AP Psych: Motivation, Emotion, and Personality

Motivations

Needs/desires that energize our behavior and arise from the interplay between nature (bodily push) and nurture (pull from experiences, thoughts, culture)

Instinct theory

Genetically predisposed behaviors; fixed pattern throughout species and is unlearned. Viewed this as the source of our motivations, but is an early and outdated way of labelling behaviors

Drives

basic physiological needs create an aroused, motivated state to reduce the need

Drive-reduction theory

the idea that a physiological need creates an aroused state (a drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy/reduce the need (one way the body strives for homeostasis

Homeostasis

the maintenance of a steady internal state; the regulation of any aspect of body chemistry, like blood glucose, around a particular level

Incentives

a pull factor; positive or negative environmental stimuli that lure or repel us. given these stimuli, underlying drives become active impulses. the more impulses satisfied, the stronger the drive gets

Arousal theory

we are curious by nature; human motivation aims not to eliminate arousal but to seek optimum levels of it. when our biological needs are satisfied, we want to be stimulated (moderately, though)

Yerkes-Dodson Law

moderate arousal leads to optimal performance. performance increases with arousal only up to a point, beyond which it decreases

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (basic concept, not order)

some needs take priority over others; physiological needs must be satisfied before higher-level needs become active.

Physiology of hunger

when you feel hungry, your stomach contracts

Hunger chemistry and the brain

people and animals automatically regulate caloric intake to prevent energy deficits and maintain stable body weight; your body keeps tabs on resources

Glucose

the form of sugar that circulates in the blood and provides the major source of energy for body tissues. when it is low, we feel hungry

Insulin

increases diminish glucose. decreases appetite and controls blood glucose

Hypothalamus and hunger

the processing of messages and the sending of hunger signals is done by several areas here; appetite stimulating and suppressing hormones are secreted by this region.

Ghrelin

a hunger-arousing hormone secreted by an empty stomach

Set point

the weight at which your “weight thermostat” may be set. when your body falls below, increased hunger and lowered BMR may combine to restore lost weight

Basal metabolic rate (BMR)

the resting rate of energy expenditure for maintaining basic body functions

Social motivation

human beings have a natural urge to be part of a community

Benefits of belonging

social bonds boosted early ancestors’ chances of survival; adults who formed attachments were more likely to survive, reproduce, and co-nurture children to maturity.

Social identity and social behavior

being a member of a group boosts health and well-being, increases feelings of belonging

Ostracism

deliberate social exclusion of individuals or groups

Effects of ostracism

threatens the need to belong, creates a cycle of disagreeableness which then leads to more exclusion.

Responses to ostracism

initial efforts to restore acceptance, depressed moods, then withdrawl. can cause physical pain too

Narcissism

excessive self-love and self-absorption. people who want to be the center of attention. active on social media, superficial friends

Achievement motivation

a desire for significant accomplishment, for mastery of skills or ideas, for control, and for attaining a high standard. the mroe we achieve, the more we feel the need to achieve.

Grit

passion and perseverance in pursuit of long-term goals

What is emotion?

a response of the whole organism, involving bodily arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience and feelings.

James-Lange theory

the theory that our experience of emotion is our awareness of our physiological responses to an emotion-arousing stimulus. stimulus → arousal → emotion.

Cannon-Bard theory

emotion-arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers physiological responses and the subjective experience of emotion. heart pounds as you experience fear.

Modern approach: Schacter-Singer two factor theory

to experience emotion one must (1) be physically aroused and (2) cognitively label the arousal

Spillover effect

with lingering arousal, whatever emotion we interpret is heightened. Or, if we’re next to someone feeling something, we feel it too.

