Source: Chapters 9–12, General Psychology (Ohio State University)
Difficulty: Intermediate | Prerequisites: Chapters 1–8 notes (especially neurotransmitters, conditioning, and development)
Tags: motivation, Maslow, self-determination theory, intrinsic extrinsic motivation, emotion, personality, Freud, Big Five OCEAN, social psychology, attribution, conformity, obedience, prejudice, psychological disorders, anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, OCD, PTSD, bipolar
These chapters shift from "how we learn and develop" to "what drives us, who we are, how we relate to others, and what goes wrong." Chapter 9 covers the forces behind behaviour (motivation) and the feelings that accompany it (emotion). Chapter 10 surveys the major theories of personality. Chapter 11 explores how the social world shapes thoughts, feelings, and actions. Chapter 12 introduces psychological disorders, their classification, and their symptoms. If you are coming in late, review neurotransmitter basics (Chapter 2) and conditioning (Chapter 5), because both resurface heavily in disorder and therapy discussions.
Motivation theories range from biological drives to higher-order needs like autonomy and self-actualisation. Emotion involves physiology, subjective experience, and expression. Personality is explained through psychodynamic, humanistic, trait, and social-cognitive lenses. Social psychology shows how profoundly our behaviour is shaped by the presence and expectations of others. Psychological disorders are defined by deviance, maladaptiveness, and personal distress, and are best understood through the biopsychosocial model.
Motivation
The force that energises, directs, and sustains behaviour toward a goal. Think of it as the "why" behind what you do.
Drive reduction theory
The idea that behaviour is motivated by the need to reduce internal tension created by unmet biological needs (hunger, thirst, etc.).
Hierarchy of needs (Maslow)
A model proposing that basic needs (physiological, safety) must be substantially met before higher needs (belonging, esteem, self-actualisation) become motivating. Often depicted as a pyramid.
Self-determination theory
Proposes that motivation is strongest when three psychological needs are met: autonomy (feeling in control), competence (feeling capable), and relatedness (feeling connected to others).
Intrinsic motivation
Doing something for the inherent satisfaction it brings (e.g., painting because you enjoy it).
Extrinsic motivation
Doing something for an external reward or to avoid a punishment (e.g., studying to earn a scholarship).
Emotion
A complex state involving physiological arousal, a conscious experience (feeling), and expressive behaviour (facial expression, body language).
Display rules
Cultural norms that dictate when, where, and how emotions should be expressed. What is acceptable differs across cultures.
Personality
A person's characteristic pattern of thoughts, feelings, and behaviours that is relatively consistent across time and situations.
Id (Freud)
The unconscious, pleasure-seeking component of personality operating on the pleasure principle. It wants immediate gratification.
Ego (Freud)
The largely conscious, rational component that mediates between the id's desires and the constraints of reality (reality principle).
Superego (Freud)
The internalised moral standards and ideals acquired from parents and society. Think of it as the conscience.
Defence mechanisms
Unconscious strategies the ego uses to reduce anxiety (e.g., denial, displacement, repression, projection, rationalisation).
Big Five personality traits (OCEAN)
Five broad dimensions used to describe personality: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism.
Reciprocal determinism (Bandura)
The idea that behaviour, personal factors (thoughts, beliefs), and the environment continuously influence one another.
Self-efficacy
Belief in your own ability to succeed at a specific task. Higher self-efficacy generally predicts better performance and persistence.
Locus of control
The extent to which you believe you control your own outcomes. Internal locus: "I control my fate." External locus: "Outside forces control my fate."
Fundamental attribution error
The tendency to overattribute others' behaviour to their personality (dispositional factors) while underestimating the influence of the situation.
Cognitive dissonance
The discomfort that arises when your behaviour conflicts with your attitudes or beliefs. People are motivated to reduce this tension, often by changing the attitude to match the behaviour.
Conformity
Adjusting your behaviour or thinking to match a group standard. Asch's line experiments demonstrated how powerful group pressure can be, even when the group is clearly wrong.
Obedience
Complying with direct commands from an authority figure. Milgram's experiments showed that a majority of participants obeyed instructions to deliver what they believed were dangerous electric shocks.
Bystander effect
The phenomenon in which the presence of other people makes any single individual less likely to help someone in need. The larger the group, the stronger the effect.
Prejudice
A negative attitude toward a group and its members, often based on stereotypes.
Discrimination
Behaviour (actions) directed against a group, rooted in prejudice.
Abnormal behaviour
Typically defined by three criteria: it is deviant (culturally atypical), maladaptive (interferes with daily functioning), and personally distressing (causes emotional pain to the individual).
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)
Persistent, excessive worry about many different things, lasting six months or more.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
Characterised by intrusive, unwanted thoughts (obsessions) and repetitive behaviours or mental acts (compulsions) performed to reduce the anxiety those thoughts cause.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
A disorder that can develop after exposure to a traumatic event, marked by flashbacks, nightmares, hypervigilance, and emotional numbness.
Major depressive disorder (MDD)
A mood disorder involving persistent sadness, loss of interest or pleasure, and a range of cognitive and physical symptoms lasting at least two weeks.
Bipolar disorder
A mood disorder characterised by alternating episodes of depression and mania (unusually elevated energy, reduced need for sleep, risky behaviour).
Schizophrenia
A severe disorder involving disturbances in thought, perception, and behaviour. Positive symptoms add something (hallucinations, delusions); negative symptoms take something away (flat affect, social withdrawal).
Dissociative identity disorder (DID)
A dissociative disorder in which a person exhibits two or more distinct identities or personality states.
Drive reduction theory covers biological drives but struggles to explain curiosity, thrill-seeking, and other non-deficit behaviours.
Optimum arousal theory proposes that we seek a personally ideal level of stimulation, neither too high nor too low.
