AP Psychology Unit 4B: Personality, Motivation, and Emotion

Psychodynamic theory

Argues that unconscious processes drive personality.

Unconscious processes

Mental processes occurring outside of and not available to conscious awareness.

Ego defense mechanisms

Largely unconscious distortions of thoughts or perceptions that act to reduce anxiety.

Denial

Refusing to admit that something unpleasant is happening.

Displacement

Shifting sexual or aggressive impulses towards a more acceptable or less threatening object or person.

Projection

People disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others.

Rationalization

Justifying one's behavior with socially acceptable reasons rather than real reasons.

Reaction formation

The ego transforms anxiety-producing thoughts into their opposites.

Regression

Returning to more primitive levels of behavior.

Repression

Blocking a threatening memory from consciousness.

Sublimation

Channeling unwanted feelings into more acceptable forms.

Projective tests

Personality assessments that present ambiguous visual stimuli to the client and ask the client to respond with whatever comes to mind.

Preconscious mind

Level of the mind in which information is available but not currently conscious.

Unconscious mind

Level of the mind where thoughts, feelings, memories, and other information are kept that are not easily or voluntarily brought into consciousness.

Humanistic psychology

Argues that humans are motivated by a self-actualizing tendency, which pushes each of us to reach our full potential.

Unconditional (positive) regard

The basic acceptance and support of a person regardless of what the person says or does.

Self-actualizing tendency

The striving to fulfill one's innate capacities and capabilities.

Social-cognitive theory

Emphasizes the learning that occurs within a social context.

Reciprocal determinism

Argues the environment influences behavior, behavior influences the environment, and both influence the individual.

Self concept

One's description and evaluation of oneself.

Self-efficacy

An individual's subjective perception of their capability to perform in a given setting.

Self-esteem

The degree to which the qualities and characteristics contained in one's self-concept are perceived to be positive.

Trait theories

Concept that a trait is a personality characteristic that is consistent, stable, and varies from person to person.

Big Five Theory of Personality

Personality can be effectively organized and described by five broad dimensions.

Agreeableness

Describes someone who is good natured, cooperative, and trusting.

Openness

Describes one's willingness to try new things and be open to new experiences.

Conscientiousness

Describes someone who is organized, careful, and disciplined.

Extraversion

Describes someone who is sociable, gregarious, and assertive.

Emotional stability

Describes the degree to which someone is not emotional, insecure, or excitable.

Personality inventories

Self-report questionnaires designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors.

Factor analysis

A statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items on a test.

Drive-reduction theory

Assumes all motivated behavior arises from drives stemming from a disruption in homeostasis.

Homeostasis

A balanced, internal state.

Arousal theory

People seek an optimal level of arousal when they behave.

Optimal level of arousal

The level of arousal at which performance peaks.

Yerkes-Dodson law

Performance increases with arousal only up to a point, beyond which performance decreases.

Self-determination theory

People are motivated by intrinsic or extrinsic motivations.

Intrinsic motivation

A desire to perform a behavior for its own sake.

Incentive theory

Behavior is directed toward attaining desirable stimuli and avoiding unwanted stimuli.

Extrinsic motivation

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

Instincts

Innate, fixed patterns of behavior in response to certain stimuli.

Lewin's motivational conflict theory

Motivation to achieve desirable outcomes and avoid undesirable outcomes creates internal conflicts.

Approach-approach conflict

Conflict that results from having to choose between two attractive alternatives.

Approach-avoidance conflict

Conflict that results from having to choose an alternative with both attractive and unappealing aspects.

Avoidance-avoidance conflict

Conflict that results from having to choose between two distasteful alternatives.

Sensation-seeking theory

The tendency to search out and engage in thrilling activities.

Experience seeking

The tendency to seek novel experiences through the mind and the senses.

Thrill seeking

The desire to engage in physically risky activities.

Disinhibition

Acting without consideration of the consequences.

Boredom susceptibility

Low tolerance for repetitious or constant experiences.

Ghrelin

A hunger-arousing hormone secreted by an empty stomach.

Leptin

A hormone that signals the hypothalamus to reduce appetite.

Hypothalamus

A neural structure that directs eating, drinking, and body temperature.

Pituitary gland

The endocrine system's most influential gland that regulates growth and other endocrine glands.

Affect

Appearance of observable emotions.

James-Lange theory

Our experience of emotion is our awareness of our physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli.

Cannon-bard theory

An emotion-arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers physiological responses and subjective experience of emotion.

Schachter-Singer two-factor theory

To experience emotion one must be physically aroused and cognitively label the arousal.

Broaden-and-build theory

Positive emotions prompt people to consider novel solutions to their problems.

Positive emotional experiences

Emotions including joy, interest, contentment, love.

Negative emotional experiences

Emotions including anxiety, sadness, anger, despair.

Cognitive label/appraisal

Personal interpretation of a situation that influences the perception of stress.

Facial-feedback hypothesis

Emotional expressions can cause the emotional experiences they signify.

Display rules

Learned ways of controlling displays of emotion in social settings.

Elicitors

Something that leads to the experience of an emotion.

Universal emotions

According to Paul Ekman, they are anger, disgust, sadness, happiness, surprise, and fear.