“High road” emotion perception

for some emotions, especially complex ones like hatred and love, the stimulus travels through the thalamus to the brain cortex, where it is analyzed and sent out via the amygdala

LeDoux: “low road”

sometimes emotions (especially simple likes/dislikes/fears) take a more direct route, bypassing the cortex and traveling directly to the amygdala. amygdala sends more neural projections to the cortex than it receives, making it easier for feelings to control thinking rather than the other way around. we jump at rustling leaves before later deciding whether it was a snake or the wind.

Lazarus

our brain processes vast amounts of information without our conscious awareness, and some emotional responses do not require conscious thinking. emotions arise when we appraise an event as harmless or dangerous.

negative perspective lobe

right lobe

positive perspective lobe

left lobe

polygraphs

machines that try to measure lying using physiological responses but are wrong about 33% of the time

gender and reading emotion

women are generally better at reading emotional cues, better emotional literacy, and are more responsive and expressive. people attribute women’s emotion to disposition, men’s to circumstances

Culture and emotional expression: Ekman

facial expression is generally common across cultures, but context can be helpful in determining emotion

Effects of facial expression

expression of an emotion outwardly can amplify it inside us

Facial feedback effect

the tendency for facial expressions to trigger corresponding feelings like fear/anger/happiness

Behavior feedback effect

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

Personality

our characteristic way of thinking, feeling, and acting

Psychoanalytic theory (Freud)

proposed that childhood sexuality and unconscious motivations influence personality; attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts. seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions to treat psychological disorders

Humanistic theories

theories that view personality with a focus on the potential for healthy personal growth. theorists emphasized the ways people strive for self-determination and self-realization. studied people through their own self-reported experiences and feelings

Trait theories

we have stable and enduring characteristics, influenced by genetic predispositions

Social-cognitive theories: Bandura

traits interact with social context to produce our behaviors—how do we interact with our environment. takes into account conditioning and observational learning (social aspect), as well as cognition—what we think about a situation affects our resulting behavior (cognitive aspect). behavior in new situations is predicted by behavior in past, similar situations.

Psychodynamic theories

human behavior is the interation between conscious and unconscious mind, including associated motives and conflicts. Focus on the unconscious and the importance of childhood

The unconscious (Freud)

a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories.

Free association

a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing

Personality structure (Freud)

arises from conflict between impulse and restraint (aggressive, pleasure-seeking biological urges and internalized social controls over them); personality = efforts to resolve the conflict

Id and the pleasure principle

a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that, according to Freud, strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives. operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification. like a newborn crying out for satisfaction without awareness of the world around them

Ego

the largely conscious “executive” part of personality that mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality. like a young child responding to real world; contains partly conscious perceptions, thoughts, judgements, and memories

Reality principle

seeking to satisfy the id’s impulses in realistic ways that will bring long-term pleasure rather than pain.

Superego and ideal

the voice of our moral compass (conscience) that forces the ego to consider not only the real but the ideal, focuses on how we ought to behave, strives for perfection, judging actions and producing positive feelings of pride or negative feelings of guilt

Defense mechanisms

the ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality. they function indirectly and unconsciously; like immune system fighting disease, the ego fights anxiety

Repression

banishes anxiety-arousing wishes and feelings from consciousness. underlies all other defense mechanisms. is incomplete, can show up as symbols in dreams or slips of the tongue

Regression

retreating to an earlier psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated. example: wants to go to grandma’s house to play cards and eat chocolate chip cookies

Projection

disguising one’s own threatening impulses by attributing them to others. example: talks a lot about how mad his parent is at the coach

Displacement

shifting sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person. example: yells at little brother for no real reason

Reaction formation

switching unacceptable impulses into their opposites. example: makes a big show of expressing indifference about being on the “stupid soccer team”

Rationalization

offering self-justifying explanations in place of real, more threatening unconscious reasons for one’s actions. example: explains that he wasn’t working very hard in the tryouts and could have made the team if he really wanted to

Denial

refusing to believe or even perceive painful realities. example: insists there was an error on the team list and he’s going to set things right with the coach

Sublimation

transferring of unacceptable impulses into socially valued motives. example: decides instead to join the cross-country team, where all are accepted

