Unit 7: Motivation, Emotion, and Personality Flashcards
Motivation
a need or desire that influences and directs behavior
Nature vs. Nurture in motivation
the “bodily push” (nature) combined with our personal experience (nurture) creates motivation
Instinct
a complex behavior that is rigidly patterned throughout a species and is unlearned
- humans are not primarily motivated by instinct; we have basic ones but more of our motivations are driven by psysiological needs and psychological wants
Instinct theory
theory that our instincts act as a source of motivation; inborn impulses are our motivation to action
Imprinting
the process by which certain animals form strong attachments during early life
Drive reduction theory
the idea that a physiological need creates an aroused state (a drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy the need
- drive reduction is the way our bodies strive for homeostasis, a tendency to maintain a balanced or constant internal state
homeostasis –> need –> drive –> drive reduction
incentives
a positive or negative environmental stimulus that motivates behavior
arousal theory
some motivated behaviors increase arousal (**think adrenaline junkies)
sometimes uncertainty brings excitement, amplifying motivation
Yerkes-Dodson Law
the principle that performance increases with arousal only up to a point, beyond which performance decreases (this point is different for different people)
- simpler tasks are performed best when arousal levels are relatively moderate/high whereas complex tasks are best performed when arousal levels are low
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
Beginning at the base with physiological needs that must first be satisfied before higher-level safety needs and then psychological needs become active
How do glucose levels affect hunger?
If your blood glucose level drops, you won’t consciously feel the lower blood sugar. Your brain, which is automatically monitoring your blood chemistry and your body’s internal state, will trigger hunger.
Role of the Hypothalamus in hunger
Blood vessels supply the hypothalamus, enabling it to respond to our current blood chemistry/incoming neural info about the body’s state
Ghrelin
Hormone secreted by an empty stomach; sends “i’m hungry” signals to the brain
“set point” (in terms of weight)
The point at which your “weight thermostat” may be set. When your body falls below this weight, increased hunger and lowered metabolic rate may combine to restore lost weight.
- does not really exist; sustained changes in our body weight can alter one’s set point and psychological factors sometimes also drive our feelings of hunger
Testosterone
The most important male sex hormone. both males and females have it, but the additional testosterone in males stimulates the growth of the make sex organs during the fetal period and the development of the male sex characteristics during puberty
Oestrogen
sex hormones that contribute to female sex characteristics and are secreted in greater amounts by females than in males - oestrogen peaks during ovulation
Testosterone
The most important male sex hormone. Both males and females have it, but the additional testosterone in males stimulates the growth of the male sex organs during the fetal period and the development of the male sex characteristics during puberty
Affiliation need
the need to build relationships and be part of a group
Ostracism
deliberate social exclusion of groups or individuals
Narcissism
excessive self-love and self-absorbtion
Achievement motivation
a desire for significant accomplishment, mastery of skills or ideas, control, and for attaining a high standard
- those with high achievement motivation tend to achieve more with their persistence and eagerness for challenge
Emotion vs the autonomic nervous system
in a crisis the sympathetic division of your ANS mobilizes your body for action by directing your adrenal glands to release the stress hormone epinephrine and norepinephrine to prepare you for survival. When crisis has passed, the parasympathetic division works to gradually calm you down as stress hormones slowly leave the bloodstream
Common sense theory (theories of emotion)
Stimulus > Emotion > Arousal
- some sort of external stimulus will elicit an emotion response causing arousal
James-Lange theory (theories of emotion)
Stimulus > Arousal > Emotion
- an external stimulus causes an arousal, leaving you emotional
Cannon-Bard theory (theories of emotion)
Stimulus = Emotion + Arousal
- an external stimulus causes fear and a physical response at the same time
Schachter Singer “2 factor” theory (theories of emotion)
Stimulus > Arousal + cognitive label > Emotion
- an external stimulus elicits a psychological response and at the same time an internal analysis (or cognitive label), before emotion
Lazarus theory (theories of emotion)
Stimulus > Cognitive label > Emotion + arousal
- your brain analyses a situation and as a result produces an emotional and physical response
Zajonc and LeDoux theory (theories of emotion)
Stimulus > Thalamus > Amygdala > Fear
- instant emotional response; cognition is not always immediately involved
** think jumpscare
How do we communicate nonverbally?
