AP Psych - Motivation, Emotion, and Stress / Personality (Unit 7)

Fixation

Becoming “stuck” in an early stage os psychosocial development

Empirically derived

Testing a pool of items and then selecting those that discriminate between groups

• Such as MMPI

Factor analysis

A statistical procedure that identifies clusters of correlated test items that tap basic components of intelligence

• Used by Raymond Cattell to measure personality traits

Alfred Adler

People are driven by a need for superiority

• Inferiority complex: driven to conquer childhood feelings of inferiority

• People motivated by the fear of failure (inferiority) and the desire to achieve (superiority)

• Importance of birth order

Karen Horney

Believed personality develops in context of parental relationships

• Childhood relationship with parents

• Womb envy

• Criticized Freud’s male bias

TRAIT PERSPECTIVE

Carl Jung

Believed in the collective unconscious

• shared inherited reservoir of memory – explains common myths across civilizations & time

Epinephrine and norepinephrine

Stress hormones released by the adrenal glands, directed by the sympathetic nervous system

• Increase blood pressure etc

Universal emotions

Happiness, anger, sadness, surprise, disgust, fear

• Seen across all cultures

• Ekman

Insulin

A hormone produced by the pancreas to regulate glucose

• When levels of it rise, glucose decreases, and you have to eat

Bulimia

Binging lots of food then purging (puking, laxatives, extreme exercise)

• Russel’s signs

Anorexia

An eating disorder characterized by extreme starvation

• Being very skinny but fearing that you’re gonna get fat

• More prevalent in females

Cortisol

A stress hormone

• Can break down bone structure & density

Long term stress

Adrenal cortex releases cortisol

• Represses immune & reproductive systems

Dunning-Kruger Effect

Ignorance of our own incompetence; most people see themselves as better than average

Overconfidence

People overestimate their abilities and knowledge, leading to poor decision-making

Self-serving bias

People attribute their success to internal factors (talent/effort) while attributing failures to external factors (luck/other people)

Self-efficacy

How you feel about your ability to function in different situations

Self-esteem

Realistic respect for your ability to achieve and thrive in life

Spotlight effect

People believe they are being noticed more than they really are

Reciprocal determinism

The interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition & environment on you

• Bandura

• Social cognitive

NEO-PI-3

Neuroticism, extraversion, openness

• Desire to measure “normal” personalities

• T/F questions

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

Meant to diagnose people with psychiatric disorders

• Empirically derived

• Scientifically based

• Helpful for mental health and job placement

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

Assess selected personality traits

• ESTJ: extroverted, sensing, thinking, judging

• INFP: introverted, intuitive, feeling perceiving

Maturity principle

At around age 40, we become less neurotic and more conscientious and agreeable

Costa and McRae

The Big Five personality factors (CANOE)

• Conscientiousness (being organized)

• Agreeable (trusting)

• Neuroticism (anxious)

• Openness (imagination, variety)

• Extraversion (sociable)

Carl Rogers

Humanistic psychologist

• Unconditional positive regard

False Consensus Effect

The tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors

Rorschach Test

Inkblot test

• Psychoanalytic

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

Using a picture to make a story

• Psychoanalytic

Reaionalization

Making excuses

Projection

Disguising one’s own threatening impulses by

Denial

Refusing to believe or perceive painful realities

Reaction formation

Saying the opposite of how you really feel

Repression

Acting like it never happened; stuffing things into the unconscious

Sublimation

Turning negative energy into positive energy

• Going to the gym when sad

Displacement

Shifting impulses toward a more acceptable/less threatening object or person

Regression

Going back to the earlier psychosexual stage; going back to childhood

Oedipus complex

Phallic stage (3-6)

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

• End up following the rival father

Latency

Dormant sexual feelings

• “Cooties” stage

Phallic stage

The child derives pleasure from the genitalia

• Incestuous sexual feelings

Freud’s Psychosexual Stages

The libido moving to different parts of the body

• Oral

• Anal

• Phallic

• Latency

• Genital

Superego

Conscious level

• Makes moral choices

• Conscience, what’s right/wrong, the rules, and how to act

Ego

Preconscious level

• Mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality

• Reality principle

The Id

The unconscious level with basic impulses

• Irrational and impulsive

• Babies cry until they get what they want

Relative deprivation

We compare ourselves to others that are above or equal to us instead of below us, so we always see ourselves as worse off

