PSYCH UNIT 7

achievement motivation

a desire for significant accomplishment, for mastery of skills or ideas, for control, and for attaining a high standard

affiliation need

the need to build relationships and to feel part of a group

Insulin

An appetite hormone that lowers blood glucose (sugar) levels

Ghrelin

an appetite hormone that increases appetite and leads to hunger

Orexin

(appetite hormone) a neuropeptide that regulates arousal, wakefulness, and appetite

Leptin

(appetite hormone) protein hormone secreted by fat cells; when abundant, causes brain to increase metabolism and decrease hunger

PYY (peptide YY)

appetie hormone concerned w/ hunger and the lack of hunger

Personality

an individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting

Denial

Defense mechanism by which people refuse to accept an anxiety producing piece of info.

(not accepting that a loved one has died)

defense mechanisms

in psychoanalytic theory, the ego's protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality

Asexual

having no sexual attraction to others

psychodynamic theories

theories that view personality with a focus on the unconscious and the importance of childhood experiences

Psychoanalysis

Freud's theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts.

Psychoneuroimmunology

the study of how psychological, neural, and endocrine processes together affect the immune system and resulting health

projective tests

a personality test, such as the Rorschach or TAT, that provides ambiguous stimuli to trigger projection of one's inner thoughts and feelings

positive psychology

the scientific study of human flourishing, with the goals of discovering and promoting strengths and virtues that help individuals and communities to thrive

personality inventory

a questionnaire on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors; used to assess selected personality traits

overjustification effect

our tendency to become less intrinsically motivated to partake in an activity that we used to enjoy when offered an external incentive such as money or a reward.

Sublimation

Defense mechanism by which people redirect socially unacceptable impulses toward acceptable goals.

(woman who recently went through a breakup channels her emotions into a home improvement project)

Repression

Defense mechanism by which anxiety-provoking thoughts and feelings are forced to the unconscious.

Regression

retreating from a threatening situation by reverting to a pattern of behavior characteristic of an earlier stage of development.

(child going through trauma starts sucking their thumb)

reaction formation

Defense mechanism by which people behave in a way opposite to what their true but anxiety-provoking feelings would dictate.

(boy likes a girl, but instead of admitting it, he bullies her)

Rationalization

distorting reality in order to justify something that has happened.

(student got rejected from dream college but says she's happy to be attending a less competetive school)

Projection

transferring unacceptable thoughts, motives, or impulses to others

(married man who is attracted to a female coworker, but rather than admit it himself, he accuses her of flirting)

Displacement

The redirection of aggression to a target other than the source of the frustration. Generally, the new target is a safer or more socially acceptable target.

(manager screams at employee, employee screams at wife that night)

coronary heart disease

the clogging of the vessels that nourish the heart muscle; the leading cause of death in many developed countries

Consientiousness

a person is organized, driven, makes proper choices that positively affect their lives, and is disciplined when it comes to work and home life

collective unconscious

Carl Jung's concept of the part of the mind containing memories and impulses of which the individual is not aware is common to mankind as a whole and originating in the inherited structure of the brain

cognitive dissonance theory

the theory that we act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) we feel when two of our thoughts (cognitions) are inconsistent. (when our awareness of our attitudes and of our actions clash, we can reduce the resulting dissonance by changing our attitudes)

carcinogens

cancer causing agents

Cannon-Bard Theory

the theory that an emotion-arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers (1) physiological responses and (2) the subjective experience of emotion

Catharsis

the idea that "releasing" aggressive energy relieves aggressive urges

Big 5 traits of personality

(OCEAN) Openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism

behavioral approach

focuses on the effects of learning on our personality development

behavior feedback effect

the tendency of behavior to influence our own and others' thoughts, feelings, and actions

basal metabolic rate

the body's resting rate of energy output

autonomy

feeling psysiologically free & having the ability to control your life.

emotional arousal theory

states that events cause the autonomic nervous system to induce physiological arousal (emotion comes as a result of the physiological arousal)

optimal arousal theory

states that we are driven to maintain a "comfortable" level of physical, emotional, or intellectual arousal

arousal theory

states that motivation is directed by specific levels of arousal (mental alertness)

Archetypes

emotionally charged images and thought forms that have universal meaning

psychosexual stages

the childhood stages of development (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital) during which, according to Freud, the id's pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones

Rorschach inkblot test

the most widely used projective test, a set of 10 inkblots, designed by Hermann Rorschach; seeks to identify people's inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots

refractory period

(1) in neural processing, a brief resting pause that occurs after a neuron has fired.