Expressive behavior - body language and facial expressions
Difference between real and fake emotion
Hard-to-control face muscles are often signifiers of real emotion from fake
** activated under-eye muscles when expressing happiness
Most people cannot detect the minute differences between liars and truth tellars
Ekman’s research on emotional detection accuracy
Suggests that humans can detect falsity in feigned emotion; basic emotions are innate and shared by everyone, enough that we can accurately decipher them
Darwin’s ideas on historical expression of emotion
in prehistoric times, as means of survival our ancestors communicated in facial expression before verbal communication, and still we have retained some of those tendencies
Darwin’s ideas on the historical expression of emotion
in prehistoric times, as means of survival our ancestors communicated in facial expression before verbal communication, and still we have retained some of those tendencies
Facial feedback effect
the tendency of facial muscle states to trigger corresponding feelings such as fear, anger, or happiness
Behavior feedback effect
the tendency of behavior to influence our own and others thoughts, feelings and actions
Stress
the process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, called stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging
Stress appraisal chart
Stressful event = Threat = Negative response
** math test = “I don’t know anything” = stressed to distraction
OR
Stressful event = Challenge + Positive response
** math test + “I’ve got to apply all I know” = aroused, focused
Selye’s phases of the general adaptation syndrome (GAS)
(GAS is Selye’s concept of the body’s adaptive responses to stress)
- Alarm reaction
- sympathetic nervous system
- fight or flight - Resistance
- blood pressure and respiration remain high
- hormones to the bloodstream; full engagement to fight - Exhaustion
- body’s reserves dwindle with no relief from stress over time
- vulnerable to illness/collapse/death
Selye’s basic point
Idea that although the human body copes well with temporary stress, prolonged stress can damage it at a certain point
DNA and prolonged stress
results in shortened telomers (DNA pieces that shorten with age) with those who suffered childhood stressors
Tend-and-befriend response
under stress, people (especially women) often provide support to others (tend) and bond with and seek support from others (befriend)
Health psychology
subfield of psychology that provides psychology’s contribution to behavioral medicine
Psychoneuroimmunology
Study of how physiological, neural, and endocrine processes together affect the immune system and resulting health
Two ways a poorly functioning immune system can react
- Too strong of a reaction; may attack the body’s own tissues, causing an allergic reaction or a self-attacking disease
- Underreaction; bacterial infection may flare, dormant viruses may erupt, or cancer cells could multiply
How are stress and cancer linked?
In healthy, functioning immune systems, lymphocytes, macrophages and NK cells search out cancer cells/cancer-damaged cells, but a weakened immune system cannot fight them
NOTE: stress does not create cancer cells
Stress and inflammation
Both heart disease and depression may result when chronic stress triggers blood inflammation; the more physiological trauma people experience, the more their bodies generate inflammation
Anger management and catharsis
Anger management are behaviors to help quell and direct our anger
examples include waiting, distraction, support, distance, and catharsis, the idea that “releasing” aggressive energy (through action or fantasy) relieves aggressive urges
Three health benefits of social support
- social support calms us and reduces blood pressure and stress hormones
- social support fosters stronger immune functioning
- close relationships give us an opportunity for “open heart therapy” - a chance to confide painful feelings
Feel-good, do-good phenomenon
people’s tendency to be helpful when in a good mood
Positive psychology
the scientific study for human flourishing, with the goals of discovering and promoting strengths and virtues that help individuals and communities to thrive
Subjective well-being
Self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life. used along with measures of objective wellbeing (psychical/economic indicators) to evaluate people’s quality of life
Adaptive-level phenomenon
our tendency to form judgements (of sounds, of lights, of income) relative to a neural level defined by our prior experience
Relative deprivation
the perception that one is worse off relative to those with whom one compares oneself
Personality
an individuals characteristic pattern of feeling, thinking, and acting
Psychoanalysis
- Freud’s approach
- attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflict; seeks to expose/interpret unconscious tensions
Psychodynamics
- The modern-day take on psychoanalytics
- Views personality with a focus on the unconscious and the influence of childhood experiences; childhood tensions (not sexual, as in Freud’s psychoanalysis) are crucial for personality formation
(Adler, Horney, Jung)
Three parts of the unconscious mind according to Freud
- Unconcious: unacceptable information that we process, of which we are unaware
- Preconcious: where we store some of these thoughts temporarily, from which we can retrieve them into conscious awareness
- Conscious: what we know is happening in our mind
How do Id, Ego, and Superego interact
(Freud’s psychoanalytic theory)
Id (unconscious energy) - instincts; strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive desires, demanding instant gratification
Superego (internalized ideas) - morals; internalized ideals and standards for judgement and future aspirations
The Ego (mostly conscious) is how you mediate instincts and morals into concrete decisions; the reality principle of satisfying the Id realistically to bring the most amount of pleasure without sacrificing your Superego
Freud’s psychosexual stages
- Oral (pleasure from mouth/sucking)
- Anal (pleasure from learning to control bodily waste)
- Phallic (pleasure from genitals/coping with incestual feelings)
- Latent (suppressing sexual identity)
- Gential (expressing sexual feelings towards others)
Fixation in a psychosexual stage
a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking activities relating to a psychosexual stage in which conflicts were unresovled
** a person who had been either orally overindulged or under indulged might fixate on the oral stage, maybe smoking weed/cigarettes
Seven defense mechanisms
- Regression: retreating to a more infantile psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated
**thumb sucking brings comfort - Reaction formation: switching unacceptable impulses into their opposites
** exaggerated friendliness - Projection: disguising one’s own threatening impulses by attributing them to others
** thief thinks everyone else is a thief - Rationalization: offering self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening unconscious reasons for one’s actions
** a habitual drinker says she drinks with her friends “just to be sociable” - Displacement: shifting sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person
**a boy punches the wall after his mom sends him to his room - Sublimation: transferring of unacceptable impulses into socially valued motives
**man with aggressive urges becomes a surgeon - Denial: refusing to belive or even perceive painful realities
** a partner denies evidence of his loved one’s afair
How do neo-Freudians differ from Freud?
