AP Psychology Flashcards: Motivation, Emotion, Stress, Hunger, Drive Theory

Abraham Maslow proposed that human needs form a pyramid with five levels. Physiological needs like food, water, and sleep form the base. Safety needs for security and stability are next. Love and belonging needs for friendship and intimacy follow. Esteem needs for achievement, respect, and recognition come next. Self-actualization, the desire to fulfill one's potential, sits at the top. Maslow argued that lower-level needs must be substantially satisfied before higher needs become motivating. A starving person is not focused on self-esteem.

Intrinsic motivation comes from internal satisfaction, interest, or enjoyment in the activity itself, such as reading a book because you find it fascinating. Extrinsic motivation comes from external rewards or pressures, such as studying to earn a good grade or working for a paycheck. Research shows that adding extrinsic rewards to intrinsically motivated activities can actually decrease intrinsic motivation, a phenomenon called the overjustification effect. A child who draws for fun may draw less after being paid for it.

The James-Lange theory proposes that emotions result from our awareness of physiological responses to stimuli. You do not cry because you are sad; you feel sad because you notice that you are crying. The sequence is: event, physiological arousal, then conscious emotion. Seeing a bear triggers racing heart and running, and the awareness of these bodily reactions creates the feeling of fear. This theory predicts that different emotions should produce different physiological patterns.

The Cannon-Bard theory proposes that physiological arousal and the conscious experience of emotion occur simultaneously and independently rather than one causing the other. When you see a bear, the thalamus sends signals to the cortex producing the feeling of fear and to the autonomic nervous system producing arousal like increased heart rate at the same time. Cannon argued that bodily responses are too similar across emotions and too slow to precede emotional experience, contradicting the James-Lange theory.

The Schachter-Singer two-factor theory proposes that emotion requires both physiological arousal and a cognitive label for that arousal. You first experience arousal, then look to the environment for cues to explain it and label it as a specific emotion. The same arousal could be labeled as excitement or anger depending on context. In their 1962 experiment, uninformed participants injected with epinephrine adopted the emotion of a nearby confederate, showing that cognition determines which emotion we experience.

Hunger is regulated by a complex interaction of biological and psychological factors. The hypothalamus contains the lateral area, which stimulates hunger when activated, and the ventromedial area, which signals satiety when activated. The hormone ghrelin, released by the stomach, increases hunger, while leptin, released by fat cells, decreases hunger by signaling sufficient energy stores. Insulin regulates blood glucose levels, with drops in glucose triggering hunger.

Hans Selye's general adaptation syndrome describes the body's three-stage response to prolonged stress. The alarm stage is the initial fight-or-flight response where the sympathetic nervous system activates, releasing adrenaline and cortisol, increasing heart rate, blood pressure, and blood sugar. The resistance stage occurs as the body adapts to ongoing stress, maintaining elevated hormone levels while appearing to function normally, though resources are being depleted. ---