Psychology 101: Consciousness, Emotion, Motivation, and Lifespan Development

Comprehensive review flashcards covering Consciousness, Sleep, Psychoactive Drugs, Theories of Emotion, Motivation, and Lifespan Human Development based on lecture slides.

Consciousness

The subjective awareness of both internal stimuli and external stimuli.

Repression

A mental process that removes unacceptable thoughts and memories from consciousness.

Cognitive Unconscious

The vast array of mental processes that operate outside of conscious awareness to shape perception, memory, judgment, and action.

Subliminal Perception

A thought or behavior that is influenced by stimuli that a person cannot consciously report perceiving.

Circadian Rhythm

A biological rhythm with a period of about $24\text{ hours}$, impacted by genetics, stress, illness, exercise, and drugs. Regulates essential bodily functions like sleep-wake cycle, hormone release, body temperature, digestion

Internal Desynchronization

A mismatch in circadian cycles caused by factors like jet lag or shift work, resulting in mental and motor deficits as well as delayed recovery of temperature regulation and hormone cycles.

EEG Patterns During the Stages of Sleep

The distinct neural rhythms recorded during waking and sleep: Beta waves (awake), Alpha waves (drowsy, relaxed), Theta waves (Stage 1), Sleep spindles and K complexes (Stage 2), Delta activity (Stage 3/Stage 4), and fast, random sawtooth waves (REM sleep).

Beta Waves

Brain wave patterns recorded on an EEG that indicate an alert and awake mental state.

Alpha Waves

Brain wave patterns recorded on an EEG that indicate a relaxed, drowsy waking state.

Sleep Spindles and K Complexes

Specific short bursts and waveform complexes observed on an EEG that characterize Stage 2 sleep.

Delta Waves

Slow, high-amplitude brain waves characteristic of deep sleep in Stage 3 and Stage 4.

Insomnia

A sleep disorder involving difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or getting good-quality rest.

Sleep Apnea

A sleep disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts throughout sleep, prompting multiple awakenings during the night.

Somnambulism

Sleepwalking; a condition occurring during sleep where it is considered safe to wake the sleeping individual.

Narcolepsy

A chronic neurological disorder caused by the degradation of hypothalamus neurons that disrupts sleep-wake cycles, triggering overwhelming daytime sleepiness and sudden sleep attacks.

Night Terrors

A form of non-REM parasomnia characterized by abrupt awakenings and intense panic during sleep.

REM Behavior Disorder

A parasomnia in which normal muscle paralysis fails during REM sleep, leading individuals to physically act out vivid, unpleasant dreams.

Manifest Content

Freud's term for the literal storyline, imagery, thoughts, and sensory details that a person remembers upon waking from a dream.

Latent Content

Freud's term for the hidden, unconscious psychological meaning, fears, and repressed wishes disguised within a dream.

Activation-Synthesis Model

A neurobiological theory proposing that dreams are the cortex's attempt to synthesize and make sense of random neural signals generated during REM sleep.

Psychoactive Drug

A chemical substance that influences consciousness or behavior by altering the chemical message system of the brain.

Drug Tolerance

The brain and body's diminished physiological response to a substance resulting from repeated or prolonged exposure.

Psychological Dependence

A strong emotional desire to return to drug use even after physical withdrawal symptoms have ceased.

Depressants

Substances that reduce the activity of the central nervous system, including alcohol, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, and toxic inhalants.

Stimulants

Substances that excite the central nervous system, heightening arousal and physical activity levels, including caffeine, amphetamines, nicotine, cocaine, and ecstasy.

Narcotics (Opiates)

Highly addictive drugs derived from opium that relieve pain, such as heroin, morphine, methadone, and codeine.

Endorphins (Endogenous Opiates)

Naturally produced neurotransmitters with chemical structures similar to opiates that help the brain cope internally with pain and stress.

Hallucinogens

Drugs that alter sensation and perception, often producing vivid visual and auditory hallucinations, such as LSD, mescaline, psilocybin, PCP, and ketamine.

Emotion

A state of arousal involving facial and bodily changes, brain activation, cognitive appraisals, subjective feelings, and action tendencies, all shaped by cultural rules.

Primary Emotions

Basic, universally recognized emotional states with distinct physiological signatures: fear, anger, sadness, joy, surprise, disgust, and contempt.

Secondary Emotions

Emotions that develop with cognitive maturity and vary widely across individuals and cultures, such as feeling shame for experiencing sadness.

Facial Feedback Hypothesis

The hypothesis that physical facial muscle contractions directly shape and influence emotional experiences rather than merely mirroring them.

Mood Contagion

The psychological phenomenon where a person unconsciously mimics and synchronizes another's facial expressions, vocal tones, body language, and postures, adopting their emotional state.

Fast Pathway of Fear

A direct neural route where sensory information travels directly from the thalamus to the amygdala to initiate an immediate threat response.

Slow Pathway of Fear

A neural route where sensory information travels from the thalamus to the cortex for comprehensive analysis before signaling the amygdala to maintain or reduce the fear response.

Cognitive Appraisals

An individual's personal interpretation and evaluation of a situation, which determines their subsequent emotional experience.

Display Rules

Culturally and socially prescribed informal norms that govern how, when, and where individuals are expected to express emotion.

Emotion Work

The conscious or unconscious effort individuals make to manage, adjust, or induce feelings and emotional displays to conform to social expectations.

Hedonic Principle

The foundational notion originated by Aristotle that all people are motivated to experience pleasure and avoid pain.

Intrinsic Motivation

The motivation to perform an activity for its own sake and the inherent pleasure it brings.

