AP Psych Unit 7 Terms

Intrinsic motivation

The doing of an activity for its inherent satisfaction rather than for some separable consequence.

Extrinsic motivation

A motivation to participate in an activity based on meeting an external goal, garnering praise and approval, winning a competition, or receiving an award or payment.

Drive-reduction theory

Motivation comes from the desire to maintain homeostasis, as physiological needs increase so does our psychological motivation, however when our physiological needs are completely met, motivation fades away.

Homeostasis

Body seeking equilibrium, balance.

Yerkes-Dodson law

A model of the relationship between stress and task performance proposes that you reach your peak level of performance with an intermediate level of stress, or arousal, too little or too much arousal results in poorer performance.

Set point

When our body is at homeostasis, ex:when we are unwell, our body will adjust to conserve energy by lowering our temperature and increasing our appetite.

Sexual dysfunction

Recurrent problems with sexual response.

Estrogens

Female sex hormones that are primarily produced in the ovaries.

Testosterone

Mainly in testes, responsible for typically male behaviors, such as aggression, competitiveness, and superior visuo-spatial abilities.

Schachter-Singer two-factor theory

This theory focuses on how people try to understand their states of arousal, the interpretation of the arousal state leads to the conscious feeling.

Facial feedback effect

Research on this theory shows that our facial expressions can trigger emotional feelings and signal our body to respond accordingly.

General adaptation syndrome (GAS)

Selye’s concept of the body’s adaptive response to stress:alarm>resistance>exhaustion.

Tend-and-befriend response

Often women, provide support and bond with/seek support from friends under stress.

Psychophysiological illness

"Mind-body" issues, any stress-related physical illness, such as hypertension and some headaches.

Type A personality

Type A people are more structured, hard-driven and therefore secrete more of the hormones that accelerate the buildup of plaque on the heart’s artery walls.

Type B personality

Type B people are more relaxed and easygoing.

Free association

A common tenet of psychoanalysis that allows clients to speak for themselves.

Psychoanalysis

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

Unconscious

Represents the thoughts, desires, and urges that are actively repressed from consciousness and that affect mental activity outside of active awareness.

Id

The primitive, basic, and fully unconscious part of the personality, these thoughts are directed toward fulfilling sexual and aggressive drives, the id operates on the pleasure principle that wants automatic gratification.

Ego

The psychological component of the personality that is represented by our conscious decision-making process.

Superego

The social component of our personality and conscience tries to make us conform to and thrive in society.

Oedipus complex

In a boy, envy and jealousy are aimed at the father, the object of the mother's affection and attention, these feelings for the mother and rivalry toward the father lead to fantasies of getting rid of his father and taking his place with the mother.

Defense mechanisms

Unconscious processes which protect people from painful feelings such as anxiety, guilt, and shame; to enable the organism to survive a traumatic experience.

Collective unconscious

Passed down through a species, inherited universal concepts that we all share as humans.