Student Guide Unit 1: Introduction to the Brain

Teacher Key Lesson 8

1. Define affiliation (Slide 3)
● Described as a person’s need to feel like they belong to a “social” group

● A sense of involvement

2. How and why do humans affiliate? (Slide 5)

● common interest

● friendship

● Desire to be part of a social group

● Interest in intimacy

● Stress may be a “trigger” to affiliation

- Encourages individuals to responding to the same stressor to come together find security
in one another
● Social connectivity is necessary for survival

3. How does affiliation impact teens? (Slide 6)

● environmental and biological changes lead to new social encounters

● Heightened awareness and interest in people

● Recognition of facial expressions and emotions

● Begin to evaluate other people

4. What is oxytocin? (Slide 8 – answers are in narrator’s words)

● Oxytocin is a hormone and neurotransmitter

● Produced in the hypothalamus and released during sex, childbirth, and lactation to
reproductive functions
● Important for social behaviors (social memory and attachment) and emotional behaviors

U1L8 Student Guide Teacher Key 1

 5. Why is oxytocin critical to human survival? (Slide 9)
● oxycontin and its receptors appear to hold the leading position as an important brain
compound in building trust, which is necessary for developing emotional relationships, a
process also referred to as social bonding
● social bonding is essential to species survival since it favors reproduction, protection against
predators and environmental changes, and furthers brain development
● Recent literature states that oxytocin can also be involved in triggering aggression (it is likely
involved in identifying friends vs. not a friend)

6. What influences who you affiliate with? (Slide 10)

● Perception of social signals
- facial expressions
- Body posture
- Person’s movement

● We associate facial structure and properties of faces as a reliable indicator of personal

identity
● Facial expressions have been one of the most commonly used stimuli to identify social
interactions

7. How does the teenage brain interpretation connect with perception and judgment? (Slide 12)
● The amygdala receives visual information and stores needed information to process the
perception
● Includes
- social jid[gjmentrs: processing the motivational properties of the stimuli
- Trust: does this person seem trustable based on complex social judgments, body posture,
and movement
- Attractiveness: based on the specific properties of a person’s face

8. (Slide 13) Studies have shown that teens are not as good as adults at interpreting the emotional
meanings of facial expressions. Therefore, making sound social judgments or knowing who to
trust will mature over time and with more experience.

9. Both affiliation and aggression use the triad. (Slide 14)

10. What is the difference between aggression and violence? (Slide 15)

U1L8 Student Guide Teacher Key 2

 ● Aggression
- A protective mechanism for self or others
● Violence
- The intentional physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another
person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of
resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation.
11. Explaining Aggression (Slide 16)
● Aggression is a normal behavior

● testosterone influences the brain to increase aggression after puberty

● Female aggression is not well understood except for maternal protection of young

● It can be worsened by
- Damage to regions of the brain
- Disruption in neurochemistry

12. No, Not All Aggression is Bad (Slide 18)

If a person protects themselves from a burglar or an intruder or a patient protects a child from a
threat, the aggression is viewed positively. In these cases:

● Aggression is adaptive, protective, and helpful

● Aggression can be used to protect

13. Where does aggression start? (Slide 19)

- amygdala interprets as a threat (in our example it was the angry dog)
- The amygdala signals both the hypothalamus (which coordinates aggressive behavior)
and the cortex, which evaluates and prioritizes the information it is receiving from the
hypothalamus and amygdala.
- The amygdala and its connection to the hypothalamus trigger both emotional and
physiological responses to threat which include heart rate changes, pupil dilation, and
changes in the gastrointestinal system.

14. Don’t make a permanent decision from a temporary emotion” (Slide 20) What are the three
factors that influence teen risk of aggressive behavior?
● not as good as adults at interpreting the emotional meanings of facial expressions

U1L8 Student Guide Teacher Key 3

 ● Lack of maturity in the ability to make sound decisions and solve problems

● Onset of aggression with pubertal development

15. The Teen Brain Can Be Regulated (Slide 21)

● Self-regulation essential to healthy emotional development

● The key factor in preventing/controlling anti-social behaviors

● Teen capacity to create and maintain healthy emotional relationships is increasing

● Teen stress response systems are developing

16. Feelings, Feelings, Feelings (Slide 22)

● Feeling angry and having a wide range of emotions is normal from time to time
- how those emotions are expressed is important
- many factors can cause aggression to escalate

17. What can you do if you’re experiencing or witnessing violence? (Slide 23)
● Do not ignore the issues, they can escalate to violence or abuse

● If you think you are in a dangerous situation, seek help immediately and contact a trusted
adult
● Contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) or TEXT the word
“START” to 88788 or visit the website at thehotline.com

18. Summary (Slide 24)

● Across species, oxycontin is important in regulating the formation of social memories, as well
as displays of affiliate and aggression behaviors

U1L8 Student Guide Teacher Key 4

 ● Humans are made to affiliate

● The brain controls with whom you affiliate and why

● Teen brain development impacts affiliation and aggression

● Not all aggression is bad; in many cases, it is a built-in protective mechanism in your brain

● Violence is very different than aggression and can quickly become a serious threat to
someone’s life
● Avoiding violent situations (flight) and reporting violence is an important step to personal
safety and overall health

U1L8 Student Guide Teacher Key 5