4.4-4.6 AP Psychology Vocabulary (Unit 4 | Social Psychology & Personality)

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Ego

The largely conscious, "executive" part of personality that mediates decision making, operating on the reality principle to satisfy desires realistically.

Defense Mechanisms

Unconscious psychological strategies used to cope with anxiety or emotional distress, protecting the ego from overwhelming thoughts or feelings.

Denial

An individual refuses to acknowledge or accept an uncomfortable reality or truth, serving as a way to protect themselves from emotional distress or anxiety

Displacement

The redirection of negative feelings from one person or thing to another; a person deals with the tension or anxiety associated with negative feelings by releasing them on a nonthreatening target.

Projection

An individual attributes their own unacceptable thoughts, feelings, or impulses to someone else; blaming someone else for their feelings.

Rationalization

Creating seemingly logical explanations to justify unacceptable thoughts, feelings, or behaviors, often to avoid acknowledging the true, potentially uncomfortable, underlying reasons and protect the ego from discomfort and guilt.

Reaction Formation

Involves replacing an unwanted feeling with its opposite, often expressed in an exaggerated manner.

Regression

An individual reverts to earlier, more immature behaviors or coping mechanisms in response to stress, anxiety, or conflict.

Repression

Pushing or blocking unacceptable or anxiety-provoking thoughts, feelings, and memories out of conscious awareness.

Sublimation

Channeling unacceptable impulses or emotions into socially acceptable and constructive activities, rather than acting them out destructively.

Unconscious

Mental activities and processes occurring outside of conscious awareness, influencing thoughts, feelings, and behaviors without our direct knowledge.

Personality

An individual's unique and enduring pattern of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that persist over time and across situations.

Psychodynamic Theory

Emphasizes the influence of unconscious drives and past experiences, particularly childhood, on behavior and personality.

Projective Tests

A personality assessment that uses ambiguous stimuli (like inkblots or images) to reveal unconscious thoughts, feelings, and motivations by analyzing how individuals interpret them.

Preconscious

Thoughts, feelings, and memories that are not currently in conscious awareness but are readily retrievable and can be brought into consciousness when needed.

Humanistic Psychology

A perspective that emphasizes an individual's inherent capacity for growth, self-actualization, and positive development, focusing on the subjective human experience and free will rather than deterministic forces.

Unconditional Positive Regard

Accepting and valuing someone without judgment or conditions, regardless of their behavior or beliefs.

Self-Actualizing Tendency

Refers to the inherent human drive to reach one's full potential,

Drive-Reduction Theory

Proposes that behavior is motivated by the need to reduce internal physiological imbalances (drives) and achieve a state of homeostasis or balance.

Arousal Theory

People are driven to maintain an optimal level of physiological alertness, attention, and energy, seeking activities to increase or decrease that level based on their current state.

Optimal Level of Arousal

Point where someone’s alert and energized enough to concentrate and perform effectively, but not so much that they become anxious or overwhelmed. 

Yerkes-Dodson Law

Proposes that there's an optimal level of arousal for peak performance. Too little arousal (like boredom or apathy) can lead to poor performance, while too much arousal (like extreme stress or anxiety) can also hinder performance. 

Self-Determination Theory

Posits that humans have three fundamental psychological needs – autonomy, competence, and relatedness – that are essential for motivation and well-being

Intrinsic Motivation

Engaging in a behavior because it is personally rewarding or enjoyable, rather than for external rewards or to avoid punishment.

Extrinsic Motivation

Engaging in a behavior because of a drive or force that originates from outside the individual.

Instincts

Innate, fixed patterns of behavior that are species-specific and automatic responses to certain stimuli, not learned through experience.

Lewin’s Motivational Conflicts Theory

Individuals face different types of internal conflicts based on the nature of the choices presented, with the three main types being approach-approach, approach-avoidance, and avoidance-avoidance.

Sensation-Seeking Theory

Posits that individuals vary in their need for stimulation and novelty, influencing their behavior and preferences for experiences, ranging from extreme risk-taking to seeking stable environments.