Manifest content (Freud)

censored version of our unconscious wishes

Latent content (Freud)

all of our unconscious wishes expressed in dreams

Projective testing

tests that aim to go deeper and access unconscious processes by asking one to describe or tell a story about an ambiguous image in hopes of triggering projections of one’s own inner dynamics, feelings, and conflicts

Thematic apperception test

a test in which people view ambiguous pictures and then make up stories about them, through which they express their inner feelings and interests. valid and reliable map of people’s implicit motives (like achievement and affiliation motivation)

Rorschach inkblot test

the most widely used projective test, a set of 10 blots that seeks to identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots. reliability is debatable.

Evaluation of psychoanalysis

modern research contradicts many of Freud’s ideas, though reaction formation has been supported. Freud was also right that we have a lot more to our unconscious mind than meets the eye.

terror-management theory

emotional and behavioral responses to death

Alfred Adler

believed in the inferiority complex, said much of behavior is driven by efforts to conquer childhood inferiority that triggers strivings for superiority and power. childhood anxiety → desire for love and safety.

Abraham Maslow: Hierarchy of needs (order)

physiological needs, personal safety, sense of security, love/be loved/love ourselves, self-esteem, self-actualization, self-transcendence

Self-actualization

one ultimate psychological need, the motivation/process of fulfilling one’s potential

Self-transcendence

striving for meaning, purpose, and identity beyond the self

Unconditional positive regard

a caring, accepting, nonjudgemental attitude that values us even knowing our failings.

Carl Rogers’ way of thinking

humans are basically good and have self-actualizing abilities when put in the right environment. believed that a growth-promoting social climate provides acceptance/unconditional positive regard, genuineness, empathy.

Assessing the self—self-concept

people describe themselves both as they would ideally like to be and as they actually are. the closer the two are, the more positive the self-concept

Evaluating humanistic theories

critics say concepts are vague and subjective, object to emphasis on individualism, saying that it leads to self-indulgence rather than loving others, though the opposite has been supported.

Traits

characteristic behaviors and conscious motives/characteristic patterns of behavior or dispositions to feel and act in certain ways

Gordon Allport

described personality in terms of traits. believed that Freud and psychoanalysts were going too deep. defined personality by identifiable patterns and preferred identification of traits rather than explanation of them

Hans Eyesenk

believed we can reduce many of our normal relations to two genetically-influenced dimensions: introversion/extroversion and emotional stability/instability.

Personality inventories

longer questionnaires (often with true/false or agree/disagree items) on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviores; used to asses selected/several personality traits at once

MMPI

the most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests. originally developed to identify emotional disorders (still considered most appropriate use), this test is now used for many other screening purposes including the assessment of personality traits

Emprical derivation test

a test (like the MMPI) that is created by selecting from a pool of items those that discriminate between groups.

Big Five

a slightly expanded set of factors including 5 dimensions: conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness, and extroversion (CANOE or OCEAN)

Evaluating trait theories: person-situation controversy

personality tests are weak predictors of behavior, but better predictors of traits

Traits vs. behaviors

traits are consistent over time and situation, whereas behaviors vary from situation to situation

Recipriocal determinism

how Bandura views person-environment interaction; the interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and environment. example: Rosa’s past romantic experience (her behaviors) influence her romantic attitudes (internal factor) which affect how she responds to Ryan (environmental factor)

Evaluating social-cognitive theories

critics say theories disregard person’s inner traits, focus too much on the situation. underestimates biological influence and trait influence

Which perspectives can be measured with a case study?

psychoanalytic and humanistic

Which perspectives can be assessed with a survey?

trait, social-cognitive

Which perspectives can be measured with projective tests (like TAT and Rorschach)?

psychodynamic

Which perspectives can be assessed with personality inventories?

trait

Which perspectives can be measured using naturalistic observation/experimentation?

social-cognitive