AP Psychology: Motivation, Emotion, and Personality

Vocabulary flashcards for key terms related to motivation, emotion, and personality in AP Psychology.

Motivation

Processes that initiate, direct, and sustain behavior.

Extrinsic Motivation

Motivation driven by an external reward or punishment.

Intrinsic Motivation

Motivation driven by internal factors such as enjoyment and satisfaction.

Approach-approach conflicts

Conflicts in which you must decide between desirable options.

Avoidance-avoidance conflicts

Conflicts in which you must decide between undesirable options.

Approach-avoidance conflicts

Conflicts in which you must decide between options with both desirable and undesirable features.

Instincts

Inborn, fixed patterns of behavior that present in response to certain stimuli and are often species-specific.

Instinct theory

A theory, based on the work of Darwin, stating that people perform certain behaviors due to instincts developed through generations of evolution.

Drive

A state of unrest or irritation that energizes particular behaviors to alleviate it.

Primary drives

Innate needs that are found in all humans and animals and are vital to survival, such as the needs for food, water, and warmth.

Homeostasis

A dynamic state of equilibrium maintained by fulfilling drives and regulating internal conditions such as body temperature and blood pressure.

Secondary drives

Needs, such as money and social approval, that are learned through experience.

Drive-reduction theory

A theory stating that imbalances to your body’s internal environment generate drives that cause you to act in ways that restore homeostasis.

Arousal

The physiological and psychological state of being active and alert, as reflected by factors like heart rate, muscle tone, brain activity, and blood pressure.

Arousal theory

A theory stating that individuals are motivated to perform behaviors in order to maintain an optimal arousal level, typically a moderate level.

Yerkes-Dodson law

A moderate level of arousal allows for optimal performance, though this optimal level can vary based on the individual and the nature of the task.

Incentive theory

A theory of motivation stating that behaviors are motivated by the desire to attain rewards and avoid punishments.

Need

An internal desire or deficiency that can motivate behavior.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

A theory that classifies needs into five categories, ranked by priority from lowest to highest: physiological, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization.

Self-actualization

The last level in Maslow’s hierarchy, this need is met when individuals accept themselves and attain their full potential.

Obesity

A medical condition characterized by a body mass index of greater than 30 and associated with various health problems, such as an increased risk of heart disease and diabetes.

Stress

The physiological and emotional state that an individual experiences in response to challenging environmental demands.

Stressors

Objects or circumstances that cause individuals to experience stress.

Distress

Stress caused by a negative stressor that can have adverse effects, such as making you sick or keeping you from reaching a goal.

Eustress

Stress caused by a positive stressor that can have beneficial effects, such as energizing you or helping you reach a goal.

Stress reactions

Physiological, psychological, and behavioral responses to stress, such as fatigue, anxiety, and nausea.

Cognitive appraisal

An individual’s subjective evaluation of a stress-inducing situation.

General adaptation syndrome (GAS)

Developed by Selye to explain the body’s response to stress, it consists of three phases: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.

Emotion

A psychological and physiological response characterized by pleasure, pain, and/ or other feelings.

James-Lange theory

A theory stating that emotional responses occur as a result of physiological arousal.

Cannon-Bard theory

A theory stating that physiological arousal and an emotional experience in response to a stimulus occur simultaneously.

Two-factor theory

Also known as the Schachter–Singer theory, it states that both physiological arousal and proper cognitive labeling of that arousal are necessary for an individual to experience emotions.

Appraisal theory of emotion

A theory stating that cognition precedes both physiological arousal and emotional experience. Primary appraisal is the determination of the meaning of the stimulus and secondary appraisal is the determination of the ability to cope with the stimulus.

Gordon Allport

Trait theorist who identified three kinds of traits—cardinal, central, and secondary—that carry different weights in making up an individual’s personality.

Albert Bandura

Social cognitive theorist who proposed reciprocal determinism, the idea that thoughts, beliefs, and environment all interact with and change each other.

Paul Costa and Robert McCrae

Expanded and reorganized the PEN trait model into the Big Five or OCEAN model of personality traits.

Hans and Sybil Eysenck

Trait theorists who originated the PEN model of personality.

Sigmund Freud

Founder of psychoanalysis who developed the structural model, which states that the mind is made up of the id, ego, and superego.

William James

Developed the James-Lange theory of emotion, along with Carl Lange, which proposes that emotions occur because of physiological reactions to events.

Carl Jung

Psychoanalyst who stated that the unconscious mind can be divided into the personal and collective unconscious, the latter of which contains archetypes.

Abraham Maslow

Developed a theory of motivation called the hierarchy of needs, made up of five levels of needs, and claimed that lower-level needs must be satisfied before higher-level needs.

Margaret Mead

Cultural anthropologist who studied children and adolescents in Samoa and other island nations to demonstrate the relationship between culture and personality.

Stanley Schachter

Developed the two-factor theory of emotion, along with Jerome Singer, which states that emotional experience requires conscious interpretation of one’s physiological arousal.

Hans Selye

Developed the general adaptation syndrome model to explain how the body responds and adapts to stress.

William Sheldon

Type theorist who created the concept of somatotypes and attempted to correlate body type to personality.