AP Psych Unit 8 Motivation, Emotion, and Stress

Flashcards about motivation, emotion, and stress based on lecture notes.

Motivation

A need or desire that energizes and directs behavior. Example: Studying hard to get a good grade.

Instinct

A complex, unlearned behavior that is rigidly patterned throughout a species. Example: A bird building a nest.

Drive-Reduction

The idea that a physiological need creates an aroused tension state (a drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy the need. Example: Feeling hungry, so you eat.

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. Example: Maintaining a body temperature of 98.6°F.

Incentive

A positive or negative environmental stimulus that motivates behavior. Example: Offering a reward for completing a task.

Yerkes-Dodson

The principle that performance increases with arousal only up to a point, beyond which performance decreases. Example: Performing well on a test when moderately nervous, but poorly when overly anxious.

Maslow's-Hierarchy

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. Example: Needing food and shelter before seeking love and belonging.

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. Example: The body signals hunger when glucose levels drop.

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. Example: An individual's body maintains a weight of 150lbs.

Basal-Metabolic-Rate

The body's resting rate of energy expenditure. Example: The amount of calories your body burns at rest.

Sexual-Response-Cycle

The four stages of sexual responding described by Masters and Johnson – excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution. Example: The physical and emotional changes during sexual activity.

Refractory-Period

A resting period after orgasm, during which a man cannot achieve another orgasm. Example: The time it takes for a man to be able to have another orgasm.

Sexual-Dysfunction

A problem that consistently impairs sexual arousal or functioning. Example: Erectile dysfunction.

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. Example: Hormones responsible for breast development.

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. Example: The hormone that causes the deepening of the voice in males.

Emotion

A response of the whole organism, involving (1) physiological arousal, (2) expressive behaviors, and (3) conscious experience. Example: Feeling happy, which makes you smile.

James-Lange

The theory that our experience of emotion is our awareness of our physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli. Example: We feel afraid because our heart is pounding.

Cannon-Bard

The theory that an emotion-arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers (1) physiological responses and (2) the subjective experience of emotion. Example: Our heart races as we experience fear.

Two-Factor

The Schachter-Singer theory that to experience emotion one must (1) be physically aroused and (2) cognitively label the arousal. Example: We interpret our racing heart as fear because we are in a dangerous situation.

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. Example: Measures heart rate, blood pressure, and sweat to detect lies.

Facial-Feedback

The tendency of facial muscle states to trigger corresponding feelings such as fear, anger, and happiness. Example: Smiling can make you feel happier.

Health-Psychology

A subfield of psychology that provides psychology's contribution to behavioral medicine. Example: Researching how stress affects health.

Stress

The process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, called stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging. Example: Experiencing anxiety before a test.

GAS

Selye’s concept of the body’s adaptive response to stress in three phases – alarm, resistance, exhaustion. Example: The body's response to long-term stress.

Tend-and-Befriend

Under stress, people (especially women) often provide support to others (tend) and bond with and seek support from others (befriend). Example: Seeking comfort from friends during a difficult time.

Psychophysiological-Ill

Literally, 'mind-body' illness; any stress-related physical illness, such as hypertension and some headaches. Example: Headaches caused by stress.

Psychoneuroimmunology

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.

Coronary Heart Disease

The clogging of the vessels that nourish the heart muscle; the leading cause of death in many developed countries.

Type A personality

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

Type B personality

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