General Psychology Midterm

General Psychology Midterm / Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science / Exam Date: 10/31/24 {EXAM INCLUDES ALL PAST FLASHCARDS} {VOCAB FROM BOOK INCLUDED}

Motivation

Defined as the process that initiates, directs, and sustains behavior

Usually satisfying the physiological or psychological needs

It's the reason or purpose, referred to as motive

Drive reduction theory

People are motivated to take action in order to reduce the internal tension that is caused by unmet needs

Motivation arises to maintain homeostasis

• Being hungry, cold, thirsty, tired, or hot

Arousal theory

People take certain actions to either decrease or increase their levels of arousal

People seek optimal levels of arousal

When arousal is too low a person may go for a job, when arousal is too high a person may meditate

Expectancy theory

People are motivated to do things because of external rewards

People are drawn to the positive and repelled by the negative outcomes

Focus on incentives

Goal setting theory

People are propelled strongly by the use of goals

Increase performance

Goals must be specific, challenging, and attainable

Feedback aids progress

Three components of motive

Activation

Persistence

Intensity

Extrinsic motivations

Engaing in behvaior in order to obtain an external reward or avoid a penalty or other undesirable consequences

Motivation that arises from outside of the individual and often involve rewards

Accolades (enticement maintains interest)

Intrinsic motivation

Engaging in behavior simply for the feelings of pleasure, satisfaction, or sense of competence or independence it brings

Motivation that arises within the individual

Autonomy, mastery, and purpose

Abraham Maslow

Most notable humanistic psychologist of the 20th century

People do not blindly react to situations

Studied exemplary people

Created the hierarchy of needs (pyramid of needs)

The hierarchy of needs (pyramid of needs)

The arrangement of needs from most basic to those at the highest levels

Physiological → safety → love/belonging → self-esteem → self-actualization

Physiological (hierarchy of needs)

Breathing, food, water, sex, sleep, homeostasis, excretion

Safety (hierarchy of needs)

Security of: body, employment, resources, the family, health, property

Love and Belonging (hierarchy of needs)

Friendship, family, sexual intimacy

Self Actualization (hierarchy of needs)

Morality, creativity, spontaneity, problem solving, lack of prejudice, acceptance of facts

Hunger motivation

The desire to obtain and consume food

The most powerful motivator

The brain controls the sensation to start or stop our hunger drive but many other factors become involved

Binge eating disorder

Recurring episodes of binge eating occur, feeling out of control while binging, feeling guilt and shame afterwards

Anorexia nervosa

Eating disorder characterized by an obsessive fear of gaining weight

Bulimia nervosa

Eating disorder characterized by binge eating followed by purging

Sexual motivation

The desire to engage in various forms of sexual relations

The most intimate motive

Used in advertising to attract attention to products

Achievement motivation

Desire to accomplish difficult tasks and meet standards of excellence

Characteristics of high achievement motivation

Prefer difficulty, clear expectations, feedback, competition, responsibility and having to persevere

McGregor’s X & Y theory

Created in the 1960s for business development

Describing two contrasting models of workforce motivation

Theory X

Management believes employees are lazy, will avoid work if they can and that employees dislike work

Micromanagers

Theory Y

Management assumes employees are ambitious, self-motivated, exercise self-control, and believe that employees enjoy their work duties

Herzberg’s two factor theory

Contain factors exist in the workplace that cause job satisfaction, while a separate set of factors cause dissatisfaction which both factors operate independently

Developed in Pittsburgh

Composed of two categories of factors:

• Hygiene

  • Salary, job security, fringe benefits

• Motivators

  • Challenging work &/or recognition

Emotions

Defined as the outward displays or expressions of mood or feelings

Typically learned from your culture

Characteristics of emotions (7)

Temporary

Subjective

Positive or negative (or a mix)

Intensity varies

Triggered partially by thoughts

Alters thought process

Felt regardless of desire

Grief

The internal reaction

Involves the process of many emotions

Mourning

The external process

‘Grief gone public’

Bereavement

The event or state causes by a loss

Actually means to be torn away

Cannon’s bard theory (central theory)

Events simultaneously produce the subjective reaction labeled as emotion

Emotion starts in the brain

Information goes first to the thalamus—>autonomic nervous system & cerebral cortex, where emotion becomes conscious

Create experience of fear while at the same time sending message to heart, lungs, and legs to get you out of the situation

Arousal and emotion occur at the same time

James lang theory

Events cause the subjective reaction of emotion but the person must recognize the physical symptoms first

You are afraid because you run from bear

Experience emotions only by percieving or physiological response to an event

Without physiological responses, nothing remains of emotional experience

Emotions occur after arousal

Schacter and singer theory

The subjective reaction of emotion is determined by the cognitive label we attach to the feeling

Emotions result from a combination of feedback from the body’s responses and or interpretation of what caused those responses

Arousal first occurs then the reaction must be identified and finally the emotion is labeled

Nonverbal gestures

Outward signs of emotional states

Body language, eye contact, & facial expressions

Body language

The body posture or movement of the body in reaction to emotional events

Eye contact

Nonverbal means of conveying and ascertaining emotional information or mood status

Facial expressions

The use of the face to illustrate a person’s emotional state

6 universal facial expressions

Anger

Fear

Surprise/shock

Sadness

Happiness

Disgust

Evolutionary theory

A view that emphasizes the inherited, adaptive aspects of behavior and mental processes

Incentive theory

A theory that people are pulled toward behaviors that offer positive incentives and pushed away from behaviors associated with negative incentives

Hypothalamus

A structure in the forebrain that regulates hunger, thirst, and sex drive

Thalamus

A forebrain structure that relays signals from most sense organs to higher levels in the brain and plays an important role in processing and making sense out of this information

Parasympathetic nervous system

The subsystem of the autonomic nervous system that typically influences activity related to the protection, nourishment, and growth of the body

Sympathetic nervous system

The subsystem of the autonomic nervous system that readies the body for vigorous activity

Ventromedial nucleus

Important in the regulation of female sexual behavior, feeding, energy balance, and cardiovascular function

Lets the body know to stop eating

Lateral hypothalamus

Controls many behaviors, including feeding, energy balance, sleep-wake states, and motivated behavior

Tells animal to start eating

Paraventricular nucleus

Reduces food intake when stimulated

Approach-avoidance conflict

Arises when we must decide wether to do something that has both positive and negative consequences

Instinctive behaviors

Innate, automatic dispositions to respond in particular ways to specific stimuli

Instinct doctrine

A view that behavior is motivated by automatic, involuntary and unlearned responses

Androgens

Masculine hormones that circulate in the bloodstream

Progestational hormones

Feminine hormones that circulate in the bloodstream

Excitation transfer theory

The theory that physiological arousal stemming from one situation is carried over to and enhances emotional experience in an independent situation

Lazarus’s cognitive appraisal theory

The process of cognitive appraisal begins when we decide whether an event matters to us

Unlikely to have an emotional experience when it doesn't matter

If event is relative to health, well-being, staus, self-esteem, goals, or finances, we will probably have a significant emotional reaction to it

Darwin’s universal rules

Some facial expressions are genetically determined, passed on biologically from one generation to the next

Social referencing

A process where people, especially infants, use emotional information from others to guide their behavior, particularly in uncertain situations