AP Psych Unit 7: Motivation, Emotion, and Personality

Charles Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection

Individuals best adapted to their environment will be more likely to survive and reproduce, passing their favorable characteristics on to the next generation

William James

Believed that motivation for instincts was important in behavior

Instincts

Complex, inherited behavior patterns characteristic of a species

Konrad Lorenz + Baby Ducks

When Lorenz was the first moving object that the ducklings saw, they followed him and retained an attachment throughout their lives

Sociobiology

Tries to relate social behaviors to evolutionary biology

Clark Hull’s Drive Reduction Theory

Behavior is motivated by the need to reduce drives such as hunger, thirst, or sex

Need

Motivated state caused by physiological deficit

Drive

State of psychological tension induced by a need

Homeostasis

Body’s tendency to maintain an internal steady state of metabolism

Metabolism

Sum total of all the chemical processes that occur in our bodies to keep us alive

Incentive Theory

Primary motives push us to satisfy our biologic needs. Secondary motives are learned through society’s pull

Arousal

Level of alertness, wakefulness, and activation caused by activity in the CNS

Yerkes-Dodson Rule

We usually perform most activities best when moderately aroused, and efficiency of performance is lower when arousal is too low or too high

Abraham Maslow

Humanist psychologist that categorized needs and arranged them in priority

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Basic biological needs come first, and then we are motivated by our belongingness/love needs, and above all of this is self-actualization

Self-actualization

Achievement of all our potentials

Hunger

Receptor cells in the stomach that detect food in the stomach and send neural impulses along the vagus nerve to our brain, reducing our level of hunger

Cholecystokinin

Secreted by the small intestine when food enters stimulates the hypothalamus to reduce our level of hunger

Small intestine + hormones + insulin

1. Small intestine releases sugar into the blood

2. Blood sugar concentration increases

3. Pancreas secretes insulin

4. Insulin stimulates hunger

5. Lowers blood glucose level —> promoting formation of fat

1. When blood sugar is low, insulin release is inhibited, and pancreas secretes glucagon

2. Glucagon increases blood glucose,

Lateral hypothalamus (LH)

Starts eating behavior, if removed/lesioned, the individual will not eat at all and starve to death

Ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH)

Turns off the urge to eat, and when removed, the organism will continue to eat and eat

Paraventricular hypothalamus (PVH)

Regulates eating behavior as a result of stimulation/inhibition of NTs

Carbohydrates

Norepinephrine, GABA, and neuropeptide Y increase desire for carbs, while serotonin decreases desire for carbs

Set-point theory

We each have a set point, or a preset natural body weight that is determined by the number of fat cells in our body

• eat less: weight goes down and fat cells contract

• eat more: weight goes up and fat cells increase in size

Anorexia nervosa

Underweight people who weigh less than 85% of their normal body weight

Bulimia nervosa

Thousand calorie purges followed by purging (vomiting or laxatives)

Regulation of Thirst

• Lateral hypothalamus will start drinking behavior when stimulated

Osmoreceptors

Sensitive to dehydration of our cells. When they detect shrinking cells, we become thirsty

Thirst + Hormones

1. Hypothalamus stimulates pituitary to release antidiuretic hormone

2. Reabsorption of water in kidneys

Vomiting, donating blood, diarrhea:

1. Volume of blood decreases

2. Kidney cells release enzyme that causes synthesis of angiotensin

3. Stimulates thirst receptors

Sex drive

1. Secretion of hormones by hypothalamus

2. Stimulates pituitary gland to secrete LH and FSH

3. Stimulates gonads to secrete hormones to maintain arousal

Achievement motive

Desire to meet some internalized standard of excellence

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

Measure achievement motivation

Affiliation motive

Need to be with others

• aroused when people feel threatened, anxious, celebratory

Intrinsic motivation

Desire to perform an activity for its own sake rather than an external reward

• people who are: psychologically healthy + happier

Extrinsic motivation

Desire to perform an activity to obtain a reward from outside the individual

Overjustification effect

Intrinsic motivation diminishes —> promising a reward for something they already like to do results in them seeing the reward as the motivation for performing the task

Conflict

Being torn in different directions by opposing motives that block you from attaining a goal

Approach-approach conflicts

Two positive options, you can only have one

Ex: Harvard vs. Yale

Avoidance-avoidance conflicts

Two negative options, you must choose one

Approach-avoidance conflict

Whether or not to choose an option that has both a positive and negative consequence(s)

Multiple Approach-avoidance conflict

Several alternative courses of action that have both positive and negative aspects

Emotion

Conscious feeling of pleasantness or unpleasantness accompanied by biological activation and expressive behavior

Two dimensions of emotion

1. arousal or intensity

2. valence of positive/negative quality

Evolutionary theory for emotion

Emotions persist because of their adaptive value. Fear causes humans to focus attention and protect themselves

Amygdala + emotion

Fear and aggression

Frontal lobes + emotion

Interpretation of emotions

Left hemisphere

Associated with positive emotions

Right hemisphere

Associated with negative emotions

Six basic facial expressions

anger, happiness, sadness, fear, disgust, surprise

James-Lange Theory of Emotion

Awareness of physiological arousal leads to our conscious experience of emotion

External stimuli activate our autonomic nervous system and produce specific patterns of physiological change for different emotions

Ex: we see a scary dog, our sympathetic nervous system kicks in, and then we run, and then we become aware we are afraid

Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion

Conscious experience of emotion accompanies physiological responses

Thalamus sends info to limbic and frontal lobe

ex: see a vicious dog, bodily arousal and recognition of fear we feel occur at the same time

