Motivation
a need or desire that energizes and directs behavior
Instinct
complex, inherited behavior patterns characteristic of a species that is unlearned.
Incentive
Force that pulls person toward a particular behavior.
Intrinsic Motivation
Motivation that stems from internal factors, benefits associated with the process of pursuing a goal (autonomy, mastery, purpose)
Extrinsic Motivation
Motivation that stems from external factors, benefits associated with achieving a goal or avoiding punishment (compensation, punishment, reward)
Overjustification Effect
Promising a reward for doing something you like to do results in you seeking the reward as the motivation for performing the task.
This tends to diminish the intrinsic motivation to do something.
Self-Efficacy
Our belief that we can perform behaviors that are necessary to accomplish tasks, and that we are competent
Achievement Motivation
The need for achievement drives accomplishment and performance and thereby motivates our behavior
Instinct Theory “The Evolutionary Perspective”
People are motivated to behave in certain ways because they are evolutionarily/genetically programmed to do so with survival instincts
Cannot explain all of human behavior ex: jealousy, modesty, altruism, selfishness
Drive Reduction Theory
The idea that a physiological need creates an aroused tension state (a drive) that motivate an organism to satisfy the need
Incentive Theory
We are pulled into action by—positive or negative— outside incentives
Optimum Arousal Theory
Human motivation aims to increase arousal - We feel driven to experience stimulation
Arousal
the level of alertness, wakefulness, and activation causes by activity in the central nervous system
Yerkes-Dodson Law
people perform best at a moderate level of arousal.
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.
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviors. This produces a feeling of mental discomfort leading to an alteration in one of the attitudes, beliefs or behaviors to reduce the discomfort and restore balance.
For example, when people smoke (behavior) and they know that smoking causes cancer (cognition), they are in a state of cognitive dissonance.
Hunger Motivation
Understanding why we eat, hunger is something that makes us do things (motivator) and is a drive state
Hunger is generally triggered by low glucose levels in the blood, and behaviors resulting from hunger aim to restore homeostasis regarding those glucose levels
Insulin
regulates blood sugar level
Leptin
causes brain to alter metabolism
Orexin
hunger hormone from hypothalamus
Ghrelin
“I’m empty” hormone from stomach
Obestatin
“I’m full” hormone from stomach.
PYY
“I’m not hungry” hormone from intestines.
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
Lateral hypothalamus (LH)
the “on” button for eating. *Remember: If it is lesioned, people will not feel hungry and they will become little (LH).
Ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH)
the “off” button for eating.
*Remember: If it is lesioned, people will not feel full and they will become very huge (VMH)
Basal metabolic rate
the body’s resting rate of energy expenditure.
Anorexia nervosa
an eating disorder in which a person (usually an adolescent female) diets and becomes significantly (15 percent or more) underweight, yet, still feeling fat, continues to starve.
Bulimia nervosa
an eating disorder characterized by episodes of overeating, usually high-calorie foods, followed by vomiting, laxative use, fasting, or excessive exercise.
Binge-eating disorder
significant binge-eating episodes, followed by distress, disgust, or guilt, but without the compensatory purging, fasting, or excessive exercise that marks bulimia nervosa.
Body Mass Index (BMI)
the percentage of a person’s body fat
Obesity
a disorder characterized by being excessively overweight, usually considered to have a BMI of over 30%.
Sexual Motivation
The normal human interest in sexual objects and activities
Sexual response cycle
the four stages of sexual responding described by Masters and Johnson – excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution.
Estrogen
sex hormone secreted in greater amount by females than males and contributing to female sex characteristics.
Testosterone
the most important of the male sex hormones.
Social Motivation
People need each other and need groups in order to survive and thrive
Social bonds boosted our ancestors’ survival rate
Ostracism “Social Exclusion”
Ostracism is being deliberately left out of a group or social setting by exclusion and rejection
Alfred Kinsey
Pioneering sex researcher, gained his data mostly through interviews that culminated in the Kinsey Reports
Abraham Maslow
Humanist who developed the Hierarchy of Needs.
Homeostasis
The body’s tendency to maintain an internal steady state of metabolism, to stay in balance
Need
a necessity, especially a physiological.
Primary drive
drives that are innate such as hunger, thirst, and sex.
Secondary drive
drives that are learned through conditioning such as working for money.
Emotion
a response of the whole organism, involving (1) physiological arousal, (2) expressive behaviors, and (3) conscious experience.
James-Lange theory
our experience of emotion is our awareness of our physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli.
Cannon-Bard theory (Thalamic Theory)
an emotion-arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers (1) physiological responses and (2) the subjective experience of emotion.
Schachter-Singer theory (Schachter-Two Factor)
to experience emotion one must (1) be physically aroused and (2) cognitively label the arousal.
Zajonc; LeDoux
some embodied responses happen instantly, without conscious appraisal - we automatically feel startled by a sound in the forest before labeling it as a threat
Lazarus
cognitive appraisal (“is it dangerous or not?”) - sometimes without our awareness - define emotion. Example: The sound is “just the wind”.