Extrinsic Motivation

The desire to pursue an activity or goal to attain external rewards such as money, praise, or fame.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

A progressive model of human motivation arranged hierarchically from base physiological needs, to safety and security needs, belongingness and love needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization at the pinnacle.

Passionate Love

A state of intense emotional turmoil and sexual passion typical of crushes and early romantic relationships.

Companionate Love

A durable form of romantic attachment characterized by deep affection, familiarity, and mutual trust.

Performance Goals

Goals framed around performing well in the eyes of others, gaining positive social evaluation, and avoiding criticism.

Mastery Goals

Goals framed around personal development, increasing competence, and mastering new skills.

Self-Efficacy

Albert Bandura's concept of an individual's belief in their ability to succeed and accomplish tasks, developed through skill mastery, role models, and constructive feedback.

Developmental Psychology

The scientific study of how and why human beings grow, change, and adapt across their entire lifespan.

Germinal Stage

The first phase of prenatal development, beginning at conception when a single-cell zygote forms containing chromosomes from both sperm and egg.

Embryonic Stage

The prenatal developmental period lasting from the second week until about the eighth week after conception.

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

A developmental disorder caused by heavy maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy.

Motor Development Milestones

The progressive sequence of infant physical actions, including prone head lifting, chest elevation, rolling, bearing weight on legs, sitting without support, standing holding on, cruising, standing alone, walking alone, and climbing steps.

Sensorimotor Stage

Piaget's initial cognitive stage (birth to infancy) in which infants explore schemas and acquire object permanence.

Object Permanence

The cognitive understanding that objects continue to exist even when they are hidden from direct sensory perception.

Preoperational Stage

Piaget's second cognitive stage ($2-6\text{ years}$), characterized by egocentrism before children learn to adopt others' perspectives.

Concrete Operational Stage

Piaget's third cognitive stage ($6-11\text{ years}$), during which children develop an understanding of conservation.

Formal Operational Stage

Piaget's final cognitive stage ($11\text{ years to adulthood}$), characterized by systematic logic, abstract reasoning, and hypothetical thinking.

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

Lev Vygotsky's concept of the range of tasks that individuals cannot complete independently but can accomplish with guidance and collaboration

Social Referencing

The process by which an infant or toddler looks to a trusted caregiver's facial expressions and emotional cues to determine how to respond to an ambiguous or novel situation.

Attachment

The enduring emotional bond that develops between an infant and their primary caregiver.

Power Assertion

A disciplinary technique relying on parental authority, threats, physical punishment, and withdrawal of privileges to force compliance.

Induction

A disciplinary method in which parents appeal to a child's empathy, affections, and sense of responsibility by explaining the rationale for rules and the consequences of their actions.

Primary Sex Characteristics

Bodily anatomical structures directly involved in reproduction that mature during puberty.

Secondary Sex Characteristics

Non-reproductive bodily structures and physical traits that change dramatically with sexual maturity during puberty.

Erikson's Stages of Human Development

An eight-stage psychosocial framework detailing life stages from oral-sensory (trust vs. mistrust) to maturity (ego integrity vs. despair), identifying key crises, events, and resolutions across the lifespan.

theta waves

EEG pattern that corresponds to stage 1 sleep (light sleep)

problem-focused approach to dreams

A method that suggests dreams are a reflection of the dreamer's real-life problems, serving as a cognitive tool for problem-solving and coping.

william james second place paradox

second place often feels worse than third place due to expectations and upward comparison vs downward comparison

difference in how men and women love

men tend to show love with actions, women tend to show love with word

self-fulfilling prophecy

your expectations make you behave in ways that make expectations come true

reflexes

specific patterns of motor response triggered by specific patterns of sensory stimulation (rooting reflex, sucking reflex)

joint attention

at 9-15 mo. of age, babies can direct attention to point in space to which another’s eyes are directed

Harlow’s Baby Rhesus Monkeys

preferred soft cloth monkey over wire monkey w/ food

secure attachment

emotional bond where infant uses their caregiver as safe base to explore unfamiliar room, shows distress when caregiver leaves, easily comforted upon their return

insecure attachment

anxious-avoidant, anxious-ambivalent, disorganized/disoriented

internal working model of attachment

set of expectations about how primary caregiver will respond when child feels insecure

easy/flexible temperament

regular sleep & feeding habits, happy disposition, smooth adjustments to new experiences

difficulty/feisty

irregular biological rhythm, intense emotional reactions, high activity levels

slow to warm (cautious)

cautious or observant, needing extra time to adapt to new people, routines or environments

from realism to relativism (Piaget)

moral rules are real truths about world → moral rules are inventions & groups of people can adopt, change or abandon them

prescriptions to principles (piaget)

moral rules are guidelines for specific actions in specific situations → moral rules are expressions of more general principles (fairness/equality

from outcomes to intentions (piaget)

unintentional acts that cause much harm are worse than intentional acts that cause mild harm → morality of actions is critically dependent on person’s state of mind & intentions

Heinz Dilemma

woman in europe dying of special type of cancer; local druggist discovers radium-based drug doctors believe can save her; druggist pays $200 to produce it & charges $2000; Heinz gathers $1000 and can’t get anymore; Heinz asks for discount; druggist refuses, wants to make money; Heinz breaks into lab to steal drug; Should Heinz have stolen the drug?

adolescence

begins w/ onset of sexual maturity (~11-14 yrs) & lasts until beginning of adulthood (~18-21 yrs)

puberty

bodily changes associated w/ sexual maturity. recently, onset has been earlier

cognitive reappraisal

Changing one's feelings about a situation by changing one's initial interpretation of it

dynamic unconscious (freud)

is comprised of a series of hidden memories, desires, and impulses, often from childhood, that are too repulsive/painful to come into conscious awareness