AP Psych Unit 7

Motivation

The needs, desires, feelings, and ideas that direct behavior toward a goal

Instinct Theory

The belief that people are motivated to behave in certain ways because they are evolutionary/genetically programmed to do so with survival instincts

Drive Reduction Theory

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

Homeostasis

The body’s ability to maintain a state of equilibrium

Incentive Theory

Actions are directed towards the promise of a reward or punishment to engage in certain behaviors or stop performing certain actions

Optimum Arousal Theory

Human motivation aims to increase arousal to find the right amount of excitement for optimal performance

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

The concept that people need to meet basic needs before reaching higher level needs like physiological, safety, social, esteem, self-actualization, and self-transcendence

Hunger Motivation

Understanding why we eat, driven by the hypothalamus and external cues for eating behaviors

Sexual Motivation

The normal human interest in sexual objects and activities, not a need but a desire

Achievement Motivation

The need for achievement that drives accomplishment and performance, leading to a sense of accomplishment

Intrinsic Motivation

Behavior driven by internal rewards like autonomy, mastery, and purpose

Extrinsic Motivation

Behavior driven by external rewards such as money, fame, grades, and praise

Emotion

A mind and body’s integrated response to a stimulus, including physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, conscious experience, and nonverbal communication

Stress

Any change causing physical, emotional, or psychological strain, with acute, chronic, eustress, and distress types

General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)

The body’s psychological reaction to stress with stages of alarm, resistance, and exhaustion

Coping Strategies

Adaptive or maladaptive ways to deal with stress, including emotion-focused, problem-focused, and appraisal-focused coping

Personality Psychology

The scientific study of an individual's unique pattern of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors

Psychoanalytic Theories

Emphasize unconscious conflicts in shaping behavior and personality, with concepts like unconscious, id, and ego.

Ego

Operates on the reality principle, satisfying the id’s desires realistically to bring pleasure rather than pain.

Superego

Represents internalized ideals, provides standards for judgment and future aspirations, focusing on morality and compliance with authority.

Psychosexual Stages

Childhood stages of development (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital) where pleasure-seeking energies focus on erogenous zones.

Oedipus Complex

Boy’s sexual desires towards mother, jealousy towards father, resolved by repressing and identification.

Identification

Process of incorporating parents’ values into the developing superego, influencing gender identity.

Fixation

Lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, leading to unresolved conflicts.

Defense Mechanisms

Tactics that reduce anxiety by distorting reality, safeguarding the mind against difficult thoughts.

Repression

Acts to keep information out of conscious awareness, repressed feelings may surface in dreams or slips of the tongue.

Projective Test

Personality test using ambiguous stimuli to uncover unconscious traits, like the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT).

Archetypes

Major components of the collective unconscious, universal patterns shaping human adaptation to the world.