(2) in human sexuality, a resting period that occurs after orgasm, during which a person cannot achieve another orgasm.

reciprocal determinism

the interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and environment

Schacter-Singer Two-Factor Theory of Emotion

theory of emotion that states emotion is due to 2 factors: physiological arousal & cognitive processes.

self-efficacy

One's belief in his or her own ability.

self-esteem

one's feelings of high or low self-worth

set point

the point at which an individual's "weight thermostat" is supposedly set. When the body falls below this weight, an increase in hunger and a lowered metabolic rate may act to restore the lost weight.

sexual dysfunction

a problem that consistently impairs sexual arousal or functioning

sexual response cycle

the four stages of sexual responding described by Masters and Johnson - excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution

spillover effect

the tendency of one person's emotion to affect how other people around them feel

Stress

the process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, called stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging

Stressors

Anything that causes stress

stress-related illness

Mental health disorders that are result of stress

self-actualization

according to Maslow, one of the ultimate psychological needs that arises after basic physical and psychological needs are met and self-esteem is achieved; the motivation to fulfill one's potential

self-concept

all our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question, "Who am I?"

self-serving bias

the tendency for people to take personal credit for success but blame failure on external factors

social-cognitive perspective

(bandura) describes the influence of individual experiences, the actions of others, & environmental factors on individual health behaviors.

spotlight effect

overestimating others' noticing and evaluating our appearance, performance, and blunders (as if we presume a spotlight shines on us)

unconditional positive regard

a caring, accepting, nonjudgmental attitude, which Carl Rogers believed would help clients to develop self-awareness and self-acceptance

tend-and-befriend

under stress, people (especially women) often provide support to others (tend) and bond with and seek support from others (befriend)

Testosterone

the most important of the male sex hormones. Both males and females have it, but the additional testosterone in males stimulates the growth of the male sex organs in the fetus and the development of the male sex characteristics during puberty

William James

• functionalism

• stream of consciousness

• theory of emotion

• taught 1st psychology class/ 1st experimental lab in US

Abraham Maslow

• humanistic perspective

• hierarchy of needs

• self-actualization/ self- transcendence

Alfred Adler

• psychodynamic theory

• personality theory

• individual psychology

Alber Bandura

• self-efficacy

• social-cognitive perspective

• social learning theory

• model of reciprocal determinism

Paul Costa & Robert McCrae

• NEO personality inventory (tests neuroticism, extraversion, and openness)

• NEO-PI/ NEO-PI-R (tests agreeableness and conscientiousness)

• trait theory

• Big 5 personality traits

Sigmund Freud

• psycholanalytic perspective

• psychosexual development

• id/ego/superego

Carl Jung

• psychodynamic theory

• collective conscious theory

• personality theory

Carl Rogers

• humanistic perspective

• self concept

• Nurture growth through: acceptance, genuineness, and empathy

drive-reduction theory

the idea that a physiological need creates an aroused tension state (a drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy the need

cross-cultural displays of emotion

Paul Ekman theorized that some basic human emotions are inate and shared by everyone, and that they are accompanied accross cultures by universal facial expressions.

Electra complex

(Jung) a girl, between ages 3-6, sexual desires toward her father and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival mother

empathy

the ability to understand and share the feelings of another

empirically derived test

a test (such as the MMPI) developed by testing a pool of items and then selecting those that discriminate between groups

Emotions

a response of the whole organism, involving (1) physiological arousal, (2) expressive behaviors, and (3) conscious experience

Estrogens

sex hormones, such as estradiol, secreted in greater amounts by females than by males and contributing to female sex characteristics.

Extraversion

A personality trait that reflects a person's tendency to be sociable, outgoing, active, and assertive.

evolutionary theory of motivation

This theory states that motivation and emotion are inseparable and that our motives are largely based on instincts.

factor analysis

a statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items (called factors) on a test; used to identify different dimensions of performance that underlie a person's total score.

false consensus effect

the tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors

temperament

a person's characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity

terror management theory

a theory of death-related anxiety; explores people's emotional and behavioral responses to reminders of their impending death

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

a projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes

Trait

a characteristic pattern of behavior or a disposition to feel and act, as assessed by self-report inventories and peer reports

Trait Theory

the idea that people differ from one another based on the strength and intensity of basic trait dimensions

Type A

Friedman and Rosenman's term for competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, and anger-prone people

Type B

Friedman and Rosenman's term for easygoing, relaxed people

unhealthy behaviors

a patterned behavior that is harmful to physical/mental health

Yerkes-Dodson Law

the principle that performance increases with arousal only up to a point, beyond which performance decreases

Fixation

according to Freud, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved

free association

in psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing

fully functioning person

a person who is in touch with and trusting of the deepest, innermost urges and feelings

evolutionary theories

theories that explain human behavior in terms of how it contributes to the survival of the species and that look at how our evolutionary past influences individual development

primary emotions

emotions that are expressed by people in all cultures

facial feedback hypothesis

the tendency of facial muscle states to trigger corresponding feelings such as fear, anger, or happiness

gender schemas

mental structures that organize incoming information according to gender categories and in turn lead people to perceive the world in terms of gender

general adaption syndrome-theory (GAS)

Selye's concept of the body's adaptive response to stress in 3 phases- alarm, resistance, exhaustion

Glucose

the form of sugar that circulates in the blood and provides the major source of energy for body tissues. When its level is low, we feel hunger.