Diminished returns principle

Eating your second piece of cake and not enjoying it as much as the first

Adaptation-level phenomenon

We overestimate the duration of our emotions & underestimate our resiliency and capacity to adapt

Martin Seligman

A positive psychologist

Peptide YY (PYY)

Tells your brain you’re full

Leptin

Released when fat cells & energy build up

• Interpreted by the satiety center in the hypothalamus

• Decreases hunger

Ghrelin

Produced by the hypothalamus

• Makes you hungry

Hypothalamus

Controls homeostasis

Instinct theory

Motivated by inborn automated behaviors (not learned)

• Darwin’s evolutionary perspective

• Criticisms: what about the why/how? Also, humans don’t do many instinctual things

Drive reduction theory

Our behavior is motivated by biological needs

• A need (for food/water) created a drive (hunger/thirst) leading to drive-reducing behaviors (eating/drinking)

• Hypothalamus - homeostasis

Intrinsic motivation

Motivation from within you

Extrinsic motivation

Motivation from outside factors

Overjustification effect

Being given an incentive decreases one’s intrinsic motivation

Criticisms for intrinsic/extrinsic motivation

Can’t explain all motivation aspects, such as altruism - unselfish regard or feelings for another’s well being

Maslow’s Hierarchy

Not all needs are created equal

• We need to satisfy the bottom needs first

• Humanistic approach

• Unrealistic & idealistic

• Criticisms: people like Ghandi or people who kill themselves for friends

Optimum arousal theory

Humans want to maintain an ideal level of arousal through various activities

• Some people have a higher level than others

Yerkes-Dodson law

A happy medium of arousal helps performance

• Depends on the difficulty of the task

Lateral hypothalamus

Makes you hungry by releasing orexin

Ventromedial hypothalamus

Makes you feel full

Sexual response cycle

Excitement, plateau, orgasm, refractory

Set point theory

The hypothalamus has a set amount of body fat it wants you to maintain

• Activates the LH if you’re losing weight

• Activates the VH if you’re gaining weight

Adipose cellularity

You don’t lose fat cells, they just shrink

Basal metabolic rate (BMR)

Everyone burns fat at a different rate & uses energy at a different efficiency

• Gender, genetics, age play a role in determining this

• Drop-off at age 19: freshman 15

Russel’s sign

A sign of bulimia: teethmarks on hands from throwing up

Obesity

BMI over 30 (20% or more overweight)

• Genetics, set points, lack of exercise, # of fat cells, leptin resistance, culture

James-Lange theory of emotion

Arousal (pounding heart) then emotion (fear)

• A physiological reaction causes an emotion

Cannon-Bard theory of emotion

We experience physiological arousal & emotions at the same time

• Thalamus: controls experience of emotion

• Cortex: simultaneously controls the expression of that emotion

Schachter-Singer Two Factor theory of emotion

An even causes physiological arousal first, and then we put a cognitive label to it, and then we can experience the emotion

Zajonc & LeDoux

We feel before we think

• Some emotional responses occur instantly

Lazarus Theory

Emotions arise during APPRAISAL of an event as harmless or harmful

• Humans respond cognitively, emotionally, and physically

• Stress arises from how were APPRAISE events

Opponent process theory of emotion

When one emotion is experienced, the other is suppressed

Facial feedback hypothesis

Your facial expressions trigger the emotion of said facial expression

• Smiling makes you happy due to the muscles that are triggered

• Can also apply to behavior

Stress

The process by which we respond to stressors

Distress vs. eustress

Negative vs. positive stress

General adaptation syndrome (GAS)

The general 3 steps that humans and animals respond to stress: ARE

• Alarm: activated sympathetic nervous system

• Resistance: the body is fighting/ready to fight

• Exhaustion: our body needs to be replenished & immune systems become weak

3 major stressors

CLD

• Catastrophic

• Life changes

• Daily hassles

Type A

Controlling, competitive, anxious, more prone to stress

Type B

Relaxed and easygoing

Catharsis hypothesis

Releasing anger makes you feel better

• Not true!

Approach-approach

Choose between two desirable things

• Pink or blue dress

Avoidance-avoidance

Choose between two undesirable things

• Scrapbook or unit test

Approach-avoidance

1 goal has both good and bad aspects

• Interesting course with a terrible teacher

Chronic stress by age

Declines with age

• 18-19 is the greatest

Hans Eysenck

Personality dimensions

• Introversion-extraversion

• Emotional stability-instability