AP Psychology Unit 7 Vocabulary

Motivation

a need or desire that energizes and directs behavior.

Instinct

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

Drive-reduction Theory

the idea that a physiological need creates an aroused tension state (a drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy the need.

Homeostasis

a tendency to maintain a balanced or constant internal state; the regulation of any aspect of body chemistry, such as blood glucose, around a particular level.

Incentive

a positive or negative environment stimulus that motivates behavior.

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.

Glucose

the form of sugar that circulates in the blood and provides the major source of energy for body tissues. When its level is low, we feel hunger.

Set Point

the point at which an individual's "weight thermostat" is supposedly set. When the body falls below this weight, an increase in hunger and a lowered metabolic rate may act to restore the lost weight.

Basal Metabolic Rate

the body's resting rate of energy expenditure.

Anorexia Nervosa

an eating disorder in which a person (usually an adolescent female) diets and becomes significantly (15 percent or more) underweight, yet, still feeling fat, continues to starve.

Bulimia Nervosa

an eating disorder characterized by episodes of overeating, usually high-calorie foods, followed by vomiting, laxative use, fasting, or excessive exercise.

Binge-eating Disorder

significant binge-eating episodes, followed by distress, disgust, or guilt, but without the compensatory purging, fasting, or excessive exercise that marks bulimia nervosa.

Sexual Response Cycle

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

Refractory Period

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

Estrogens

sex hormones, such as estradiol, secreted in greater amount by females than males and contributing to female sex characteristics. In nonhuman female mammals, estrogen levels peak during ovulation, promoting sexual receptivity.

Testosterone

the most important of the male sex hormones. Both males and females have it, but the additional testosterone in males stimulates the growth of the male sex organs in the fetus and the development of the male sex characteristics during puberty.

Sexual Orientation

an enduring sexual attraction toward members of either one's own sex (homosexual orientation) or the other sex (heterosexual orientation).

Emotion

a response of the whole organism, involving (1) physiological arousal, (2) expressive behaviors, and (3) conscious experience.

James-Lange Theory

the theory that our experience of emotion is our awareness of our physiological responses to emotional-arousing stimuli

Cannon-Bard Theory

the theory that an emotion-arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers (1) physiological responses and (2) the subjective experience of emotion.

Two-factor Theory

the Schachter-Singer theory that to experience emotion one must (1) be physically aroused and (2) cognitively label the arousal.

Polygraph

a machine, commonly used in attempts to detect lies, that measure several of the physiological responses accompanying emotion (such as perspiration and cardiovascular and breathing changes).

Facial Feedback

the effect of facial expressions on experienced emotions, as when a facial expression of anger or happiness intensifies feelings of anger or happiness.

Catharsis

emotional release. The catharsis hypothesis maintains that "releasing' aggressive energy (through action or fantasy) relieves aggressive urges.

Feel-Good Do-Good Phenomenon

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

Well-being

self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life. Used along with measures of objective well-being (for example, physical and economic indicators) to evaluate people's quality of life

Adaption-level Phenomenon

our tendency to form judgments (of sounds, of lights, of income) relative to a neutral level defined by our prior experience.

Relative Deprivation

the perception that we are worse off relative to those with whom we compare ourselves.

Behavioral Medicine

an interdisciplinary field that integrates behavior and medical knowledge and applies that knowledge to health and disease.

Health Psychology

a subfield of psychology that provides psychology's contribution to behavioral medicine.

Stress

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

General Adaption Syndrome (GAS)

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

Coronary Heart Disease

the clogging of the vessels that nourish the heart muscle; the leading cause of death in North America.

Type A

Friedman and Rosenman's term for competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, and anger-prone people.

Type B

Friedman and Rosenman's term for easygoing, relaxed people.

Psychophysiological Illness

literally, "mind-body" illness; any stress-related physical illness, such as hypertension and some headaches.

Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI)

the study of how psychological, neural, and endocrine processes together affect the immune system and resulting health.

Lymphocytes

the two types of white blood cells that are part of the body's immune system; B lymphocytes form in the bone marrow and release antibodies that fight bacterial infections; T lymphocytes form in the thymus and other lymphatic tissue and attack cancer cells, viruses, and foreign substances.

Primary Drives

biological needs (thirst, hunger, sleep, etc)

Secondary Drives

learned drives (money = food, etc)

Opponent-process theory

Used to explain addictive behaviors; people start at a baseline state and we might start to preform an act that moves beyond that state in an act of pleasure but after a while we begin to go through a process where we're motivated to return to our baseline state

Self-Actualization

A need to fulfil our unique potential as a person

Lateral

Area in the hypothalamus in which you feel hunger once stimulated; if removed we' feel no hunger ever

Ventromedial

Area in the hypothalamus that once stimulated, we have an urge to stop eating; if removed we would never stop eating

Obesity

A disorder where an individual is severely overweight

Achievement Motivation

Examines our desires to master complex tasks and knowledge to reach a personal goal

Extrinsic Motivators

rewards from outside sources (grades, salary, etc...)

Intrinsic Motivators

rewards we get internally (enjoyment, satisfaction, etc)

Approach-Approach conflict

you must choose between two desirable outcomes

Approach-Avoidance conflict

You must choose between two undesirable outcomes

Insulin

Secreted by pancreas; controls blood glucose

Ghrelin

Hormone secreted by empty stomach; "I'm hungry"

Orexin

Hunger-Triggering hormones; via hypothalamus

Leptin

Protein hormone secreted by fat cells; increases metabolism and reduces hunger

PYY

Digestive track hormone; "I'm not hungry"

Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe

designed the SRRS (social read adjustment rating scale) - one of the first instruments to measure stress

Alarm Reaction

Body becomes physiologically ready (increased heart rate, blood travels to muscles) to face the challenge - via sympathetic nervous system

Resistance

Still physiologically ready and hormones are released to remain in this state

Exhaustion

Parasympathetic nervous system returns our physiological state back to normal and you can easily get illness

William Masters and Virginia Johnson

Studied the Sexual response cycle

Initial excitement

body becomes ready

Plateau

body becomes even more ready - precum is a thing that exists

Orgasm

Genitals now contract ejaculation happens

Resolution

everything back to normal - genitals relax