PSYCH 100 Lecture 10: Motivation, Personality, Emotion, Stress & Clinical Psychology

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering motivation, personality, emotion, stress, clinical psychology, and social psychology as detailed in the PSCH 100 Lecture 10 study guide.

Motivation

Mental states that compel organisms to engage in purposive behavior directed toward achieving a goal or satisfying a need, derived from the Latin word "movere."

Extrinsic Motivation

Motivation driven by external rewards such as grades, money, or status, where the focus is on getting something outside oneself.

Intrinsic Motivation

Motivation driven by the activity itself because it is fun or fulfilling; it is linked to psychological well-being.

Homeostasis

The process by which biological systems seek to maintain optimal levels of variables like body temperature, water, and energy through negative feedback.

Drive-Reduction Theory

The theory that organisms are motivated to reduce tension caused by biological needs; reducing a drive releases dopamine and leads to relief.

Optimal Arousal Theory

The theory that performance peaks at a moderate level of arousal, as described by the Yerkes-Dodson Law.

Yerkes-Dodson Law

The principle that there is a "sweet spot" of arousal for best performance; too little causes sleepiness and too much causes panic.

Nucleus Accumbens

The brain's "Reward Center" critical for pleasure, reward-based learning, and motivation, where dopamine is released.

Hypothalamus

A brain structure that controls life-sustaining drives such as hunger and thirst and links the nervous system to the endocrine system.

Amygdala

A brain region involved in threat detection, fear, and encoding the emotional aspects of memories.

Hippocampus

A brain structure responsible for the formation of everyday declarative (factual) memories.

Personality

The set of unique, organized, and relatively enduring psychological characteristics, traits, and patterns of behavior possessed by an individual.

Id

The primitive mind in Freudian theory that follows the "pleasure principle," seeking immediate gratification of biological drives like hunger, sex, and aggression.

Ego

The rational mind in Freudian theory that follows the "reality principle," balancing the Id's desires with the constraints of the real world.

Superego

The moral mind in Freudian theory consisting of internalized societal rules and customs that act as a conscience.

Ego Defense Mechanisms

Psychological strategies such as repression, denial, product, and rationalization used by the Ego to protect itself from anxiety.

Free Association

A Freudian therapy technique where the patient speaks without filtering to reveal clues about repressed unconscious material.

Self-Actualization

The highest level of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, involving the fulfillment of one's full potential, creativity, and peak experiences.

Peak Experience

A moment of euphoric mental harmony involving a lack of fear or self-criticism, often achieved by self-actualized individuals.

Basic Emotions

Six universal, hard-wired emotions recognized across all cultures according to Paul Ekman: Anger, Fear, Disgust, Surprise, Happiness, and Sadness.

Patient S.M.

A famous patient with a bilateral amygdala lesion who shows no fear response and cannot learn to fear stimuli, despite having an intact hippocampus for factual memory.

Low Road (to Fear)

A fast, unconscious fear pathway where sensory information travels directly from the Thalamus to the Amygdala in milliseconds.

High Road (to Fear)

A slow, conscious fear pathway where information travels Thalamus → Sensory Cortex → Amygdala, allowing for the evaluation of a threat.

Prefrontal Cortex

The brain region responsible for emotion regulation by inhibiting the amygdala to help the individual "calm down."

Stressors

Events or conditions perceived as overwhelmingly challenging or harmful that trigger the body's stress system.

HPA Axis

The Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis: Hypothalamus → Pituitary → Adrenal glands → Cortisol release.

Cortisol

A stress hormone that helps mobilize energy; chronic elevation is linked to high blood pressure, immune suppression, and hippocampal damage.

Telomeres

Protective caps at the ends of chromosomes that shorten with cell division; their shortening is accelerated by chronic stress.

Telomerase

The enzyme that repairs telomeres; its expression can be increased by social support.

Cognitive Appraisal

The process of choosing how to think about a stressor; positive appraisal increases prefrontal activity and decreases amygdala activity.

Mindfulness Meditation

A stress coping strategy involving moment-to-moment non-judgmental attention to sensations and thoughts, which activates the prefrontal cortex.

DSM

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders used by professionals to classify mental disorders based on symptoms and dysfunction.

Anhedonia

The inability to feel pleasure, which is a symptom of Major Depressive Disorder.

Diathesis-Stress Model

A model suggesting that psychological disorders result from a combination of vulnerability (genetics/childhood) and stressful life events.

Monoamine Hypothesis

The theory that low levels of dopamine ($DA$), norepinephrine ($NE$), or serotonin ($5-HT$) are linked to depression.

SSRIs

Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (e.g., Prozac, Zoloft) that block the serotonin ($5-HT$) reuptake pump to increase its presence in the synapse.

Benzodiazepines

Drugs like Valium and Xanax that potentiate GABA receptors to hyperpolarize neurons and inhibit the amygdala to reduce anxiety.

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

A scientifically proven psychotherapy approach based on the idea that maladaptive thoughts and behaviors are the core problem.

Self-Serving Bias

The tendency to attribute successes to one's own abilities and failures to external circumstances.

Cognitive Dissonance

Mental discomfort experienced when acting against one's own values or beliefs, usually resolved by justifying the behavior.

Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency to attribute others' behavior to internal dispositions while ignoring the situational context.

Solomon Asch’s Line Study

An experiment showing that $75\%$ of participants conformed to a group's wrong answer at least once due to social pressure.

Milgram Experiment

A study on obedience where $65\%$ of participants administered shocks up to $450\text{ volts}$ because they were directed by an authority figure.

Agency State

A condition in which an individual lets an authority figure direct their actions and pass off responsibility for the consequences.

Bystander Effect

A social phenomenon where individuals are less likely to help as group size increases, often due to a diffusion of responsibility.

Just-World Fallacy

The belief that the world is fair and "bad things only happen to bad people," often leading to victim-blaming.

Implicit Prejudice

Automatic, unconscious bias measured by the Implicit Association Test (IAT).

Mere Exposure Effect

A phenomenon where individuals develop a preference for things simply because they are familiar with them.