PSYC23H3 Lecture Notes - Cortisol
Document Summary
When you take a nice bath, touch someone, and huge amount of release during sexual interaction. It goes off the chart when you deal with pregnancy and birth. First it was related to bonding behaviour. Praire volts- long lasting relationships and montane volts- swinging relationships. In praire volts- when you haven"t given birth yet and do give birth- equal amount of time spent with the offspring. Montane volts- don"t spend time with offspring and when they give birth- significant increase in the amount of time spend with cubs but still less than the praire volts. Praire volts- oxytocin levels don"t shift dramatically when they were a new babysitter or a mother. Montance volts- oxytocin levels really low but do rise when they become a parent eventhough the behaviour is quite not high. By last trimester, women will show significant elevation in oxytocin level compare to earlier months. Circulating cortisol levels decrease dramatically across pregnancy.
