ap psych

• Correlational research examines the relationship between two or more variables without manipulating them.
• Emotion


  1. Physiological arousal: blood vessels, headache, face gets red, nausea, sweating, vomiting

  2. Cognitive interpretation: conscious or unconscious recognition of dangerous situation, more thinking leads to more fear, anticipation of something bad

  3. Subjective feelings: brain sensing body's state of arousal, unconscious, memories and experiences influence, anticipation of events

  4. Behavioral expression: actions taken in response to emotion, crying, screaming
• All aspects of emotion happen in 5 seconds
• Emotions interact with each other; they don’t necessarily function in a specific order
• Emotions have survival value shaped by natural selection; fear promotes avoiding danger, love promotes passing on genetic traits, jealousy eliminates competition for offspring
• Individuals vary tremendously in emotional responsiveness
• Emotions are not entirely programmed by genetics; there is a learned aspect as well (nature and nurture interact)
• Paul Ekman and his colleagues: 'People everywhere can recognize at least seven basic emotions: Sadness, Fear, Anger, Disgust, Contempt, Happiness, Surprise'
• There are emotions between and within each other
• The Emotion Wheel by Robert Plutchik
• The biological mechanisms behind emotions include the limbic system, amygdala, reticular formation, cerebral cortex, autonomic nervous system, and hormones
• Emotion processing - fast response operates at an unconscious level, linked to implicit memory system, acts as an early warning defense
• Emotion processing - slow response linked to explicit memory, generates emotion more slowly but with more complete information, conscious recognition of emotion
• The role of different brain structures: Amygdala receives messages from both fast and slow pathways, Reticular formation arouses the brain, Sympathetic nervous system, Cerebral cortex interprets situations and connects them to memories/feelings
• Lateralization of emotion: right hemisphere specializes in negative emotions, left processes more positive emotions
• The role of hormones: Serotonin associated with depression, Epinephrine produces fear, Norepinephrine more abundant in anger, Steroid hormones can influence emotions
• The role of autonomic nervous system: brain alerts the body through sympathetic system messages, directs release of stress hormones, increases heart rate and blood pressure
• Steroids can exert a powerful influence on emotions
• Steroids acting on nerve cells


  Causing them to change their excitability
• Excess intake of steroids through drugs could lead to a heart attack
• Role of Autonomic Nervous System


  • The brain alerts the body through messages carried along pathways of the sympathetic system
  • Some messages direct the adrenal glands to release stress hormones
  • Others make the heart race and blood pressure rise
  • Sympathetic system directs certain blood vessels to constrict
  • When the emergency has passed, the parasympathetic division takes over
• Psychological Theories of Emotion

  1. James-Lange theory: An emotion-provoking stimulus produces a physical response that, in turn, produces an emotion

  2. Cannon-Bard theory: An emotional feeling and an internal physiological response occur at the same time

  3. Schacter’s Two-factor theory of emotion: Emotion results from the cognitive appraisal of both physical arousal and emotion-provoking stimulus

  4. Cognitive appraisal theory: Individuals decide on an appropriate emotion following the event

  5. Opponent-process theory: Emotions have pairs; when one is triggered, the other is suppressed

  6. Inverted “U” function: Describes the relationship between arousal and performance; both low and high levels of arousal produce lower performance than does a moderate level of arousal

  7. Sensation seekers: Individuals who have a biological need for higher levels of stimulation than do other people

  8. Emotional intelligence: Ability to understand and control emotional responses

  9. Detecting Deception: People can learn to control their emotions to deceive others

  10. Polygraph: Device that records the graphs of many measures of physical arousal; often called a “lie detector”

  11. Motivation: All processes involved in starting, directing, and maintaining physical and psychological activities

  12. Types of Motivation: Drive, Motive, Intrinsic motivation, Extrinsic motivation, Conscious motivation, Unconscious motivation
• Inverted “U” function


  Describes the relationship between arousal and performance; both low and high levels of arousal produce lower performance than does a moderate level of arousal
• Motivation connects observable behavior to internal states
• Motivation accounts for variability in behavior
• Motivation explains perseverance despite adversity
• Motivation relates biology to behavior
• Types of Motivation


  • Drive
  • Motive
  • Intrinsic motivation
  • Extrinsic motivation
  • Conscious motivation
  • Unconscious motivation
• Intrinsic motivation is the desire to engage in an activity for its own sake
• Extrinsic motivation is the desire to engage in an activity to achieve an external consequence (e.g. a reward)
• Conscious motivation is having the desire to engage in an activity and being aware of the desire
• Unconscious motivation is having a desire to engage in an activity but being consciously unaware of the desire