Unit 7

What is motivation?

a need or desire that energizes and directs behavior 

What is instinct?

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

What is drive-reduction theory?

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

What is incentive?

a positive or negative environment stimulus that motivates behavior 

What is Maslow’s 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 

What is arousal theory?

People will be motivated to either increase or decrease their arousal to an optimal level

What is set point?

the point at which an individual’s “weight thermostat” is supposedly set

What is basal metabolic rate?

the body’s resting rate of energy expenditure

Which area triggers the feeling of hunger?

The lateral hypothalamus

Which hormone triggers hunger?

Orexin

Which hunger hormone is secreted by an empty stomach?

Ghrelin

What is the sister hormone to Ghrelin?

Obstetrin

Which area depresses hunger?

the ventromedial hypothalamus

What is the sexual response cycle?

 the four stages of sexual responding described by Masters and Johnson – excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution 

What is the refractory period?

A period after orgasm where men cannot orgasm again

What are estrogens?

sex hormones, such as estradiol, secreted in greater amount by females than males and contributing to female sex characteristic 

What is sexual orientation?

 an enduring sexual attraction toward members of either one’s own sex (homosexual orientation) or the other sex (heterosexual orientation)

What is emotion?

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

What is James-Lange theory?

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

__sight of oncoming car__ (perception of stimulus) LEADS TO __pounding heart__ (arousal) which LEADS TO __fear__ (emotion) 

What is Cannon-Bard theory?

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

Example: __sight of oncoming car__ (perception of stimulus) LEADS TO BOTH __pounding heart__ (arousal) AND __fear__ (emotion) simultaneously 

What is two-factor theory?

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

 __sight of oncoming car__ (perception of stimulus) must LEAD TO BOTH a __pounding heart__ (arousal) AND a cognitive label (“I am afraid”) which will then LEAD TO __fear__ (emotion)  

What is a polygraph?

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

What is 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 

What is catharsis?

"releasing" aggressive energy (through action or fantasy) relieves aggressive urges

What is the feel-good-do good phenomenon?

people’s tendency to be helpful when already in a good mood 

What is 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

What is the adaption level phenomenon?

our tendency to form judgments (of sounds, of lights, of income) relative to a neutral level defined by our prior experience

What is relative deprivation?

the perception that we are worse off relative to those with whom we compare ourselves 

What is behavioural medicine?

 an interdisciplinary field that integrates behavior and medical knowledge and applies that knowledge to health and disease

What is health psychology?

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

What is stress?

The process by which we perceive and respond to events which we appraise as threatening or challenging

What is general adaption syndrome?

Selye’s concept of the body’s adaptive response to stress in three phases – alarm, resistance, exhaustion 

What is a type A personality?

Friedman and Rosenman’s term for competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, and anger-prone people 

What is a type B personality?

Friedman and Rosenman’s term for easygoing, relaxed people

What is a psychophysiological illness?

literally, “mind-body” illness; any stress-related physical illness, such as hypertension and some headaches 

What is PNI?

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

What are lymphocytes?

 the two types of white blood cells that are part of the body’s immune system 

What is personality?

an individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting

What is the unconscious?

according to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories; according to contemporary psychologists, information processing of which we are unaware 

What is psychoanalysis?

Freud’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions 

What is free association?

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

What is the Id?

a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that, according to Freud, strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives 

What is the ego?

the largely conscious, “executive” part of personality that, according to Freud, mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality

What is the superego?

the part of personality that, according to Freud, represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment (the conscience) and for future aspirations 

What are the psychosexual stages?

the childhood stages of development, (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital) during which, according to Freud, the id’s pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones 

* Oral 
* Anal 
* Phallic 
* Latency 

What is an Oedipus complex?

ccording to Freud, a boy’s sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father 

What is identification?

the process by which, according to Freud, children incorporate their parent’s values into their developing superegos 

What is fixation?

 according to Freud, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual state, in which conflicts were unresolved

What are defence mechanisms?

in psychoanalytic theory, the ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality 

What is repression?

 in psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes anxiety- arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness 

What is regression?

psychoanalytic defense mechanism in which an individual faced with anxiety retreats to a more infantile psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated 

What is reaction formation?

sychoanalytic defense mechanism by which the ego unconsciously switches unacceptable impulse into their opposites.  Thus, people may express feelings that are the opposite of their anxiety-arousing unconscious feelings 

What is projection?

psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which people disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others 

What is rationalization?

 psychoanalytic defense mechanism that offers self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one’s actions 

What is displacement?

psychoanalytic defense mechanism that shifts sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person, as when redirecting anger toward a safer outlet 

What is positive psychology?

 the scientific study of optimal human functioning; aims to discover and promote strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive