Consciousness, Ego and Defense mechanisms

• Consciousness is the awareness of ourselves and our surroundings, enabling thought processing, emotional experience, and environmental response, encompassing both waking states and altered states like sleep and meditation.
• The unconscious mind houses thoughts, memories, and desires that influence behavior without active awareness, including repressed emotions and unresolved conflicts, according to Freud.

Ego, Id, Superego

• The id is the primitive part of personality, driven by basic instincts and immediate gratification, operating on the pleasure principle.
• The ego is the rational mediator, balancing the id's desires with reality, following the reality principle.
• The superego is the moral component, enforcing societal norms and values based on the morality principle.

Defense Mechanisms (Ego)

• Defense mechanisms are unconscious strategies used by the ego to protect itself from anxiety and internal conflict.

Repression

• Repression is a defense mechanism that pushes distressing thoughts or memories out of conscious awareness.

Denial

• Denial involves refusing to acknowledge reality to protect oneself from distress.

Displacement

• Displacement redirects negative emotions from the actual source to a safer target.

Projection

• Projection attributes one’s own unacceptable thoughts or feelings to someone else.

Rationalization

• Rationalization justifies actions with logical but false explanations to avoid guilt or anxiety.

Regression

• Regression reverts to behaviors from an earlier developmental stage when stressed.

Sublimation

• Sublimation channels socially unacceptable impulses into constructive activities.
• Personality is a stable set of traits and patterns influencing how a person thinks, feels, and behaves across different situations.
• The pleasure principle (Id) is the instinct to seek pleasure and avoid pain, operating unconsciously.
• The reality principle (Ego) is the ability to delay gratification and balance the id’s desires with real-world consequences.
• The morality principle (Superego) represents the internalized sense of right and wrong that guides behavior.
• The preconscious contains information not currently in awareness but easily recalled.
• Projective tests use ambiguous stimuli to reveal unconscious thoughts and emotions.
• The psychodynamic theory of personality (Freud) posits that personality is shaped by unconscious conflicts, childhood experiences, and inner drives.
• Unconditional positive regard involves complete acceptance and support of a person regardless of their behavior, a key concept in humanistic psychology.
• The humanistic perspective of personality focuses on free will, self-growth, and striving for personal fulfillment.
• Trait theory suggests personality consists of stable, measurable traits that influence behavior.
• The Big Five Theory is a personality model based on five key traits: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism (OCEAN).

Drive-Reduction Theory

• Drive-reduction theory posits that biological needs create internal tension (a drive) that motivates behavior to restore balance (homeostasis).
• A need is a requirement essential for survival or well-being, such as food, water, or social interaction.
• A drive is an internal state of tension that motivates an organism to satisfy a need.

Arousal Theory

• Arousal theory suggests that people seek to maintain an optimal level of arousal; too little leads to boredom, and too much causes stress.
• The Yerkes-Dodson Law states that moderate arousal leads to optimal performance; too much or too little arousal impairs performance.
• The optimal level of arousal is the stimulation level at which a person performs best, varying by individual and task.
• Self-determination theory states that people are motivated by three innate needs: autonomy (control over actions), competence (feeling capable), and relatedness (social connections).
• Incentive theory suggests that behavior is motivated by external rewards or punishments.

Motivational Conflicts Theory

• Motivational conflicts theory explains that people experience conflict when making decisions between different motivational factors.
• Approach-approach conflict: This involves choosing between two positive options.
• Approach-avoidance conflict: This occurs when a single choice has both positive and negative aspects.
• Avoidance-avoidance conflict: This involves choosing between two negative options.

Sensation-Seeking Theory of Motivation

• Sensation-seeking theory of motivation describes how some people have a high need for thrilling, novel, or complex experiences.
• Adventure-seeking: Seeking new and intense experiences
• Experience-seeking: Pursuing new cultural or artistic experiences
• Thrill-seeking: Engaging in adrenaline-pumping activities
• Boredom susceptibility: Feeling easily bored and needing constant stimulation
• Disinhibition: Engaging in impulsive and risk-taking behaviors for excitement
• An external eating cue is an environmental factor that influences eating, regardless of hunger.
• Ghrelin is a hormone that stimulates hunger.
• Leptin is a hormone that signals satiety (fullness).
• Satiety is the feeling of fullness that stops eating.
• The hypothalamus is a brain structure regulating hunger, thirst, and body temperature.
• The pituitary gland is the "master gland" that regulates hormones influencing growth, metabolism, and stress.
• Homeostasis is the body’s tendency to maintain a stable internal environment.
• Hunger is the physiological need to eat, driven by internal signals like ghrelin.
• An instinct is an inborn, unlearned behavior pattern triggered by environmental stimuli.
• Intrinsic motivation involves engaging in behavior for personal satisfaction rather than external rewards.
• Extrinsic motivation involves engaging in behavior for external rewards or to avoid punishment.
• Affect is a broad term for emotions, moods, and feelings.
• A physiological response is the body’s automatic reaction to emotions.
• Cognition in emotion refers to the role of thoughts in shaping emotional experiences; interpretation of a situation determines the emotional reaction.
• Cognitive appraisal is the process of evaluating a situation to determine its emotional impact, influencing whether we perceive something as a threat or a challenge.
• Cognitive labeling involves assigning an emotion to a physiological response based on context.
• Display rules are cultural and social norms that dictate how and when emotions should be expressed.
• An elicitor is a stimulus that triggers an emotional response.
• An external factor includes outside influences that shape emotions and behavior.
• An internal factor includes personal characteristics or experiences that shape emotions and behaviors.

Theories of Emotion

• The James-Lange theory suggests that emotions arise from physiological reactions; the body reacts first, and then the mind interprets the reaction as an emotion.
• The Cannon-Bard theory states that emotions and physiological responses occur simultaneously.
• The Schachter two-factor theory suggests that emotion is based on physiological arousal and cognitive labeling.
• Lazarus’ cognitive-mediational theory posits that emotions depend on how we interpret a situation before the body responds.
• The facial feedback hypothesis says facial expressions influence emotions.
• The broaden-and-build theory states that positive emotions expand thinking and problem-solving abilities, helping build long-term psychological resources.