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.

Objectives and Skills
Topics may include:
 * 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
Consciousness sometimes arrives late to the decision making party! New tasks require conscious attention
 * 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
 * Blindsight - Damage to the visual cortex impairs the ability to consciously "see" things; the brain still receives signals from the eyes.

Sleep
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
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

 * Effects
 * 1) Fatigue and death
 * 2) Poor concentration
 * 3) 71% higher chance of getting depressed
 * 4) Poor immune system
 * 5) Car accidents increase
 * 6) Gain weight

Sleep Disorders

 * 1) Insomnia - Recurring problems with falling/staying asleep.
 * 2) Narcolepsy - Sleep disorder characterized by uncontrollable sleep attacks.
 * 3) 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.
 * 4) Night terrors - High arousal and appearance of being terrified.
 * 5) Somnambulism - Sleep walking

Psychological Principles' Take

 * 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

 * Psychoactive Drug - A chemical substance that alters perceptions and mood (effects consciousness) [continued use: tolerance].
 * Withdrawal
 * Dependence
 * Addiction

Depressants
Drugs that reduce neural activity and slow-body functions. They include:
 * 1) Alcohol
 * 2) Barbiturates
 * 3) Opiates

Alcohol
Allows for more binding for the neurotransmitters: Makes GABA (inhibitory) more inhibitory and blocks glutamate (excitatory) receptor sites. Stimulant: Suppresses part of brain that inhibits behaviour; Long run: Depressant because of its slows down the nervous system.
 * Why is alcohol a depressant and not a stimulant?

Alcohol affects motor skills, judgement, and memory. Increases aggressiveness.

Barbiturates
Tranquilizers (depress the nervous system).
 * Impairs memory and judgement.

Opiates
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
Drugs that excite neural activity and speed up body functions.
 * 1) Caffeine/Nicotine - Increases autonomic functions to provide energy.
 * 2) Cocaine - Immediate euphoria followed by a crash (dopamine trapped in synapse and binds).
 * 3) Ecstasy - Permanent deflation of mood/memory impairment = Damage to serotonin receptors; kicks out serotonin from the cell and binds to receptors again and again.
 * 4) Ampletamines - Stimulate neural activity: Accelerate body functions, mood changes, etc.
 * 5) 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
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.