AP Psychology Vocabulary | Unit 7 | Motivation, Emotion, and Personality

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 environmental stimulus that motivates behavior

Yerkes-Dodson Law (Optimal Arousal Theory)

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

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

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

Sexual Dysfunction

a problem that consistently impairs sexual arousal or functioning

Estrogens

sex hormones, such as estradiol, secreted in greater amounts by females than by 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

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 emotion-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 (Schachter-Singer)

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

Zajonc; LeDoux Theory

we have many emotional reactions apart from, or even before, our interpretation of a situation

Lazarus Theory

our brain processes vast amounts of information without our conscious awareness; some emotional responses do not require conscious thinking

Polygraph

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

Facial Feedback Effect

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

Health Psychology

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