Chapter 10 Key Terms Flashcards
Adaptive behaviors
Actions that aid attempts to survive and adapt to changing conditions.
Adrenaline
A hormone produced by the adrenal glands that tends to arouse the body.
Alexithymia
A learned difficulty expressing emotions; more common in men.
Amygdala
A part of the limbic system (within the brain) that produces fear responses
Androgen
Any number of male sex hormones, especially testosterone.
Anorexia nervosa
Active self-starvation or a sustained loss of appetite that has psychological origins.
Arousal theory
Assumes that people prefer to maintain ideal, or comfortable, levels of arousal.
Attribution
The mental process of assigning causes to events. In emotion, the process of attributing arousal to a particular source.
Autonomic nervous system (ANS)
The system of nerves that connects the brain with the internal organs and glands.
Bait shyness
An unwillingness or hesitation on the part of animals to eat a particular food.
Basic needs
The first four levels of needs in Maslow’s hierarchy; lower needs tend to be more potent than higher needs.
Behavioral dieting
Weight reduction based on changing exercise and eating habits, rather than temporary self-starvation.
Biological motives
Innate motives based on biological needs.
Biological preparedness (to learn)
) Organisms are more easily able to learn some associations (e.g., food and illness) than others (e.g., flashing light and illness). Evolution, then, places biological limits on what an animal or person can easily learn.
Bulimia nervosa
Excessive eating (gorging) usually followed by self-induced vomiting and/or taking laxatives.
Cannon-Bard theory
States that activity in the thalamus causes emotional feelings and bodily arousal to occur simultaneously.
Circadian rhythms
Cyclical changes in bodily functions and arousal levels that vary on a schedule approximating a 24-hour day
Drive
The psychological expression of internal needs or valued goals. For example, hunger, thirst, or a drive for success.
Duchenne smile
An authentic smile (as opposed to a posed, false smile).
Emblems
Gestures that have widely understood meanings within a particular culture.
Emotion
A state characterized by physiological arousal, changes in facial expression, gestures, posture, and subjective feelings.
Emotional appraisal
Evaluating the personal meaning of a stimulus or situation.
Emotional expression
Outward signs that an emotion is occurring.
Emotional feelings
The private, subjective experience of having an emotion.
Emotional intelligence
The ability to perceive, use, understand, and manage emotions.
Episodic drive
A drive that occurs in distinct episodes.
Extracellular thirst
Thirst caused by a reduction in the volume of fluids found between
body cells.
Estrogen
Any of a number of female sex hormones.
Estrus
Changes in the sexual drives of animals that create a desire for mating; particularly
used to refer to females in heat.
Extrinsic motivation
Motivation based on obvious external rewards, obligations, or similar factors.
Facial feedback hypothesis
States that sensations from facial expressions help define what emotion a person feels.
Galvanic skin response (GSR)
A change in the electrical resistance (or inversely, the conductance) of the skin, due to sweating.
Goal
The target or objective of motivated behavior.
Growth needs
In Maslow’s hierarchy, the higher level needs associated with self-actualization.
Guilty knowledge test
Polygraph procedure involving testing people with knowledge only a guilty person could know.
Hierarchy of human needs
Abraham Maslow’s ordering of needs, based on their presumed strength or potency.
Homeostasis
A steady state of body equilibrium.
Hypothalamus
A small area at the base of the brain that regulates many aspects of motivation and emotion, especially hunger, thirst, and sexual behavior.
Illustrators
Gestures people use to illustrate what they are saying.
Incentive value
The value of a goal above and beyond its ability to fill a need.
Intracellular thirst
Thirst triggered when fluid is drawn out of cells due to an increased
concentration of salts and minerals outside the cell.
Intrinsic motivation
Motivation that comes from within, rather than from external rewards; motivation based on personal enjoyment of a task or activity.
James-Lange theory
States that emotional feelings follow bodily arousal and come from awareness of such arousal.
Kinesics
Study of the meaning of body movements, posture, hand gestures, and facial expressions; commonly called body language.
Meta-needs
In Maslow’s hierarchy, needs associated with impulses for self-actualization.
Metabolic rate
The rate at which energy is consumed by bodily activity.
Mood
A low-intensity, long-lasting emotional state.
Motivation
Internal processes that initiate, sustain, direct and terminate activities.
Need
An internal deficiency that may energize behavior.
Need for achievement (nAch)
The desire to excel or meet some internalized standard of excellence.
Need for power
The desire to have social impact and control over others.
Non-homeostatic drive
A drive that is relatively independent of physical deprivation cycles or bodily need states.
Opponent-process theory
States that strong emotions tend to be followed by an opposite emotional state; also the strength of both emotional states changes over time.
Parasympathetic branch
A part of the autonomic system that quiets the body and conserves energy.
Parasympathetic rebound
Excess activity in the parasympathetic nervous system following a period of intense emotion.
Physiological changes (in emotion)
Alterations in heart rate, blood pressure,
perspiration, and other involuntary responses.
Polygraph
A device for recording heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, and galvanic skin response; commonly called a “lie detector.”
Primary emotions
According to Robert Plutchik, the most basic emotions are fear, surprise, sadness, disgust, anger, anticipation, joy, and acceptance.
Response
Any action, glandular activity, or other identifiable behavior.
Schachter’s cognitive theory
States that emotions occur when physical arousal is labeled or interpreted on the basis of experience and situational cues.
Set point
The proportion of body fat that tends to be maintained by changes in hunger and eating.
Sex drive
The strength of one’s motivation to engage in sexual behavior.
Stimulus motives
Motives based on learned needs, drives, and goals.
Social motives
Learned motives acquired as part of growing up in a particular society or culture.
Sympathetic branch
A part of the ANS that activates the body at times of stress.
Taste aversion
An active dislike for a particular food.
Test anxiety
High levels of arousal and worry that seriously impair test performance.
Yerkes-Dodson law
A summary of the relationships among arousal, task complexity, and performance.
