Spotlight on Terminology and Language – ESL
Pointers
Module 25” Human Needs and Motivation:
Eat, Drink, and Be Daring
Page 311 “‘Binge eaters like Karen wait until no
one is around and then stuff themselves until
painfully full.”
A binge is a short period of time in which the
person does a large amount of uncontrolled eating
or drinking.
Page 311 “These disorders, which usually appear
during adolescence, can bring about
extraordinary weight loss and other forms of
physical deterioration.”
When something is extraordinary it is very
unusual and deserving of attention due to the fact
that it is outstanding or excellent.
To deteriorate is to become, or make something
worse in quality or strength.
Intake is an amount taken in.
Page 312 “They refuse food when it is offered,
and unless they are force-fed, they eventually
die.”
To force-feed is to compel to take in
nourishment. Sometimes people become so
weak or so ill, they must be made to take in
nutrition intravenously, or to swallow food,
against their will.
Page 313“Acting as a kind of internal weight
thermostat, the hypothalamus calls for either
greater or less food intake (Capaldi, 1996;
Woods et al., 2000; Berthoud, 2002).”
A thermostat is a tool that controls, or
regulates temperature.
Page 313 “Even people who are not
deliberately monitoring their weight show
only minor weight fluctuations in spite of
substantial day-to-day variations in how much
they eat and exercise.”
Page 311 “We then turn to secondary drives—
those uniquely human endeavours, based on
learned needs and past experience, that help
explain why people affiliate with others, seek
power over others, and strive to achieve.”
Fluctuations are unpredictable changes in
amount of something.
Affiliate means to associate with. Have you
noticed that you choose to affiliate with particular
people?
When you feel stuffed after eating it means
that you are completely full and have eaten too
much food.
Page 311-312“For instance, many contemporary
Western cultures stress the importance of slimness
in women—a relatively recent view.”
Page 313 “Suddenly your host announces with
great fanfare that he will be serving his
“house specialty” dessert, bananas flambé, and
that he has spent the better part of the
afternoon preparing it.”
To be slim is to be thin or small in size.
Page 312 “It’s not just a matter of an empty
stomach causing hunger pangs and a full one
alleviating those pangs.”
To alleviate is to relieve. We may work to
alleviate mental suffering through the use of
psychotherapy.
Page 312 “Increasing evidence suggests that the
hypothalamus carries the primary responsibility
for monitoring food intake.”
Page 313 “You’ve just finished a full meal and
feel completely stuffed.”
When your host makes an announcement with
great fanfare, he is making a showy and
dramatic announcement. In this case he is
marking the arrival of the dessert that he
worked so hard to prepare for this event.
Page 313 “Similarly, we put roughly the same
amount of food on our plates every day, even
though the amount of exercise we may have
had, and consequently our need for energy
replenishment, varies from day to day.”
A replenishment is something used to replace or
refill something that has been used up.
Page 316 “After such a binge, sufferers feel
guilt and depression and often induce
vomiting or take laxatives to rid themselves
of the food—behavior known as purging.”
Page 313 “Some of us head toward the refrigerator
after a difficult day, seeking solace in a litre of
Chapman’s almond fudge ice cream.”
To induce something is to make it happen. To
induce vomiting is to make yourself throw
up, or force the food out of your stomach.
We seek solace when we seek a source of comfort.
Do you have any private “comfort food” that
provides solace?
Laxatives are drugs that are designed to help
promote bowel movements.
Roughly means approximately, or almost.
Page 313-314 “Eventually, we may have learned,
through the basic mechanisms of classical and
operant conditioning, to associate food with
comfort and consolation.”
Consolation is a source of support for someone
who has been sad or upset.
Page 314 “One biological explanation is that obese
individuals have a higher level of the hormone
leptin, which appears to be designed, from an
evolutionary standpoint, to ‘protect’ the body
against weight loss.”
A standpoint is a point of view or the way a
group of people thinks about something.
When we purge something they remove it.
When people with eating disorders purge,
they force themselves to remove the food they
have eaten. They often do this by forcing
themselves to vomit or by taking laxative
medication.
Page 317 “She refused to let a morsel of food
pass her lips without a punishing workout to
cancel it out. . . .”
A morsel is a very small piece of food.
Page 317 “Most of the time you would be
right, given that more than half of North
Americans aren’t getting enough exercise—
and young people in particular are more
sedentary than they should be.”
Page 315 “Instead, they suggest, the body has a
settling point, determined by a combination of our
genetic heritage and the nature of the
environment in which we live.”
To be sedentary is to spend a lot of time
sitting and not much time exercising.
Our genetic heritage refers to the genetic
information that has been given to us by our
parents and grandparents.
Page 317 “Another indicator is a compulsion
to exercise—people with exercise dependency
tend to feel anxious and guilty about missing a
workout and to let their exercise activities
interfere with their work and with their social
lives.”
Page 315 “If high-fat foods are prevalent in our
environment and we are genetically predisposed to
obesity, we settle into an equilibrium that
maintains relatively high weight.”
Prevalent means common. Foods high in fat are
prevalent, or a common part of our diets.
Page 316 “Some 10 percent of people with
anorexia literally starve themselves to death.
(Striegel-Moore & Bulik, 2007).”
When someone starves themselves they go hungry
and refuse to eat.
A compulsion is an irresistible force that
makes someone do something.
Page 316 “Others believe that the cause has
roots in society’s valuation of slenderness
and the parallel notion that obesity is
undesirable.”
When someone is slender they are thin.
The root of something refers to the cause or
reason why something exists.
Page 316 “These researchers maintain that people
with anorexia nervosa and bulimia become
preoccupied with their weight and take to heart the
cliché that one can never be too thin.”
When you prime a pump, you add a little
water to start the full flow. In the text, the
biological factors are small changes that can
start the flow of emotion.
