Vocabulary #9 | 4 Flashcards
Psychodynamic Perspective
The influence of unconscious drives and early childhood experiences on personality and behavior, suggesting that past experiences and internal conflicts shape current thoughts, feelings, and actions.
focuses on the dynamics between conscious and unconscious forces in motivating behaviour
Unconscious Processes
Mental activities that occur without conscious awareness or intention, yet can still influence behavior and thought.
Ego Defense Mechanisms
Unconscious psychological strategies used to cope with anxiety and protect the ego from conflicting thoughts or impulses, often distorting reality to reduce stress.
Denial
A defense mechanism in psychology where a person refuses to acknowledge or accept a painful or threatening reality.
Displacement
A defense mechanism where an individual redirects their emotions, often negative ones like anger or frustration, from the original source to a less threatening target.
Projection
Attributing one’s own unacceptable thoughts, feelings, or motives to another person or group, effectively avoiding self-awareness and reducing anxiety.
Rationalization
A defense mechanism where an individual attempts to justify their own or others’ actions, thoughts, or feelings by creating seemingly logical explanations that avoid confronting the true underlying causes.
Reaction Formation
A defense mechanism where an individual unconsciously substitutes an unacceptable thought, feeling, or impulse with its opposite, often expressed in behavior.
Regression
A defense mechanism where an individual reverts to earlier, often immature, behaviors or developmental stages in response to stress or anxiety.
Repression
A defense mechanism where individuals unconsciously push painful or unacceptable thoughts, feelings, or memories out of conscious awareness, often into the unconscious mind.
Sublimation
A defense mechanism where unacceptable or harmful impulses or desires are transformed into socially acceptable and productive behaviors. It involves redirecting negative energy or emotions into constructive outlets.
Projection Tests
A type of personality assessment that uses ambiguous stimuli to elicit responses from the test taker.
Unconditional (positive) Regard
Accepting and valuing someone without judgment or conditions, fostering a safe space for exploration and growth.
Humanistic Perspective
A perspective that emphasizes looking at the the whole person, and the uniqueness of each individual. Begins with the existential assumptions that people have free will and are motivated to acheive their potential and self-actualize.
Self-Actualizing Tendency
The process of realizing one’s fullest potential by pursuing personal growth, creativity, and self-fulfillment.
Social Cognitive Theory
A psychological framework that explains how people learn and change their behaviors through interactions with their environment and others.
Reciprocal Determinism
Posits that behavior, personal factors (like thoughts, beliefs, and emotions), and the environment all interact and influence one another in a continuous cycle.
Self-Efficacy
An individual’s belief in their capacity to execute behaviors necessary to produce specific performance outcomes, influencing their motivation, behavior, and social environment.
Self-Esteem
An individual’s overall subjective sense of their own worth or value, encompassing their confidence in their abilities and attributes.
Self-Concept
An individual’s overall perception and understanding of themselves, encompassing their beliefs, values, and identities, essentially answering the question “Who am I?”.
Trait Theories
Posits that personality is characterized by enduring, stable traits that influence behavior, and that people vary in the strength of these traits.
Big 5 Theory of Personality (OCEAN)
A widely used model of personality structure that identifies five broad, bipolar trait dimensions: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.
Personality Inventory
A standardized, self-report questionnaire designed to assess an individual’s personality traits, behaviors, and characteristics, often used for clinical assessment or research purposes.
Aka a Standardized Personality Test
Factor Analysis
A statistical method used to identify underlying relationships or “factors” within a set of observed variables,
Drive-Reduction Theory
Posits that our behaviors are driven by the need to reduce internal tension or arousal caused by unmet physiological needs, with reinforcement playing a crucial role in shaping future behaviors.
Homeostasis
Psychological and physiological balance achieved when one’s needs and desires have been met.
Arousal Theory
People are driven to perform actions in order to maintain an optimum level of physiological arousal.
Yerkes-Dodson Law
Posits that performance increases with arousal (stress/motivation) but only up to a certain point, after which performance declines as arousal becomes excessive.
Self-Determination Theory
Posits that humans have innate psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, and that fulfilling these needs is crucial for motivation, well-being, and psychological growth.
Intrinsic Motivation
The drive to engage in an activity for its inherent satisfaction, pleasure, or enjoyment, rather than for external rewards or pressures.
Extrinsic Motivation
Engaging in an activity or behavior primarily to gain external rewards or avoid negative consequences, rather than for the inherent enjoyment or satisfaction of the activity itself.
