AP Psych In Class Vocab

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.

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 group

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.

Ostracism

Deliberate social exclusion of individuals or groups.

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.

Achievement motivation

A desire for significant accomplishment, mastery, control, and high standards.

Grit

Passion and perseverance in 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.

Set point

The point at which the 'weight thermostat' may be set.

Basal metabolic rate

The body's resting rate of energy output.

Obesity

Defined as a BMI of 30 or higher.

Emotion

A response of the whole organism (arousal, expressive behaviors, conscious experience).

Polygraph

A machine that measures emotion-linked changes in perspiration, heart rate, breathing (used to attempt lie detection).

Facial feedback effect

Facial muscle states triggering corresponding feelings (fear, anger, happiness).

Behavior feedback effect

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

Health psychology

Subfield exploring psychological/behavioral/cultural impacts on health/wellness.

Psychoneuroimmunology

Study of how psychological, neural, endocrine processes affect the immune system/health.

Stress

The process of perceiving/responding to events we appraise as threatening/challenging.

Approach and avoidance motives

The drive to move toward or away from a stimulus.

General adaptation syndrome (GAS)

Selye's three-phase adaptive response to stress (alarm, resistance, exhaustion).

Tend-and-befriend response

Under stress, people may nurture and seek support.

Type A

Competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, anger-prone people.

Type B

Easygoing, relaxed people.

Coping

Attempting to alleviate stress directly—by changing the stressor or how we interact with it.

Problem-focused coping

Attempting to alleviate stress directly—by changing the stressor or how we interact with it.

Emotion-focused coping

Attempting to alleviate stress by avoiding or ignoring a stressor and attending to emotional needs.

Personal control

Our sense of controlling our environment rather than feeling helpless.

Learned helplessness

The hopelessness and passive resignation learned when unable to avoid repeated aversive events.

External locus of control

The perception that outside forces beyond our 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 long-term rewards.

Relative deprivation

The perception that we are worse off compared to others.

Catharsis

The idea that releasing aggressive energy relieves aggressive urges