Hormones

Chemical messengers produced by the endocrine system, released into the bloodstream to influence various physiological functions and behaviors.

Approach-Approach Conflict

A situation where an individual must choose between two or more desirable or attractive options, creating internal conflict due to the difficulty of choosing one over the other.

Avoidance-Avoidance Conflict

Occurs when an individual is faced with a decision between two undesirable options, both of which carry negative outcomes.

Approach-Avoidance Conflict

A situation where a person is faced with a single goal or option that has both desirable and undesirable aspects, creating internal tension and making decision-making difficult.

Ghrelin

A hormone primarily produced by the stomach that signals hunger to the brain, stimulating food intake and is often referred to as the "hunger hormone".

Leptin

A hormone secreted by fat cells that signals the brain about the amount of body fat stored, influencing appetite and energy balance.

Hypothalamus

A brain region primarily responsible for regulating autonomic functions like body temperature, hunger, thirst, and sleep-wake cycles,

Pituitary Gland

A pea-sized endocrine gland located at the base of the brain, often referred to as the "master gland" because it regulates the activity of other endocrine glands and influences growth, metabolism, and reproduction.

Emotion

A complex psychological state involving a subjective experience, a physiological response, and a behavioral or expressive response, often directed towards a specific object.

Broaden-and-Build Theory

Posits that positive emotions broaden an individual's momentary thought-action repertoire, leading to the building of enduring personal resources, like resilience and coping skills.

Universal Emotions

Suggests that there are a set of basic emotions that are universally recognized and expressed in the same way across different cultures.

Anger

A strong, negative emotion characterized by feelings of displeasure, hostility, and a potential desire to harm or confront someone or something perceived as having caused harm or injustice.

Disgust

A strong feeling of revulsion or aversion towards something unpleasant or offensive, often associated with a desire to avoid or reject it.

Happiness

A state of emotional well-being, encompassing both short-term positive experiences and a broader sense of subjective well-being or positive evaluation of one's life.

Surprise

A brief, often startled, reaction to something unexpected, characterized by a sudden redirection of attention and a brief period of muscle tension, potentially leading to a fight-or-flight response.

Fear

A basic, intense emotion triggered by a perceived or real threat, leading to an immediate alarm reaction and mobilization of the organism, characterized by physiological changes like increased heart rate and muscle tension.

Sadness

A fundamental human emotion, often characterized by feelings of unhappiness, low mood, and potentially associated with loss, despair, or disappointment, and can lead to withdrawal or passivity.

Display Rules

Culturally learned norms that dictate how and when individuals are expected to express emotions in specific social situations.

Traits

Enduring personality characteristics that describe or determine an individual's behavior across various situations, representing stable patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving.

The Big Five Theory

Theory in psychology that identifies five broad dimensions used by some psychologists to describe the human personality and psyche. These are openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism

Agreeableness

A personality trait characterized by a tendency to be cooperative, kind, sympathetic, and trusting, reflecting an individual's motivation to maintain positive relationships and minimize conflict.

Openness to Experience

A personality trait that describes a person's tendency to be open-minded, imaginative, and receptive to new ideas and experiences.

Extraversion

A personality trait characterized by sociability, talkativeness, assertiveness, and high emotional expressiveness, where individuals gain energy from social interactions and enjoy being around others.

Conscientiousness

A personality trait characterized by organization, responsibility, and a tendency towards goal-directed behavior.

Emotional Stability

Refers to the ability to remain calm, composed, and emotionally consistent, even in the face of challenges; the opposite of neuroticism (the tendency to perceive negative emotions).

Personality Inventories

A standardized questionnaire designed to assess an individual's personality traits, behaviors, and attitudes by asking them to respond to a series of questions or statements.

Factor Analysis

A statistical method used to identify underlying relationships between variables by grouping them into factors or components. It helps researchers understand how different variables relate to each other and can be used to reduce data by identifying commonalities.