Paul Ekman
Universal emotions (all cultures). Identified every muscle in the human face and then every possible combination of facial muscles
Facial Feedback Hypothesis
Facial movement and expressions can influence attitude and emotional experience
Display Rule
A social group or culture's informal norms about how to appropriately express emotions
Individualist cultures often express their emotions more, in speech & body. However, all cultures exhibit the worldwide smiles, frowns, & angry faces of humanity
Stress
the process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, called stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging.
Stressor
anything that brings on the reaction to stress.
Distress
bad stress such as losing a job, a loved one, divorce, etc.
Eustress
good stress such as going on a vacation, the holidays, getting married, etc.
General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)
Selye’s concept of the body’s adaptive response to stress in three phases – alarm, resistance, exhaustion.
1. Alarm stage
encounter threatening stimulus, fight or flight activated. If threat avoided, stage ends
2. Resistance stage
if the threat is not avoided there’s prolonged state of stress. Activation of stress cannot be kept up indefinitely
3. Exhaustion stage
energy and strength are used up by maintaining resistance, can become vulnerable to illness, fatigue & injury
Approach-approach
the least stressful social conflict that involves 2 options, only one of which you can choose. Ex. You are accepted to both Harvard and Dartmouth. Which do you chose?
Avoidance-avoidance
involves 2 negative options, one of which you must chose. Ex. mow the lawn or wash the dishes.
Multiple Approach-avoidance
involves whether or not to choose an option that has both a positive and negative consequence or consequences. You are both attracted and repelled by the same goal. Ex. you like to eat spicy food but it gives you heart burn.
Coronary heart disease
the clogging of the vessels that nourish the heart muscle; the leading cause of death in North America.
Acute Stress disorder
diagnosed with in the 1st month after exposure to a traumatic event. The person experiences depression and/or anxiety.
Type A
Friedman and Rosenman’s term for competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, and anger-prone people.
Type B
Friedman and Rosenman’s term for easygoing, relaxed people.
Psychophysiological illness
literally, “mind-body” illness; any stress-related physical illness, such as hypertension and some headaches.
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.
B lymphocytes
fight bacterial infections.
T lymphocytes
attack cancer cells and viruses.
Personality
defined as an individual's unique, relatively consistent pattern of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
Use case studies, surveys, and personality inventories to be studied
Sigmund Freud
The Father of Psychoanalysis
Carl Jung
Early follower of Freud, established rival theoretical perspective
Alfred Adler
believed people strive for superiority to be altruistic, cooperative, creative, unique, aware, and interested in social welfare
Psychoanalytic Theories
Sigmund Freud developed theory of personality development, human behavior and experience are determined by forces over which we have very little control and about which we are generally unaware
Unconscious
According to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories
Id
Part of the human personality that is made up of all our inborn biological urges that seeks out immediate gratification
Ego
The largely conscious, “executive” part of personality that, mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality
Superego
The part of personality that, represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment (the conscience) and for future aspirations
Psychosexual Stages
The childhood stages of development (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital) during which, according to Freud, the id’s pleasure seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones
Oral (0-1)
Obtain pleasure from the mouth via sucking, biting, swallowing
Anal (1-3)
Pleasure obtained by learning to control bodily wastes.
Phallic Stage
Pleasure zone in our genitals and we are focusing on coping with incestuous feelings
Latency Stage (5-12)
Suppress sexual interest - play mostly with same sex peers
Genital Stage (adolescent & Up)
Adult sexuality. Feeling more comfortable with the mature understanding of what sex means and what is about. Comfort and maturity in expressing with the sexual feelings towards others.
Oedipus complex
boys have feelings of love towards mothers and feel hostile their fathers
Electra Complex
Girls develop penis envy and love towards fathers, but feel hostile towards mothers
Identification
The process by which, according to Freud, children incorporate their parents’ values into their developing superegos
Fixation
According to Freud, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved
Psychoanalysis
Freud’s techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions
Free Association
In psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing
Repression
banishing anxiety arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness. Example: Witness a murder and when the police ask you what happened, you forget
Regression
an individual faced with anxiety retreats to a more infantile psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated. Example: Anxious on a first day of school, a child may result to a “thumb sucking” phase to help him/her get through
Reaction Formation
the ego unconsciously switches unacceptable impulses to their opposite. People may express feelings that are opposite of their unconscious feelings. Example: “I hate him” may really mean, “I love him”
Projection
People disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others. Example: “He doesn’t trust me,” may mean “I don’t trust him.”
Rationalization
offers self-justification explanations in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one’s actions. Example: Students who don’t study may think, “All work and no play makes me a boring person” or someone who is an alcoholic say, “I only drink in social settings.”
Displacement
Shifts sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person; redirecting anger toward a safer outlet. Example: Bullying
Denial
People refuse to believe or even perceive painful realities. Example: See your boyfriend cheating, but still don’t believe it