AP Psychology Unit 8 Flashcards

Motivation

Processes involved in starting, directing, and maintaining physical and psychological activities

Instinct

A complex behavior that is rigidly patterned throughout a species and is unlearned

Physiological needs

A basic bodily requirement

Drive-reduction theory

The idea that a physiological need creates an aroused state that motivates an organism to satisfy the need.

Homeostasis

A tendency to maintain a balanced or constant internal state

Incentive

Positive or negative environmental stimulus that motivates behavior

Yerkes-Dodson (inverted-U) law

The principle that performance increases with arousal only up to a point, beyond which performance decreases

Hierarchy of needs

Maslow’s pyramid of human needs, beginning at the base with physiological needs that must first be satisfied before higher level safety needs and then psychological needs become active.

Set point

Point at which your weight thermostat may be set when below this, increased hunger and lowered metabolic rate may restore lost weight.

Basal metabolic

The body’s resting rate of energy output

Obesity

Being very overweight

Asexual

Having no sexual attraction to others

Testosterone

Main male sex hormone

Estrogens

Main female sex hormone

Sexual response cycle

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

Affiliation need

The need to build relationships and feel part of a group

Ostracism

Deliberate social exclusion of individuals or groups

Achievement motivation

A desire for significant accomplishment, for mastery of skills or ideas, for control, and for attaining a high standard

Emotion

A response of the whole organism, involving physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience

James-Lange Theory

Emotions awareness of our physiological responses to an emotion-arousing stimulus (Emotion after physiological response)

Cannon-Bard Theory

Emotion occurs at the same time as a physiological response to an emotion-arousing stimulus (one isn’t cause of the other)

Two-Factory Theory

Emotion results from the (1) physical arousal to a stimulus and (2) the cognitive interpretation of the arousal to the stimulus (Arousal fuels emotion)

Facial feedback effect

The tendency of facial muscle states to trigger corresponding feelings like anger, fear, or happiness

Behavior feedback effect

The tendency of behavior to influence our own and others thoughts, feelings, and actions

Stress

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

General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)

A pattern of general physical responses that takes essentially the same form in responding to any serious chronic stressor (Hans style)

Tend-and-befriend response

Under stress people often provide support to others and bond with and seek support from others

Health psychology

A subfield of psychology that provides psychology’s contribution to behavioral medicine

Psychoneuroimmunology

A subfield of psychological, neural, and endocrine processes together affect the immune system and resulting health

Personality Type A

Increased heart disease

Personality Type B

Less likely for heart disease (laid back)

Catharsis

The idea that releasing aggressive energy (through action or fantasy) relieves aggressive urges

Feel-good-do-good phenomenon

People’s tendency to be helpful when in a good mood

Positive psychology

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

Subjective well-being

Self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life. Used along with measure of objective well-being to evaluate people’s quality of life

Adaptation-level phenomenon

Our tendency to form judgments (of sounds, of lights, or income) relative to a neural level defined by prior experience

Relative deprivation

The perception that one is worse off relative of those with whom one compares oneself

Biological factors

Food, water, sex

Emotional factors

Panic, fear, love

Cognitive factors

Perceptions, beliefs, expectations

Social factors

Parents, friends, media

Incentive theory

Behavior is directed toward attaining desirable stimuli and avoiding unwanted stimuli

Incentive

Positive or negative stimulus that motivates behavior

Overjustification

The process by which extrinsic rewards can sometimes displace internal motivation (usually when reward is given regardless of quality of performance and when it’s tangible)

Ventromedial

Stop eating center

Latenal

Start eating center

Ghrein

Appetite stimulant

Approach-Approach conflict

A situation in Which you must choose between 2 positive or attractive options

Avoidance-Avoidance conflict

A situation in which you must choose between 2 negative or unattractive options

Approach-Avoidance conflict

A situation involving an option that has both a positive and negative aspect

GAS step by step

Alarm (The body mobilizes it’s resources to cope with a stressor)

Resistance(The body seems to adapt to the presence of the stressor)

Exhaustion (The body depletes it’s resources)

Expressing emotions

Ekman’s universal facial expressions

Display rules

Permissible ways of displaying emotions in a particular society

Biological mechanisms at work behind our emotions

Limbic system/amygdala/hippocampus

Reticular formation

Cerebral Cortex

Autonomic nervous system

Hormones/neuro-transmitters

Zajonc and Ledoux

two distinct brain pathways for emotional arousal (Fast and unconscious-Fear, avoidance, bypass center) (Slow and conscious-more complete appraisal chartered love go through cortex)

Cognitive appraisal theory

Individuals decide on an appropriate emotion to a stimulus/event (Event→thinking/appraisal→arousal/emotion) (Based on perceptions of the stimulus/event, not physical responses)