In the Driver's Seat: Sexual Orientation
Although opinions differ as to what determines sexual orientation, most scientists believe that for males it is primarily inborn. Simon LeVay, for example found a cluster of nerve cells in the hypothalamus that is larger in heterosexual males than...
In the Driver's Seat: Sex Motivation
Although men and women are motivated to be sexually desirably, the biological urge for sex differs from motives such as thirst and hunger. Beginning in adolescence, sex motivates both men and women but in different ways in terms of their response pa...
In the Driver's Seat: Need to Belong, The
The need for acceptance-the need to bond with friends and family-is a not unique to humans, as experiments have shown. People cannot survive or thrive without other people. If you procreate but do not caregive, your genes will not make it into the g...
In the Driver's Seat: Eating Behaviors and Disorders
With the abundance of tasty food available, it is easy to overeat, a fact complicated by our cultural fixation on thinness. The pressure to be thin, combined with other factors, leads to such eating disorders as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa....
In the Driver's Seat: Motivating Workers
Too much emphasis on material rewards produces a kind of jadedness. Many business leaders overestimate the importance of pay. Such nonmaterial rewards as clear feedback, shared authority in decisions related to the work environment and plant operati...
In the Driver's Seat: Appetite vs. Reasons
Two processes in the brain compete for control, the limbic system representing appetite and the cortex representing reason. When people are near something they really want, they may experience motivational myopia and shut down their cognitive functi...
In the Driver's Seat: Finding Motivation from Within
Finding motivation from within, in our personal and professional lives, brings greater satisfaction. Whatever other factors operate, as guides or motivators, they are rooted in the core belief that one has the power to make a change by one's actions...