Unit 7 Part 1 Myers' Psychology for the AP Course

Motivation

A need or desire that energizes and directs behavior.

Instinct

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

Drive-Reduction Theory

The idea that a physiological need creates an aroused tension state 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, around a particular level.

Incentive

A positive or negative environmental stimulus that motivates behavior.

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.

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.

Basal Metabolic Rate

The body's resting rate of energy expenditure.

Sexual Response Cycle

The four stages of sexual responding described by Masters and Johnson—excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution.

Refractory Period

A resting period after orgasm, during which one cannot achieve another orgasm.

Estrogens

Sex hormones, such as estradiol, secreted in greater amounts by females that by males. In nonhuman female mammals levels peak during ovulation, promoting sexual receptivity.

Testosterone

The most important of the male sex hormones. Both males and females have it, but the additional levels in males stimulates the growth of the male sex organs in the fetus and the development of the male sex characteristics during puberty.

Emotion

A response of the whole organism, involving (1) physiological arousal, (2) expressive behaviors, and (3) conscious experience.

James-Lange Theory

The theory that our experience of emotion is our awareness of our physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli.

Cannon-Bard Theory

The theory that an emotion-arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers (1) physiological responses and (2) the subjective experience of emotion.

Two-Factor Theory

Schachter-Singer's theory that to experience emotion one must (1) be physically aroused and (2) cognitively label the arousal.

Facial Feedback

The effect of facial expressions on experienced emotions, as when a facial expression of anger or happiness intensifies feelings of anger or happiness.

Catharsis

Emotional release. In psychology, this hypothesis maintains that "releasing" aggressive energy (through action or fantasy) relieves aggressive urges.

Feel-good, Do-good Phenomenon

People's tendency to be helpful when already 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.

Health Psychology

A subfield of psychology that provides psychology's contribution to behavioral medicine.

Stress

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

General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)

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

Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI)

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

Physiological need

a basic bodily requirement

Yerkes-Dodson Law

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

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.

Obesity

defined as a body mass index (BMI) measurement of 30 or higher (overweight individuals have a BMI of 25 or higher).

Asexual

having no sexual attraction to others

Affiliation Need

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

Ostracism

deliberate social exclusion of individuals or groups

narcissism

excessive self-love and self-absorption

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

Polygraph

a machine used in attempts to detect lies that measures several of the physiological responses accompanying emotion (such as perspiration and cardiovascular and breathing changes).

Behavior Feedback Effect

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

tend-and-befriend response

under stress, people (especially women) often provide support to others (tend) and bond with and seek support from others (befriend)

Coronary Heart Disease (CHD)

the clogging of the vessels that nourish the heart muscle; the 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

aerobic exercise

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

mindfulness meditation

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

positive psychology

the scientific study of human flourishing, with the goals of discovering and promoting strengths and virtues 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.