Unit 8: Motivation, Emotion, and Physical Health

health psychology

a subfield of psychology that explores the impact of psychological, behavioral, and cultural factors on health and wellness.

psychoneuroimmunology

the study of how psychological, neural, and endocrine processes together affect our immune system and resulting health.

stress

the process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, called stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging.

approach and avoidance motives

the drive to move toward (approach) or away from (avoid) a stimulus.

general adaptation syndrome (GAS)

Selye's concept of the body's adaptive response to stress in three phases — alarm, resistance, exhaustion.

tend-and-befriend response

under stress, people (especially women) may nurture themselves and others (tend) and bond with and seek support from others (befriend).

coronary heart disease

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

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.

catharsis

in psychology, the idea that "releasing" aggressive energy (through action or fantasy) relieves aggressive urges.

coping

alleviating stress using emotional, cognitive, or behavioral methods.

problem-focused coping

attempting to alleviate stress directly — by changing the stressor or the way we interact with that stressor.

emotion-focused coping

attempting to alleviate stress by avoiding or ignoring a stressor and attending to emotional needs related to our stress reaction.

personal control

our sense of controlling our environment rather than feeling helpless.

learned helplessness

the hopelessness and passive resignation humans and other animals learn when unable to avoid repeated aversive events.

external locus of control

the perception that outside forces beyond our personal control determine our fate.

internal locus of control

the perception that we control our own fate.

self-control

the ability to control impulses and delay short-term gratification for greater long-term rewards.

positive psychology

the scientific study of human flourishing, with the goals of promoting strengths and virtues that foster well-being, resilience, and positive emotions, and that help individuals and communities to thrive.

subjective well-being

self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life. Used along with measures of objective well-being (for example, physical and economic indicators) to evaluate people's quality of life.

feel-good, do-good phenomenon

people's tendency to be helpful when in a good mood.

adaptation-level phenomenon

our tendency to form judgments (of sounds, of lights, of income) relative to a neutral level defined by our prior experience.

relative deprivation

the perception that we are worse off relative to those with whom we compare ourselves.

broaden-and-build theory

proposes that positive emotions broaden our awareness, which over time helps us build novel and meaningful skills and resilience that improve well-being.

character strengths and virtues

a classification system to identify positive traits; organized into categories of wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence.

resilience

the personal strength that helps people cope with stress and recover from adversity and even trauma.

aerobic exercise

sustained exercise that increases heart and lung fitness; also helps alleviate depression and anxiety.

mindfulness meditation

a reflective practice in which people attend to current experiences in a nonjudgmental and accepting manner.

gratitude

an appreciative emotion people often experience when they benefit from other's actions or recognize their own good fortune.

motivation

a need or desire that energizes and directs behavior.

instinct

a complex behavior that is rigidly patterned throughout a species and is unlearned.

physiological need

a basic bodily requirement.

drive-reduction theory

the idea that a physiological need creates an aroused state (a drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy the need.

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.

incentive

a positive or negative environmental stimulus that motivates behavior.

Yerkes-Dodson law

the principle that performance increases with arousal only up to a point, beyond which performance decreases.

affiliation need

the need to build and maintain relationships and to feel part of a group.

self-determination theory

the theory that we feel motivated to satisfy our needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness.

intrinsic motivation

the desire to perform a behavior effectively for its own sake.

extrinsic motivation

the desire to perform a behavior to receive promised rewards or avoid threatened punishment.

ostracism

deliberate social exclusion of individuals or groups.

achievement motivation

a desire for significant accomplishment, for mastery of skills or ideas, for control, and for attaining a high standard.

grit

in psychology, passion and perseverance in the pursuit of long-term goals.

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.

set point

the point at which the "weight thermostat" may be set. When the body falls below this weight, increased hunger and a lowered metabolic rate may combine to restore lost weight.

basal metabolic rate

the body's resting rate of energy output.

obesity

defined as a body mass index (BMI) measurement of 30 or higher, which is calculated from our weight-to-height ratio. (Individuals who are overweight have a BMI of 25 or higher.)

emotion

a response of the whole organism, involving (1) physiological arousal,(2) expressive behaviors, and, most importantly, (3) conscious experience resulting from one's interpretations.

polygraph

a machine used in attempts to detect lies; measures emotion-linked changes in perspiration, heart rate, and breathing.

facial feedback effect

the tendency of facial muscle states to trigger corresponding feelings such as fear, anger, or happiness.

behavior feedback effect

the tendency of behavior to influence our own and others' thoughts, feelings, and actions.