# 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 "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

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

* Fatigue and death
* Poor concentration
* 71% higher chance of getting depressed
* Poor immune system
* Car accidents increase
* Gain weight

### Sleep Disorders

* 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
### 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:
* Alcohol
* Barbiturates
* Opiates

#### Alcohol

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

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.
* 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

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.