Opponent-Process Theory

When we experience an emotion, an opposing emotion will counter the first emotion, lessening the experience of the first emotion

ex: if we are about to jump out of an airplane, we feel extreme fear and low levels of elation, but the more we do it, the more elation we feel

Shachter-Singer Two Factor Theory

Our emotional experiences depend on our interpretation of situations. We infer emotion from arousal and then label it according to our cognitive explanation for arousal

ex: if we feel aroused and someone is yelling at us, we must be angry

Cognitive-Appraisal Theory

Emotional experience depends on our interpretation of the situation we are in

primary appraisal: assess potential consequences

secondary appraisal: we decide what to do

Stress

Process by which we appraise and respond to environmental threats

Stressors

Stimuli such as heat, cold, pain, mild shock, restraint that we perceive as endangering our wellbeing

General Adaptation Syndrome

1. Alarm: increases SNS + adrenal glands

2. Resistance: temp, heart rate, bp stay high, hormones rise

3. Exhaustion: decreased immunity to diseases, illnesses, depression, death

Catastrophes

Stressors that are unpredictable, large-scale disasters that threaten us

Holmes + Rahe Social Readjustment Rating Scale

Rates stressful events in our lives

higher score = greater probability of major health event within the next year

Daily hassles

everyday annoyances

Type A personalities

High achievers, competitive, impatient, multitaskers, quick

more likely for heart attack, but will fix their habits after

Type B personalities

More relaxed, calm

less likely for heart attack, will not usually fix habits after

Maladaptive coping strategies

eating, drinking, smoking, sleeping, defense mechanisms

Positive psychology

Scientific study of optimal human functioning

1. positive emotions

2. positive character

3. positive groups

Biological/Evolutionary Personality Theories

Temperament is the hereditary component of personality

Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory

People have an inborn nature that shapes their personality

Sexual conflicts hidden from awareness causes many problems

Freud’s Three Major Systems of Personality

1. id

2. ego

3. superego

id

everything psychological that is inherited, psychic energy that powers all three systems

immediate gratification of desires, pleasure principle

irrational, self-centered

edo

partly conscious/unconscious

mediates between instinctual needs and conditions of surrounding environment

reality principle

superego

Punishes us and makes us feel guilty

ego-ideal rewards us and makes us feel proud of ourselves

Defense mechanisms

• repression

• regression

• rationalization

• projection

• displacement

• reaction formation

• sublimation

Regression

Retreat to an earlier level of development

Rationalization

Offering socially acceptable reasons for our inappropriate behavior

Projection

Attributing our own undesirable thoughts, feelings to others

Displacement

Shifting our own undesirable thoughts, feelings to a less threatening person/object

Reaction formation

Acting in a manner exactly opposite to our true feelings

Sublimation

Redirection of unacceptable sexual or aggressive impulses into more socially acceptable behaviors

Freud’s Theory of Psychosexual Development

First 5 years of life are critical for the formation of personality

If the conflict is not resolved, libido would become fixated at the pleasure center of that stage

1. oral

2. anal

3. phallic

4. latency

5. genital

Oral phase

birth-18 months

pleasure from putting things in their mouth

biting nails, overeating, smoking, chewing on pencil

oral-dependent: gullibility, overeating

oral-aggressive: sarcasm

Anal phase

2-3 years

pleasure focused on elimination-toilet training, coping with control

orderliness (anal-retentive)

messiness (anal-expulsive)

Phallic phase

3-6 years

pleasure zone is the genital area

Oedipus complex, identification w/ same-sex parent

sexual identity

Latency

6-12 years

sexual urges are relatively dormant

Genital

Puberty on

Full sexual maturity

Carl Jung’s Analytic Theory of Personality

Personality is shaped by cumulative experiences of past generations.

Psyche consists of interacting systems including the ego, personal unconscious, collective unconscious, and the self

Personal unconscious

Storehouse of all of our own past memories, hidden instincts, and urges unique to us

Collective unconscious

Powerful and influential system of the psyche that contains universal memories/ideas that all people have inherited from our ancestors

Archetypes

common themes found in all cultures, religions, literature

Individuation

psychological process by which a person becomes an individual

Alfred Adler’s Individual Psychology

Emphasized social interest as primary determinant of behavior

Consciousness is the center of personality

Strive for superiority, inferiority complexes

Birth order personality

Karen Horney’s Psychoanalytic Theory

Feminist perspective, attacked male bias in Freud’s work

Males and females were both envious of attributes of the other sex, but women were more envious of the male’s social status

Abraham Maslow’s Holistic Dynamic Theory

We are born good and move toward self-actualization as our goal.

Society sometimes makes us choose goals that lead us away from self-actualization

Self-actualizers: autonomous, independent, creative, democratic

Carl Roger’s Self Theory

Experiences that are not consistent with our self-concept make us anxious.

We need unconditional positive regard

real self vs. ideal self = incongruence

Self

Organized, consistent set of beliefs and perceptions about ourselves

Unconditional positive regard

Acceptance and love from others despite how we behave

Incongruence

real self vs. ideal self

Skinner’s Behavioral Theory

The environment shapes who we become, and who we become is determined by the contingencies of reinforcement we have experienced

George Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory

We make sense of our world by generating, testing, revising hypotheses about our social reality (personal constructs)

Personal constructs

bipolar categories we use to help us categorize and interpret the world

ex: happy/unhappy, energetic/inactive