PSYC 1101 – Exam 2 Study Guide: Motivation & Development

PSYC 1101 – Exam 2 Study Guide

MOTIVATION & HUNGER

  • Neurotransmitters:

    • Dopamine:

    • Role: Associated with reward, pleasure, and motivation.

    • Serotonin:

    • Role: Stabilizes mood.

    • Norepinephrine:

    • Role: Influences alertness and arousal.

  • How Motivation Works:

    • Motivation is driven by incentives (rewards) and internal drives.

    • Dopamine is crucial as it reinforces behavior, encouraging repeated actions that yield rewards.

  • Hormones in Hunger:

    • Ghrelin:

    • Function: Increases feelings of hunger.

    • Leptin:

    • Function: Decreases feelings of hunger.

    • Insulin:

    • Function: Regulates blood sugar levels, influencing hunger.

DEVELOPMENT

  • Types of Development:

    • Physical Development:

    • Refers to changes in body structure and function.

    • Cognitive Development:

    • Refers to the development of thinking and understanding.

    • Social Development:

    • Refers to changes in social behaviors and relationships.

    • Emotional Development:

    • Refers to the development of emotions and emotional regulation.

  • Prenatal Stages:

    • Germinal Stage (0–2 weeks):

    • Key Process: Fertilization occurs, and the zygote begins cell division.

    • Embryonic Stage (2–8 weeks):

    • Key Process: Major organs begin to form during this period.

    • Fetal Stage (8 weeks to birth):

    • Key Process: Characterized by growth and further development of the fetus.

  • Teratogens:

    • Definition: Harmful substances that can potentially harm fetal development.

    • Examples: Alcohol, drugs, and other environmental toxins.

  • Reflexes in Newborns:

    • Rooting Reflex:

    • Description: Baby turns head towards the stimulus when the cheek is stroked.

    • Sucking Reflex:

    • Description: Infant's instinct to suck on objects placed in their mouth.

    • Grasping Reflex:

    • Description: Baby's instinct to grab objects placed in their palm.

    • Moro Reflex:

    • Description: Startle response where a baby throws its arms out when startled.

PARENTING & ATTACHMENT

  • Parenting Styles:

    • Authoritative:

    • Characteristics: Encourages independence while maintaining limits; associated with the best outcomes for children.

    • Authoritarian:

    • Characteristics: Rigid and strict, low levels of warmth.

    • Permissive:

    • Characteristics: Lenient with few demands and little structure.

    • Neglectful:

    • Characteristics: Little involvement in the child's life, often uninvolved.

  • Harlow Experiment:

    • Study shows that monkeys preferred comfort from a soft mother figure over food, suggesting the importance of comfort and bonding in attachment.

  • Attachment Styles:

    • Secure:

    • Healthy attachment, where children feel safe and supported.

    • Avoidant:

    • Lack of emotional responsiveness and avoidance of closeness.

    • Anxious/Ambivalent:

    • Mixed feelings about attachment, often depends on caregiver's reliability.

    • Disorganized:

    • Confused behavior indicating a lack of clear attachment pattern.

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

  • Erikson's Theory:

    • Focus: Social development through various stages, emphasizing tasks such as trust and identity formation.

  • Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development:

    • Sensorimotor:

    • Age: Birth to 2 years, where infants learn through sensory experience and movement.

    • Preoperational:

    • Age: 2 to 7 years, characterized by symbolic thinking and egocentrism.

    • Concrete Operational:

    • Age: 7 to 11 years, where logical thinking develops, but only concerning concrete objects.

    • Formal Operational:

    • Age: 12 years and up, where abstract reasoning and logical thinking become possible.

  • Vygotsky's Contributions:

    • Emphasizes social learning; introduces the concepts of Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and scaffolding.

MEMORY

  • Types of Memory Storage:

    • Sensory Memory:

    • Immediate and fleeting impressions of sensory information.

    • Short-term Memory:

    • Temporary storage that holds a limited amount of information for a short duration.

    • Long-term Memory:

    • More permanent storage, potentially limitless in capacity.

  • Types of Long-term Memory:

    • Explicit Memory:

    • Episodic Memory:

      • Memory of personal experiences and specific events.

    • Semantic Memory:

      • Memory of factual information and concepts.

    • Implicit Memory:

    • Involves skills and procedures that are learned implicitly.

  • Amnesia Types:

    • Retrograde Amnesia:

    • Loss of memory for events prior to the onset of amnesia.

    • Anterograde Amnesia:

    • Inability to form new memories after the event leading to amnesia.

MEMORY EFFECTS

  • Primacy Effect:

    • Tendency to remember items at the beginning of a list better than those in the middle.

  • Recency Effect:

    • Tendency to remember items at the end of a list better than those in the middle.

  • Chunking:

    • Technique of grouping information into larger, meaningful units to enhance memory.

  • Rehearsal Types:

    • Maintenance Rehearsal:

    • Repetition of information to keep it in short-term memory.

    • Elaborative Rehearsal:

    • Involves linking new information to existing memories for better retention.

  • Schemas:

    • Definition: Mental frameworks that help organize and interpret information.

  • Assimilation vs Accommodation:

    • Assimilation:

    • Process of incorporating new information into existing schemas without changing them.

    • Accommodation:

    • Process of altering schemas or creating new ones in response to new information.

  • Retrieval Factors:

    • State-dependent Memory:

    • Memory retrieval that is improved when an individual is in the same state as when the memory was formed.

    • Context-dependent Memory:

    • Memory retrieval that is enhanced when the context matches the original learning environment.

  • Interference Types:

    • Proactive Interference:

    • Older memories interfere with the retrieval of newer memories.

    • Retroactive Interference:

    • Newer memories interfere with the retrieval of older memories.

EMOTION THEORIES

  • James-Lange Theory:

    • Proposes that emotions result from the perception of physiological reactions to stimuli (e.g., we feel afraid because we tremble).

  • Cannon-Bard Theory:

    • Suggests that physiological reactions and emotions occur simultaneously and independently.

  • Two-Factor Theory:

    • Proposes that emotion is based on two factors: physiological arousal and cognitive labeling of that arousal.

CULTURE & EMOTION

  • Universal Emotions:

    • Certain emotions are recognized across different cultures (e.g., happiness, sadness, fear).

  • Cultural Display Rules:

    • Societal norms that dictate how emotions can be expressed (e.g., varying acceptance of emotional expressions in different cultures).

AROUSAL & PERFORMANCE

  • Optimal Arousal Theory:

    • Suggests that there is an optimal level of arousal for best performance; moderate arousal is often associated with optimal performance outcomes.