
D) Niceness governs mate selection because we like nice people.

Question 16

An alternative to the good-genes hypothesis regarding the function of beauty is that

A) beauty governs mate selection because beauty is a signal for good genes
B) beauty signals that a person is very nice
C) people are not influenced by beauty when selecting a mate
D) beauty governs mate selection because humans simply like beautiful people

Question 17

What does a sense of humor indicate or imply in sexual selection?

A) Sense of humor signals that a person is genetically fit and intelligent.
B) Sense of humor has no function.
C) Sense of humor makes a person standout and be noticeable in a crowd.
D) Sense of humor signals that the person has low mate value.

Question 18

According to research in evolutionary psychology, in seeking a spouse or long-term mate, women prefer their potential mates to have _________more than men prefer it.

A) good looks
B) good financial prospect and ambition & industriousness
C) niceness
D) good sense of rhythm

Question 19

According to research in evolutionary psychology, in seeking a spouse or long-term mate, men prefer their potential mates to have _________more than women prefer it.

A) niceness
B) good financial prospect and ambition & industriousness
C) good looks
D) good sense of rhythm

Question 20

According to evolutionary psychology, men and women differ in the characteristics they consider essential for a long-term mate. The reason according to evolutionary psychology is that

A) A man and woman's culture determines what is considered essential in a long-term mate.
B) Differences in personality between men and women leads to different mate preferences.
C) Actually, men and women do not differ in what they prefer in a long-term mate.
D) Evolution provided men and women with a different strategy for leaving the most surviving offspring.

Question 21

According to biosocial theory, men and women adjust to gender-typical roles. The reason for this adjustment to gender-typical roles is that these roles are

A) less costly and more beneficial/rewarding compared to non-typical gender roles.
B) determined totally by sex differences.
C) determined by how much money can be earned.
D) determined by what roles remain after more popular roles have been filled.

Question 22

Women prefer men who make a lot of money or who are industrious. The reason is that women are unable to earn as much money as men based on how our society is currently organized. This explanation of women's preference is called the

A) innate nature explanation.
B) structural powerless hypothesis.
C) jealousy explanation.
D) evolutionary psychology theory.

Question 23

Niceness is a collection of traits that are valued in a long-term mate. How does niceness differ from other traits in regards to how it is valued?

A) This trait is more important for men in economically developed countries, with gender equality
B) The importance of this trait is the same in all countries.
C) This trait is more important for women in economically developed countries, with gender equality.
D) The importance of niceness has decreased from the early 1900s to the present day.

Question 24

If you are guilty of poaching, then what have you done?

A) You went hunting or fishing on private land.
B) You did something without permission,e.g., consume alcohol while under 21.
C) You did something thoughtless,e.g., told a person how bad his/her hair style appeared.
D) You obtained the smartphone number of a friend's date so that you could call his/her date.

Question 25

Based on surveys about jealousy conducted in the United States and other countries, men are more jealous regarding __________ while women are more jealous regarding _______.

A) sexual infidelity, emotional infidelity
B) sexual infidelity, sexual infidelity
C) emotional infidelity, sexual infidelity
D) emotional infidelity, sexual infidelity

Question 26

The emotion of jealousy is based on what evolutionary concerns?

A) Each partner worrying about losing the material resources the other partner provides.
B) A man's concern about being the father and woman's concern for survival of her children.
C) A concern about preventing mate poaching.
D) A concern about losing your partner to someone with a lower mate value

Question 27

What process is necessary to form a close relationship with another individual? The process of

A) reading another person's facial expressions of emotion
B) music appreciation
C) perceived partner responsiveness
D) phubbing

Question 28

You have been phubbed. What has been done to you?

A) Your friends did not invite you to go to lunch with them.
B) Your lunch date ignored you and started talking to the couple at the next table.
C) Your lunch date yawned in boredom while you were talking to her.
D) Your lunch date read a text on her smartphone while you were talking to her.

Question 29

Being phubbed is an example of what hypothesis?

A) Evolutionary mismatch hypothesis
B) Mate value hypothesis
C) Mate poaching hypothesis
D) Structural powerless hypothesis

Question 30

To place the emotion of fear in the context of evolutionary psychology, we assume that

A) fear is an emotion that is very easy to learn.
B) fear is a psychological mechanism that has survival value.
C) fear prompts a person to freeze or take quick action.
D) fear is a response that results from classical conditioning.

Question 31

What human characteristic evolved to help individuals avoid snakes according to snake detection theory?

A) excellent hearing
B) an excellent sense of smell
C) excellent eyesight
D) a very sensitive sense of touch

Question 32

Combining classical conditioning with the concept of preparedness, we can probably condition a fear of which animal most easily in people?

A) any animal, no matter what, cows, puppies, snakes all equally
B) kittens
C) parakeets and parrots
D) snakes and spiders

Question 33

Infants prefer sweet tasting substances and do not prefer sour or bitter substances. What is the evolutionary significance of this preference for sweet tastes and dislike for sour/bitter?

A) Sweet is associated with ripe, nutritious food and sour with unripe or harmful food.
B) Mothers sweeten their babies' food so that their babies will eat more.
C) The difference between sweet and bitter foods had no evolutionary significance.
D) The calorie value of sweet food is lower than the calorie value of sour/bitter food.

Question 34

Preferences for sweets, for good looks by men, and fear of spiders and snakes have what feature in common regarding their origins. These preferences and fears result from

A) society's expectations; people fulfill those expectations
B) natural selection or sexual selection.
C) children observing their parents behave that way.
D) observing other people when they behave that way.

Question 35

What are the benefits to humans for being omnivorous?

A) Humans prefer sweet foods, which is associated with many calories.
B) Humans can easily learn to avoid the foods that make them sick.
C) Humans quickly learn to like foods that provided pleasurable consequences.
D) Humans are capable of eating whatever foods their geographic environment provides.

Question 36

The link between taste and facial expressions of taste in very young infants

A) is culturally defined.
B) results from infants watching their parents.
C) is a random connection with no meaning.
D) seems innate, not learned

Question 37

What concept explains why one type of music (consonant versus dissonant) is preferred more than another type of music.

A) Processing fluency; the ease by which music is recognized, categorized, evaluated
B) Innate factors; musical preferences results solely from natural selection.
C) Entrainment determines what type of music a person prefers.
D) Similarity to nature; the more music resembles natural sounds, the more humans like it.

Question 38

What does entrainment imply? Entrainment implies

A) evolved food preferences that determine our current food preferences.
B) possessing the capability that is necessary for enjoying listening to music.
C) that an infant's early flavor experiences determine his or her adult food preferences.
D) selecting a long-term mate with whom a person is most compatible.

Question 39

What are the preferences of infants for consonant versus dissonant music?

A) Infants prefer consonant music when exposed to it initially.
B) Infants prefer dissonant music when exposed to it initially.
C) Answer a and b are both possible.
D) Infants show no preference, since they cannot detect a difference.

Question 40

The Tsimane' are people who live in the Amazon rain forest in Bolivia. They had little exposure to Western music. They were tested for their preference of consonant versus dissonant music. What was their preference?

A) consonant music
B) dissonant music
C) both consonant and dissonant music equally; they could not detect a difference
D) both consonant and dissonant music equally; they could detect a difference

Question 41

How would the interaction between evolutionary history and personal history show itself in the motivation of behavior? Your answer should involve the concept of preparedness to illustrate this interaction.

Question 42

a. Differentiate among human nature, psychological mechanisms, and universal motives?
b. What is the purpose of psychological mechanisms and universal motives according to evolutionary psychology?

Question 43

a. Describe the connection between sexual desire and romantic love.
b. Describe the different behaviors that each motivates.

Question 44

Contrast the difference between evolutionary explanations and social explanations that are used to clarify mating strategies between men and women.

Question 45

a. According to evolutionary psychology, how did "beauty" evolve?
b. What does beauty signify according to the good genes hypothesis?

Question 46

a. What is a person's mate value?
b. Does a person's mate value have any evolutionary significance or is it an arbitrary value determined solely by society? Explain!

Question 47

a. Describe how and why emotions like love, jealousy, fear and innate taste preferences evolved in terms of Darwin's theory of evolution.
b. What do love, jealousy, fear, and taste preferences motivate?

Question 48

What is the mismatch hypothesis? Provide examples.

Question 49

Why is the universal liking of music considered to be an evolutionary puzzle?