AP PSYCH - MESH

Motivation: A need or desire that energizes and directs behavior.
Example: Hunger motivates you to eat food.

Instinct: A complex behavior that is rigidly patterned throughout a species and is unlearned.
Example: Birds building nests is an instinctual behavior.

Physiological need: A basic bodily requirement.
Example: The need for water to stay hydrated.

Drive-reduction theory: The idea that a physiological need creates an aroused state (a drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy the need.
Example: Feeling thirsty and drinking water to reduce the drive caused by dehydration.

Homeostasis: A tendency to maintain a balanced or constant internal state.
Example: Sweating to cool down when the body temperature rises.

Incentive: A positive or negative environmental stimulus that motivates behavior.
Example: Receiving money for completing a task acts as a positive incentive.

Yerkes-Dodson law: The principle that performance increases with arousal only up to a point, beyond which performance decreases.
Example: Feeling moderately anxious before a test can improve focus, but too much anxiety may hinder performance.

Affiliation need: The need to build and maintain relationships and to feel part of a group.
Example: Joining a club to feel connected to others.

Self-determination theory: The theory that we feel motivated to satisfy our needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness.
Example: Taking on a challenging project to feel capable and independent while collaborating with others.

Ostracism: Deliberate social exclusion of individuals or groups.
Example: Ignoring someone in a group chat as a form of exclusion.

Intrinsic motivation: The desire to perform a behavior effectively for its own sake.
Example: Reading a book because you enjoy the story.

Extrinsic motivation: The desire to perform a behavior to receive promised rewards or avoid threatened punishment.
Example: Studying to earn a good grade on a test.

Achievement motivation: A desire for significant accomplishment, for mastery of skills or ideas, for control, and for attaining a high standard.
Example: Practicing daily to win a piano competition.

Grit: Passion and perseverance in the pursuit of long-term goals.
Example: Training for years to qualify for the Olympics.

Glucose: The form of sugar that circulates in the blood and provides the major source of energy for body tissues.
Example: Eating a meal raises blood glucose levels.

Set point: The point at which the "weight thermostat" may be set.
Example: Someone’s body may naturally return to a specific weight despite dieting or overeating.

Basal metabolic rate: The body's resting rate of energy output.
Example: Even while sitting, the body uses energy for essential functions like breathing.

Obesity: Defined as a body mass index (BMI) measurement of 30 or higher.
Example: Obesity increases the risk of conditions like diabetes and heart disease.

Emotion: A response of the whole organism, involving physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience resulting from one's interpretations.
Example: Feeling happy when receiving good news.

Polygraph: A machine that measures emotion-linked changes in perspiration, heart rate, and breathing; used in attempts to detect lies.
Example: Polygraphs are often called "lie detector tests."

Facial feedback effect: The tendency of facial muscle states to trigger corresponding feelings such as fear, anger, or happiness.
Example: Smiling can make you feel happier.

Behavior feedback effect: The tendency of behavior to influence our own and others' thoughts, feelings, and actions.
Example: Walking confidently can make you feel more self-assured.

Health psychology: A subfield of psychology that explores the impact of psychological, behavioral, and cultural factors on health and wellness.
Example: Studying how stress impacts heart health.

Psychoneuroimmunology: The study of how psychological, neural, and endocrine processes together affect our immune system and resulting health.
Example: Chronic stress weakening the immune system.

Stress: The process by which we perceive and respond to certain events that we appraise as threatening or challenging.
Example: Feeling stressed before a big exam.

Motivational approach: The drive to move toward or away from a stimulus.
Example: Running away from a dangerous situation.

General adaptation syndrome: Selye's concept of the body's adaptive response to stress in three phases--alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.
Example: Feeling exhausted after dealing with prolonged stress at work.

Tend-and-befriend response: Under stress, people may nurture themselves and others and bond with and seek support from others.
Example: Reaching out to friends during a difficult time.

Type A personality: Term for competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, and anger-prone people.
Example: A person constantly working overtime to meet deadlines.

Type B personality: Term for easygoing, relaxed people.
Example: Someone who remains calm even in stressful situations.

Catharsis: The idea that "releasing" aggressive energy relieves aggressive urges.
Example: Punching a pillow to vent frustration.

Coping: Alleviating stress using emotional, cognitive, or behavioral methods.
Example: Talking to a friend to feel better after a stressful day.

Problem-focused coping: Attempting to alleviate stress directly—by changing the stressor or the way we interact with that stressor.
Example: Studying for a test to reduce test-related stress.

Emotion-focused coping: Attempting to alleviate stress by avoiding or ignoring a stressor and attending to emotional needs related to our stress reaction.
Example: Watching a movie to distract yourself after a stressful event.

Personal control: Our sense of controlling our environment rather than feeling helpless.
Example: Making a schedule to manage your tasks.

Learned helplessness: The hopelessness and passive resignation humans and other animals learn when unable to avoid repeated aversive events.
Example: Failing several tests and then giving up on studying because you believe you’ll fail again.

External locus of control: The perception that outside forces beyond our personal control determine our fate.
Example: Believing that luck determines success.

Internal locus of control: The perception that we control our own fate.
Example: Believing that hard work leads to success.

Self-control: The ability to control impulses and delay short-term gratification for greater long-term rewards.
Example: Choosing to save money instead of spending it impulsively.

Relative deprivation: The perception that we are worse off relative to those with whom we compare ourselves.
Example: Feeling dissatisfied after seeing a friend with a new car.