They adopted freuds interviewing techniques and accepted his basic ideas (personality structures, childhood influence, defense mechanisms etc.) but did not belive that sex/aggression were all-consuming motives and placed more emphasis on the conscious mind’s role in interpreting and coping with experiences
Adler’s neo-Freudian theory
as long as someone is useful to others and overcomes feelings of inferiority, the individual feels secure and invaluable
Horney’s neo-Freudian theory
The view that women are infantile and emotional, and thus are incapable of responsibility/independence, is the work of the masculine tendency to lower women’s self-respect
Jungs’s neo-Freudian theory
The collective unconscious (inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species’ history) is the source of creative impulse
projective tests
a personality test, such that provides ambiguous images designed to trigger projection of one’s inner dynamics
** thematic apperception test - people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they concoct about ambiguous images
** Rorschach Inkblot test - a set of 10 inkblots seeking to identify people’s inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots
widely criticized for lacking reliability and validity, and differing evaluations/interpretations of responses
Humanistic psychology
focuses on the constant potential for human growth/development
criticized for being vague/subjecting, its overemphasis on individualism that could lead to over-self-indulgence, and it’s failure to appreciate the human capacity for wrongdoing
(Rogers, Maslow)
Maslow’s ideas of self-actualization and self-transcendence
Self-actualization: one of the ultimate psychological needs that arise after basic psychical/psychological needs are met and self-esteem is achieved: the motivation to fulfill one’s potential
self-transcendence: striving for identity, meaning, and purpose beyond the self
Three conditions needed for growth (humanistic psychology)
genuineness, acceptance, empathy
unconditional positive regard
an attitude of total acceptance toward another person: a caring, accepting, nonjudgmental attitude, which carl rogers believed would help people develop self-awareness and self-acceptance
Trait Theory
a characteristic pattern of behavior or a disposition to feel and act in certain wats, as assessed by self-report or peer-report; we are genetically predisposed
(Allport, Eysenck, McCrae, Costa)
Gordon Allport’s trait theory
Three-tiered hierarchy of traits:
1. Cardinal: rare but strongly deterministic of behavior
2. Central: influence, but do not determine, behavior
3. Secondary: traits strongly determinate on immediate context
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
Sorting people according to Carl Jung’s personality types based on their responses to 126 questions
- criticized for the absence of scientific worth and situationally varying results
- used for business and career counseling
Personality inventories
True/false or agree/disagree questionnaires on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors; used to asses selected personality traits
MMPI
scaled used to indicate different psychological conditions after true-false questions are administered
- originally developed to identify emotional disorders
- most widely researched/clinically used personality test
McCrea and Costa’s Big Five
A test specifying where/to what degree one identifies with one of the five dimensions (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism)
Person-situation controversy
- Change and consistency can coexist
- The consistency of our behaviors changes situationally even though our personalities are relatively stable
e.g. As people grow older, their personality stabilizes
Social cognitive theory
-We learn behaviors from conditioning, observing, and modeling — importance on mental processing and how we react within our environment (the interaction of our traits with a situation; how do we interpret and respond to external events given our memories/expectations/behaviors?)
- criticizes for focusing too heavily on situations that it fails to appreciate inner traits/thoughts
(Bandura)
Bandura’s reciprocal determinism
the interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and environment affect one another
Spotlight effect
overestimating others’ noticing and evaluating our appearance, performance, and blunders
Self-esteem vs. self-efficacy
Self-esteem = one’s feeling of high or low self-worth
Self-efficacy = one’s sense of acceptance and effectiveness
Dunning-Kruger Effect
the ignorance of one’s own incompetence
**because we are unaware of what we don’t hear, we naturally overestimate our hearing