A cliché is an over used word or idea that is no
longer as effective because it has been overused.
Page 320 “Humans are considerably more
versatile; not only other people but nearly any
object, sight, smell, sound, or other stimulus
can lead to sexual excitement.”
Page 316 “The complete explanations for anorexia
nervosa and bulimia remain elusive.”
When something is elusive it is difficult to find or
understand.
Page 318 “One reason for the epidemic of obesity
is the number of hours spent viewing television by
people in North America.”
An epidemic is rapid development of a disease or
something that is typically unpleasant.
Page 318 “Not only does watching television
preclude other activities that burn calories (even
walking around the house is helpful), people often
gorge on junk food while watching.”
To preclude something is to prevent, or stop it
from happening.
When we gorge on something we eat it to excess.
Page 318 “Wrap refrigerated foods in aluminum
foil so that you cannot see the contents and be
tempted every time you open the refrigerator.”
When we are tempted we desire or crave
something and we feel that we must have it.
Humans are more diversified in the stimuli
that can lead to sexual excitement. They
respond to a variety of stimuli.
Page 320 “Due to prior associations, then,
people may be turned on sexually by the smell
of perfume or the sound of a favorite song
hummed softly in their ears.”
Perfume is a cosmetic applied to the body,
and made from natural substances to excite the
sense of smell.
Page 320 “If you listened to physicians 75
years ago, you would have been told that
masturbation, sexual self-stimulation, often
using the hand to rub the genitals, would lead
to a wide variety of physical and mental
disorders, ranging from hairy palms to
insanity.”
If someone is insane, he lacks judgment, has
no control over his emotions and does not
behave appropriately; he is suffering from
insanity.
Page 317 “Avoid fad diets.”
Page 320 “Despite the high incidence of
masturbation, attitudes toward it still reflect
some of the negative views of yesteryear.”
Fads are trends or fashion preferences that are
popular for a short period of time.
Yesteryear refers to the past in a nostalgic
way –“the good old days”.
Page 317 “Don’t try to lose too much weight too
quickly or you may doom yourself to failure.”
Page 320 “In addition, masturbation is seen as
providing a means of learning about one’s
own sexuality and a way of discovering
changes in one’s body such as the emergence
of precancerous lumps (Coleman, 2002;
Levin, 2007; Herbenick et al., 2009).”
To doom someone is to condemn or convict them
to a terrible outcome.
Page 320 “Though biological factors ‘prime’
people for sex, it takes more than hormones to
motivate and produce sexual behavior.”
When something emerges it comes out from
behind something else.
A precancerous change is a condition in which
body tissue shows an irregularity that is believed
to have the possibility of developing into cancer.
A counterpart is a group or person that is
complementary, or opposite to another person
or group.
Page 321 “Many people believe that the first time
they have sexual intercourse they have achieved
one of life’s major milestones.”
Page 325 “In the TAT, an examiner shows a
series of ambiguous pictures, such as the one
in Figure 5.”
A milestone is used to measure distance along a
road, or mark a significant spot. The word
“major” means big or important. So, significant
moments in a person’s life, such as birth, death
and marriage, are called major milestones of that
person’s life.
An ambiguous picture or stimulus is one that
is vague or unclear.
Page 321 “Traditionally, women have been
warned by society that ‘nice girls don’t do it’; men
have been told that although premarital sex is okay
for them, they should make sure they marry
virgins.”
A virgin is someone who has not had sexual
intercourse.
Page 321 “To judge by the number of articles
about sex in marriage, one would think that sexual
behavior was the number one standard by which
marital bliss is measured.”
Page 324 “Few of us choose to lead our lives
as hermits.”
A hermit is a person who chooses to live
alone and to have little contact with other
people.
Page 324“Individuals with a high need for
affiliation write Thematic Apperception Test
TAT stories (see Figure 4) that emphasize the
desire to maintain or reinstate friendships and
show concern over being rejected by friends.”
To reinstate something is to restore it to its
original form or return it to someone.
Page 324 “In addition, they seek to display the
trappings of power.”
Bliss is pleasure, enjoyment.
.
.Page 325 “But they are not indiscriminate when
it comes to picking their challenges: They tend to
avoid situations in which success will come too
easily (which would be unchallenging) and
situations in which success is unlikely.”
When someone is indiscriminate they do not take
care in making care choices or decisions. In above
sentence, since the author says that “They are not
indiscriminate…,” he is actually saying that the
people are very careful in their choices.
Page 325 “For instance, people motivated by a
high need for achievement are more likely to
attend college than are their low achievement
counterparts; and once they are in college, they
tend to receive higher grades in classes that are
related to their future careers.”
Trappings of power are the dress, accessories
and other outward things that show that
someone is in a position of status or position.
Page 324 “Even in college or university, they
are more likely to collect prestigious
possessions, such as electronic equipment and
sports cars.”
When something is prestigious it is viewed as
being important and having high status.
Page 324 “Men with high power needs tend to
show unusually high levels of aggression,
drink heavily, act in a sexually exploitative
manner, and participate more frequently in
competitive sports—behaviors that
collectively represent somewhat extravagant,
flamboyant behavior. “
Something that is exploitative makes use of
someone in an abusive or unfair way.
Something that is flamboyant is showy or
elaborate.
Page 324 “In contrast, women display their power
needs with more restraint; this is congruent with
traditional societal constraints on women’s
behavior.”
Congruent means that something is as it should
be or as it is expected to be Page 324 “Women
with high power needs are more apt than men are
to channel those needs in a socially responsible
manner, such as by showing concern for others or
displaying highly nurturing behavior (Winter,
1988, 1995, 2007; Maroda, 2004; Schubert &
Koole, 2009).”
To channel something is to guide or direct it along
a specific path.