Unit 7, Part 1

Question 1

motivation

Answer 1

A need or desire that energizes and directs behavior.

Question 2

instinct

Answer 2

A behavior that is patterned throughout a species and is unlearned.

Question 3

physiological need

Answer 3

A basic bodily requirement (food, water) creates an aroused, motivated state - a drive (hunger, thirst), that pushes us to reduce the need.

Question 4

drive-reduction theory

Answer 4

the idea that a physiological need creates an aroused state (a drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy the need. With few exceptions, when a physiological need increases, so does our psychological drive to reduce it.

Question 5

homeostasis

Answer 5

staying the same. a tendency to maintain a balanced to constant internal state; the regulation of any aspect of body chemistry, such as blood glucose, around a particular level.

Question 6

incentive

Answer 6

a positive or negative environmental stimulus that motivates behavior.

Question 7

Yerkes-Dodson law

Answer 7

the principle that performance increases with arousal only up to a point, beyond which performance decreases.

Question 8

hierarchy of needs

Answer 8

Maslow’s pyramid of human needs begins at the base with physiological needs that must first be satisfied before higher-level safety needs and then psychological needs become active.

Question 9

glucose

Answer 9

the form of sugar that circulates in the blood and provides the major source of energy for the body tissues. when its level is low, we feel hunger.

Question 10

set point

Answer 10

the point at which your “weight thermostat” may be set. when your body falls below this weight, increased hunger and a lowered metabolic rate may combine to restore lost weight.

Question 11

basal metabolic rate

Answer 11

the body’s resting rate of energy output.

Question 12

obesity

Answer 12

body mass index of 30 or higher. excessive body fat.

Question 13

asexual

Answer 13

having no sexual attraction to others.

Question 14

testosterone

Answer 14

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.

Question 15

estrogens

Answer 15

the main female sex hormones. sex hormones, such as estradiol, contribute to female sex characteristics and are secreted in greater amounts by females than males. estrogen levels peak during ovulation. in nonhuman animals, this promotes sexual receptivity.

Question 16

sexual response cycle

Answer 16

the four stages of sexual responding described by Masters and Johnson. excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution.

Question 17

refractory period

Answer 17

in human sexuality, a resting period occurs after orgasm, during which a person cannot achieve another orgasm. For men, this lasts from a few minutes to a day or more. for women, it is much shorter.

Question 18

affiliation need

Answer 18

the need to build relationships and to feel part of a group.

Question 19

ostracism

Answer 19

deliberate social exclusion of individuals or groups.

Question 20

narcissism

Answer 20

exessive self-love and self-absorption.

Question 21

achievement motivation

Answer 21

a desire for significant accomplishment, for mastery of skills or ideas, for control, and for attaining a high standard.

Question 22

emotion

Answer 22

a response of the whole organism, involving 1) physiological arousal, 2) expressive behaviors, and 3) conscious experience

Question 23

grit

Answer 23

in psychology, passion, and perseverance in the pursuit of long-term goals.

Question 24

James-Lange theory

Answer 24

the theory that our experience of our emotion is our awareness of our physiological responses to an emotion– arousing stimulus: stimulus —> arousal —> emotion.

Question 25

Cannon-Bard theory

Answer 25

the theory that an emotion- arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers 1) physiological responses, and 2) the experience of an emotion.

Question 26

two-factor theory

Answer 26

the schachter-singer theory that to experience emotion one must 1) be physically aroused and 2) cognitively label the arousal.

Question 27

polygraph

Answer 27

a machine designed to detect and record changes in physiological characteristics, such as a person’s pulse and breathing rates, used especially as a lie detector.

Question 28

facial feedback effect

Answer 28

the tendency of facial muscle states to trigger corresponding feelings such as fear, anger, or happiness.

Question 29

behavior feedback effect

Answer 29

the tendency of behavior to influence our own and others’ thoughts, feelings, and actions.

Question 30

stress

Answer 30

the process by which we perceive and respond to stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging.

Question 31

general adaptation syndrome (GAS)

Answer 31

Seyle’s concept of the body’s adaptive response to stress in three phases, alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.

Question 32

tend-and-befriend response

Answer 32

under stress, people (especially women) often provide support to others (tend) and bond with and seek support from others (befriend).

Question 33

health psychology

Answer 33

a subfield of psychology that provides psychology’s contribution to behavioral medicine.

Question 34

psychoneuroimmunology

Answer 34

the study of how psychological, neural, and endocrine processes together affect the immune system and resulting health.

Question 35

coronary heart disease

Answer 35

the clogging of the vessels that nourish the heart muscle; the leading cause of death in many developed countries.

Question 36

Type A

Answer 36

friedman and Rosenman’s term for competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, and anger-prone people.

Question 37

Type B

Answer 37

friedman and Rosenman’s term for easygoing, relaxed people.

Question 38

catharsis

Answer 38

the process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions.

Question 39

aerobic exercise

Answer 39

sustained exercise that increases heart and lung fitness also helps alleviate depression and anxiety.

Question 40

mindfulness meditation

Answer 40

a reflective practice in which people attend to current experiences in a non-judgemental and accepting manner.

Question 41

feel-good, do-good phenomenon

Answer 41

people’s tendency to be helpful when in a good mood.

Question 42

positive psychology

Answer 42

the scientific study of human flourishing. with the goal of discovering and promoting strengths and virtues that help individuals and communities thrive

Question 43

subjective well-being

Answer 43

self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life. used along with measures of objective well-being (for ex. physical and economic indicators) to evaluate people’s quality of life.

Question 44

adaptation-level phenomenon

Answer 44

our tendency to form judgments (of sounds, of lights, of income) relative to a neutral level defined by our prior experience.

Question 45

relative deprivation

Answer 45

the perception that one is worse off relative to those with whom one compares oneself.

Question 46

Abraham Maslow

Answer 46

described how some needs take priority over other needs. ex. air, thirst. called the hierarchy of needs. pyramid, highest needs at the bottom.

Question 46

Alfred Kinsey

Answer 46

questioned Americans about their sexuality and writing about their experiences.

Question 47

William James

Answer 47

said that emotions result from attention to our bodily activity.

Question 48

Joseph LeDoux

Answer 48

called a neural shortcut that bypasses the cortex, the low road.

Question 49

Richard Lazarus

Answer 49

emotion researcher who recognized that our brain processes vast amounts of information without our conscious awareness and that some emotional responses do not require conscious thinking.

Question 50

Paul Ekman

Answer 50

asked isolated people in new guinea to respond to such statements as “pretend your child has died.”

Question 51

Kurt Lewin

Answer 51

motivated conflicts theory. stress arises from the daily conflicts we face between our different approaches and avoidance motives.

Question 52

Hans Selye

Answer 52

canadian scientists did 40 years of research on stress extended Canon’s findings. his study of animal’s reactions to various stressors, such as electric shock and surgery, helped make stress a major concept in both psychology and medicine. he proposed that the body’s adaptive response to stress is so general that, like an alarm, it sounds, no matter what intrudes. he named this response the general adaption syndrome.