Unit 7 AP psych

includes emotions, motivation, personality, coping, testing

Motive

a need or want that causes us to act

Instinct Theory

States that behavior is driven by innate, fixed patterns of behavior.

Drive Reduction Theory

Motivation arises from the desire to reduce internal tension caused by unmet biological needs.

Need

a motivated state caused by a physiological deficit

Drive

A psychological state of tension that motivates an organism to act to fulfill a need.

Incentive Theory

Behavior is motivated by external rewards or punishments.

Arousal Theory

People are motivated to maintain an optimal level of arousal.

Yerkes-Dodson Law

Performance is best under moderate arousal; too little or too much hinders performance.

Physiological Motives

Biological needs like hunger, thirst, and sleep that motivate behavior.

Set Point

The body’s homeostatic weight range that it tries to maintain.

Ghrelin

A hormone that increases appetite and signals hunger.

Leptin

A hormone that signals satiety and decreases hunger.

Hypothalamus

Brain structure that regulates hunger, thirst, and many autonomic processes.

Social Motives

Needs that involve interaction with others like achievement, affiliation, and power.

Need for Achievement (nAch)

Drive to succeed, accomplish goals, and excel.

Affiliation Motive

Desire to build and maintain close relationships with others.

Need for Power (nPow)

Desire to influence or control other people or situations.

Attribution Theory

Explains how people interpret causes of behavior and events.

Intrinsic Motivation

Motivation driven by internal rewards or personal satisfaction.

Extrinsic Motivation

Motivation driven by external rewards or pressures.

Overjustification Effect

External rewards can reduce intrinsic motivation for a task.

Homeostasis

Tendency to maintain a balanced or constant internal state.

Primary Drives

Biological needs critical for survival (e.g., hunger, thirst).

Secondary Drives

Learned drives like money or social approval.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

A pyramid ranking needs from physiological to self-actualization.
Includes in order: physiological needs, safety needs, love and belonging needs, esteem needs, self actualization

Garcia Effect

Taste aversion learning where nausea is paired with a specific food.

Bulimia

Eating disorder involving bingeing followed by purging.

Anorexia

Eating disorder involving self-starvation and low body weight.

Obesity

Condition of excessive body fat that may impair health.

Sexual Orientation

term used to describe our emotional, romantic, and sexual attraction.

Theory X

Assumes workers are lazy and need control and punishment to work.

Theory Y

Assumes workers are motivated and thrive on responsibility.

Approach-Approach Conflict

Choosing between two desirable outcomes.

Avoidance-Avoidance Conflict

Choosing between two undesirable outcomes.

Approach-Avoidance Conflict

A choice that has both positive and negative aspects.

Emotion

A complex experience involving physiological arousal, behavior, and conscious experience.

James-Lange Theory

Emotion is the result of physiological arousal.

Cannon-Bard Theory

biological changes and cognitive awareness of emotional state occur simultaneously.

Schachter Two-Factor Theory

physical responses and cognitive labels combine to cause emotional responses

Lazarus Appraisal Theory

Cognitive appraisal occurs before experiencing an emotion.

Universality of Emotional Expression

Basic emotions like anger, sadness, disgust, surprise, fear and happiness are recognized across cultures.

Display Rules

Cultural norms that regulate emotional expression.

Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis

Frustration increases the likelihood of aggressive behavior.

Hostile Aggression

Goal is to cause pain or harm (often emotionally driven).

Instrumental Aggression

Aggression used as a means to achieve a goal.

Health Psychology

Field studying how behavior and mental processes affect health.

Type A Personality

Competitive, impatient, aggressive, and more stress-prone.

Type B Personality

Relaxed, easy-going, and less prone to stress.

Self-Determination Theory

Motivation comes from the need for competence, autonomy, and relatedness.

Lewin’s Motivational Conflicts

Psychological struggles between competing desires or motives.

Includes: approach-approach, approach-avoidance, avoidance-avoidance

Motivation

directs and maintains behavior toward a goal.

Instinct

An inherited, unlearned behavior pattern that is characteristic of a species.

Sexual Response Cycle

The four stages of sexual responding described by Masters and Johnson: excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution.

Estrogen

A sex hormone, secreted in greater amounts by females and contributing to female sex characteristics.

Testosterone

The most important male sex hormone; both males and females have it, but additional testosterone in males stimulates growth of male sex organs and characteristics.

Sexual Refractory Period

A resting period after orgasm, during which a person cannot achieve another orgasm.

Sexual Dysfunctions

Problems that consistently impair sexual arousal or functioning.

Appraisal Theory of Stress

Stress is determined by an individual’s interpretation (appraisal) of a situation and their resources to deal with it.

Facial Feedback Effect

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

Positive Psychology

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

Stress

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

Stressor

An event or condition that triggers the stress response.

Stress Reaction

The physical and emotional response to a stressor.

General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)

Hans Selye's concept of the body's adaptive response to stress in three phases—alarm, resistance, exhaustion.

GAS: Alarm Stage

The initial reaction to a stressor—body mobilizes resources (fight or flight).

GAS: Resistance Stage

Body attempts to resist or cope with stressor—high alert continues.

GAS: Exhaustion Stage

Body's resources are depleted; vulnerability to illness increases.

Tend and Befriend Response

Under stress, people (especially women) often provide support to others and bond with and seek support from others.

Oxytocin

A hormone that is associated with bonding, social connection, and stress reduction.

Feel-Good, Do-Good Phenomenon

People's tendency to be helpful when already in a good mood.

Adaptation-Level Phenomenon

Tendency to judge new experiences based on past experiences, which we use as a baseline (we adjust to a new normal).

Relative Deprivation

Perception that you are worse off compared to others

Zajonc and LeDoux Theory

Some emotional responses occur instantly, without conscious appraisal (low road processing).

Fight, Flight, or Freeze Response

Automatic physical response to a perceived threat that prepares the body to either fight, flee, or freeze.

Personality

An individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting.

Psychoanalysis

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

Free Association

A method of exploring the unconscious by relaxing and saying whatever comes to mind.

Psychosexual Stages

freud’s theory which includes: oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital

Oral Stage

(0-18 months) Pleasure centers on the mouth—sucking, biting, chewing.

Anal Stage

(18-36 months) Pleasure focuses on bowel and bladder elimination; coping with demands for control.

Phallic Stage

(3-6 years) Pleasure zone is the genitals; coping with incestuous feelings.

Latency Stage

(6 to puberty) A phase of dormant sexual feelings.

Genital Stage

(Puberty onward) Maturation of sexual interests.

Oedipus Complex

A boy's sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father.

Electra Complex

A girl's desire for her father and rivalry with her mother.

Gender Identity

Our sense of being male, female

Fixation

A lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage.

Oral Fixation

May result in issues like smoking, nail-biting, overeating, etc.

Anal Fixation

May lead to orderliness or messiness, depending on how toilet training was handled.

Freud's Personality Theory

Divides the mind into three parts: id (instincts), ego (reality), and superego (morality).

Id

The part of the unconscious that strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives (pleasure principle).

Ego

The conscious, executive part of personality that mediates among the id, superego, and reality.

Superego

The part of personality that represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment (the conscience).

Repression

Banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts and feelings from consciousness.

Denial

Refusing to believe or even perceive painful realities.

Displacement

Shifting aggressive or sexual impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person.

Projection

Disguising one’s own threatening impulses by attributing them to others.

Reaction Formation

Switching unacceptable impulses into their opposites.

Regression

Retreating to an earlier psychosexual stage.

Rationalization

Offering self-justifying explanations in place of real reasons.