Incentive Theory
Posits that behavior is primarily driven by external rewards (positive incentives) and punishments (negative incentives), suggesting people are motivated to engage in actions that lead to desired outcomes or avoid those that lead to undesirable ones.
Instincts
An inborn impulse or motivation to action typically performed in response to specific external stimuli.
Lewin’s Motivational Conflicts Theory
A psychological framework that explains how individuals make decisions when faced with competing motivations. It identifies three main types of conflicts. (approach-approach, avoidance-avoidance, approach-avoidance)
Approach-Approach Theory
Occurs when an individual must choose between two equally desirable options, such as deciding between two job offers.
Avoidance-Avoidance Theory
Occurs when an individual must choose between two equally undesirable options, such as deciding between studying for an exam or writing an essay.
Approach-Avoidance Theory
Occurs when an option has both positive and negative aspects, making it difficult to decide. For example, accepting a new job that offers a higher salary but requires relocating to a less desirable city.
Sensation Seeking
A trait coined by the tendency to pursue new and different sensations, feelings, and experiences.
Eating Motivation
Factors that drive individuals to seek and consume food, encompassing both the physiological need for sustenance and the influence of learned behaviors, emotions, and environmental cues.
Ghrelin
A hormone that is known as an appetite increaser. It is released in the stomach and stimulates the hypothalamus to increase appetite.
Leptin
A protein, manufactured and secreted by fat cells, that may communicate to the brain the amount of body fat stored and may help to regulate food intake.
Hypothalmus
A structure deep in your brain, acts as your body’s smart control coordinating center. Its main function is to keep your body in homeostasis. It does its job by directly influencing your autonomic nervous system or by managing hormones.
Pituitary Gland
Endocrine gland located at the base of the brain that produces and releases hormones, influencing various bodily functions by regulating other parts of the endocrine system.
External Factors Motivating Hunger
Situational or environmental cues that trigger eating, such as the presence of food, social settings, and time of day, rather than internal physiological needs.
Internal Factors Affecting Emotion
Physiological responses like heart rate variability and the autonomic nervous system, along with cognitive processes like beliefs, perceptions, and past experiences, all of which can influence emotional regulation and identification.
External Factors Affecting Emotion
Physiological responses, cognitive appraisals, and individual differences that shape how we experience and express emotions.
Physiological & Cognitive Experiences of Emotion
Physiological experiences of emotion refer to the body’s physical reactions (like increased heart rate or sweating), while cognitive experiences of emotion involve the thoughts and interpretations we have about those feelings and the situations we are in.
Cognitive Label
The mental interpretation or explanation we give to a physiological arousal or emotional experience.
Facial Feedback Hypothesis
Suggests that facial expressions can influence and even trigger emotions, meaning that expressing a particular emotion through facial movements can lead to experiencing that emotion.
Facial Expressions
The nonverbal communication of emotions through the movements and positioning of facial muscles.
Cognitive Appraisal
The individual’s subjective interpretation or evaluation of a situation or event, which ultimately influences their emotional and behavioral responses.
Broaden & Build Theory
Posits that positive emotions broaden an individual’s momentary thought-action repertoire, ultimately building enduring personal resources like resilience and well-being.
Positive moods allow you to accomplish more.
Negative Emotions
Feelings that cause distress, sadness, or discomfort, such as anger, sadness, fear, and anxiety, and can negatively impact overall well-being.
Emotions as Universally Common
The idea that certain basic emotions, like happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, and disgust, are experienced and expressed similarly across cultures, regardless of background or upbringing.
Anger
A strong, uncomfortable, and often non-cooperative emotional state arising from a perceived provocation, hurt, or threat, potentially triggering the “fight or flight” response and leading to both physical and mental consequences.
Disgust
A negative emotional state characterized by a strong aversion, revulsion, or repulsion towards something perceived as offensive or morally repugnant, often involving a physical or psychological reaction.
Sadness
An emotional state characterized by feelings of disadvantage, loss, despair, grief, helplessness, disappointment, and sorrow, often leading to withdrawal or lethargy.
Happiness
A state of emotional well-being, encompassing feelings of joy, satisfaction, contentment, and fulfillment, often described as subjective well-being.
Suprise
A basic emotion, a reaction to an unexpected event that is of subjective importance, and a bridge between cognition and emotion.
Fear
A basic, intense emotion aroused by the detection of an imminent threat, triggering an immediate alarm reaction and mobilizing the organism through a set of physiological changes.
