AP Psychology/Motivation, Emotion, and Personality
Introduces personality through the lens of behavior and mental processes and how they interact to produce an individual’s personality.[1]
Objectives and Skills
[edit | edit source]Topics may include:[2]
- Theories of motivation behind human and animal behavior
- Major theories of emotion
- The effects of stress
- Conceptions of personality, including behaviorist, social cognitive, humanistic, and trait theories
- Research and assessments to measure personality
Study Notes
[edit | edit source]- Consciousness "refers to your individual awareness of your unique thoughts, memories, feelings, sensations, and environment. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-consciousness-2795922
- Some occur spontaneously: Daydreaming, Drowsiness, Dreaming.
- Some are physiologically induced: Hallucinations, Orgasm, Food/Oxygen starvation.
- Some are psychologically induced: Sensory deprivation, Hyponsis, Meditation.
- Dual Track Mind
- Conscious "high" track
- Unconscious "low" track
Consciousness sometimes arrives late to the decision making party! New tasks require conscious attention
- Blindsight - Damage to the visual cortex impairs the ability to consciously "see" things; the brain still receives signals from the eyes.
Sleep
[edit | edit source]Irresistible tempter to whom we inevitability succumb to.
- Definitions
- Circadian Rhythms - Occur about every 24 hours (the sleep-wake cycle) [light triggers the suprachiasmatic nucleus to decrease melatonin from the pineal gland in the morning and increase melatonin at night-fall; melatonin is released at night].
- Biological Rhythms - The female menstrual cycle averages 28 days.
- Internal desynchronization - A state when biological rhythms are not in phase with one another. Circadian rhythms are influenced by changes in routines.
Stages
[edit | edit source]How to measure sleep: About every 90 minutes, we pass through a cycle of 4 distinct sleep stages. EEG [functional]: Electrodes placed on the head and brain waves are measured.
- Non-REM 1 [3rd]: Awake but the eyes are closed, hallucinations occur, jerks and movements, wave: Alpha
- Non-REM 2 [4th]: body prepares for deep sleep, wave: Theta (with sleep spindles)
- Non-REM 3 [5th]: urinates on bed possibility increases by 50%, sleepwalking, deep sleep, night terrors, wave: Delta
- REM [6th]: Good sleep, rapid eye movement, may fall straight into REM if not enough REM sleep [REM-REBOUND] or narcolepsy could happen, wave: Beta [Dreams = Take place during REM sleep as the brain deals with stress: information-processing theory].
Paradoxical sleep is where the brain is awake but the body is "paralyzed". In REM-Rebound is when we go too long without REM sleep and we "rebound" into REM.
Sleep Deprivation
[edit | edit source]- Effects
- Fatigue and death
- Poor concentration
- 71% higher chance of getting depressed
- Poor immune system
- Car accidents increase
- Gain weight
Sleep Disorders
[edit | edit source]- Insomnia - Recurring problems with falling/staying asleep.
- Narcolepsy - Sleep disorder characterized by uncontrollable sleep attacks.
- Sleep apnea - Blocked airway causes failure to breathe when asleep and repeated awakenings. Associated with obesity and snoring. Treatment is a mask-like device that keeps the airway open.
- Night terrors - High arousal and appearance of being terrified.
- Somnambulism - Sleep walking
Psychological Principles' Take
[edit | edit source]- Freud
- Manifest Contect: Storyline
- Latent Content - Symbolic; Unconscious dribes and whims.
- Information Processing
- Dreams may help sift, sort and fix a day's experiences in our memories.
- Psychological Function
- Dreams provide the sleeping brain with periodic stimulation to develop and preserve neural pathways.
- Neural Activation
- Suggests that the brain engages in a lot of random neural activity. Dreams make sense of this activity.
- Cognitive Development
- We dream as a part of brain maturation and cognitive development.
Drugs
[edit | edit source]- Psychoactive Drug - A chemical substance that alters perceptions and mood (effects consciousness) [continued use: tolerance].
- Withdrawal
- Dependence
- Addiction
Depressants
[edit | edit source]Drugs that reduce neural activity and slow-body functions. They include:
- Alcohol
- Barbiturates
- Opiates
Alcohol
[edit | edit source]Allows for more binding for the neurotransmitters: Makes GABA (inhibitory) more inhibitory and blocks glutamate (excitatory) receptor sites.
- Why is alcohol a depressant and not a stimulant?
Stimulant: Suppresses part of brain that inhibits behaviour; Long run: Depressant because of its slows down the nervous system.
Alcohol affects motor skills, judgement, and memory. Increases aggressiveness.
Barbiturates
[edit | edit source]Tranquilizers (depress the nervous system).
- Impairs memory and judgement.
Opiates
[edit | edit source]Depresses neural activity, temporarily lessening pain and anxiety. Mimics the action of endorphins, an example being heroin. A speedball is a stimulant + opiate [fatal].
Stimulants
[edit | edit source]Drugs that excite neural activity and speed up body functions.
- Caffeine/Nicotine - Increases autonomic functions to provide energy.
- Cocaine - Immediate euphoria followed by a crash (dopamine trapped in synapse and binds).
- Ecstasy - Permanent deflation of mood/memory impairment = Damage to serotonin receptors; kicks out serotonin from the cell and binds to receptors again and again.
- Ampletamines - Stimulate neural activity: Accelerate body functions, mood changes, etc.
- Meth - Causes 8+ hours of heightened energy and euphoria - reduces baseline dopamine, making it more addictive by adding more meth each time; it kicks out dopamine from the cell and binds to receptors again and again.
Hallucinogens
[edit | edit source]Psychedelic drugs that distort perceptions and evoke sensory images in the absence of sensory input.
- LSD/acid - Serotonin: Interacts with your brain differently.
- Marijuana/THC - Dopamine is inhibited.