Maslow's hierarchy is intuitive but not strictly sequential in practice; people sometimes pursue higher needs despite unmet lower ones.
Self-determination theory emphasises three innate needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness.
The intrinsic/extrinsic distinction matters because excessive extrinsic rewards can sometimes undermine intrinsic motivation (the "overjustification effect").
Circumplex model: emotions vary along two dimensions, valence (pleasant to unpleasant) and arousal (high energy to low energy).
Display rules shape emotional expression across cultures; the underlying experience of emotions appears to be more universal.
Psychodynamic (Freud): personality is shaped by unconscious conflicts among the id, ego, and superego. Defence mechanisms protect the ego from anxiety. Widely criticised for being unfalsifiable but historically influential.
Humanistic (Rogers, Maslow): focuses on self-concept, unconditional positive regard, and the drive toward self-actualisation. Conditions of worth arise when acceptance is contingent on meeting others' expectations.
Trait (Big Five): describes personality on five broad, measurable dimensions (OCEAN). Supported by cross-cultural research and widely used in both clinical and organisational settings.
Social-cognitive (Bandura): emphasises reciprocal determinism, self-efficacy, and locus of control. Behaviour is learned and maintained through the ongoing interaction of personal, behavioural, and environmental factors.
Attribution theory explains how we assign causes to behaviour:
Dispositional (internal): "She is lazy."
Situational (external): "She had a terrible commute."
Fundamental attribution error: we over-attribute others' actions to personality and under-attribute them to situations.
False consensus effect: assuming others share our opinions more than they do.
Persuasion routes: central (logic, evidence) vs. peripheral (emotional cues, attractiveness).
Conformity (Asch): people conformed to clearly wrong answers roughly a third of the time under group pressure.
Obedience (Milgram): about 65% of participants obeyed instructions to the maximum shock level in the original study.
Bystander effect: diffusion of responsibility means larger groups produce less individual helping.
Social loafing: people exert less individual effort in group tasks.
Prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination are a cluster: prejudice is the attitude, stereotypes are the beliefs, discrimination is the behaviour.
Biopsychosocial model is the standard framework: disorders arise from the interaction of biological (genetics, neurotransmitters), psychological (learning history, cognitive patterns), and sociocultural (poverty, cultural norms) factors.
Anxiety disorders: GAD, panic disorder, phobic disorder, social anxiety disorder. The common thread is excessive, often irrational fear or worry.
OCD: obsessions (unwanted intrusive thoughts) drive compulsions (ritualised behaviours that temporarily relieve the anxiety).
PTSD: develops after trauma; symptoms include re-experiencing, avoidance, negative mood changes, and hyperarousal.
Mood disorders: MDD (unipolar depression) and bipolar disorder (depression alternating with mania).
Schizophrenia: positive symptoms (hallucinations, delusions, disorganised speech) and negative symptoms (flat affect, avolition, social withdrawal). Dopamine is heavily implicated.
Dissociative disorders: dissociative amnesia (memory gaps tied to trauma) and DID (multiple distinct identities).
Personality disorders: borderline (emotional instability, fear of abandonment) and antisocial (lack of empathy, manipulative, disregard for rules).
Self-determination theory informs workplace design: jobs that provide autonomy, meaningful feedback, and connection to colleagues tend to produce more motivated employees.
The fundamental attribution error is relevant every time you judge a stranger's behaviour, for example, assuming a rude cashier is a rude person rather than someone having a difficult day.
Understanding the bystander effect can save lives: if you need help in a crowd, point at a specific person and say "You, call 999." This breaks the diffusion of responsibility.
Knowing the symptoms of GAD, MDD, and bipolar disorder helps you recognise when you or someone you know might benefit from professional support.
Students often think Maslow's hierarchy is a strict, step-by-step ladder. People can pursue belonging or esteem needs even when safety needs are not perfectly met. The model is a useful heuristic, not a rigid law.
The Big Five traits are dimensions, not types. Everyone sits somewhere on each continuum; you are not "an extravert" or "an introvert" in absolute terms.
Students frequently assume that schizophrenia means "split personality." Schizophrenia involves a split from reality (psychosis), not multiple identities. Multiple identities fall under dissociative identity disorder.
Prejudice and discrimination are often conflated. Prejudice is an attitude; discrimination is an action. A person can hold prejudiced beliefs without acting on them (though the two often correlate).
⚠️ Be able to list Maslow's hierarchy in order and explain how self-determination theory differs from it.
⚠️ Know the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation with examples.
⚠️ Be able to name all Big Five traits (OCEAN) and give a behavioural example for each.
⚠️ Distinguish the id, ego, and superego with everyday examples.
⚠️ Know the fundamental attribution error and be ready to identify it in a scenario.
⚠️ Distinguish conformity (Asch) from obedience (Milgram) by type of social pressure involved.
⚠️ Know the three criteria for abnormal behaviour: deviant, maladaptive, personally distressing.
⚠️ Distinguish positive symptoms from negative symptoms of schizophrenia.
⚠️ Be able to differentiate GAD, panic disorder, phobias, OCD, and PTSD by key features.
According to Maslow, __________ needs must be substantially met before higher-order needs become motivating.
True or False: Negative symptoms of schizophrenia include hallucinations and delusions.
The tendency to attribute others' behaviour to personality rather than to the situation is called the __________.
True or False: In Asch's conformity experiments, zero participants ever conformed to the obviously wrong answer.
The Big Five trait associated with anxiety and emotional instability is __________.
Answers: 1. Physiological (and safety). 2. False (those are positive symptoms; negative symptoms involve deficits such as flat affect). 3. Fundamental attribution error. 4. False (roughly a third of responses were conforming). 5. Neuroticism.
Q: Explain the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and give an example of each.
A: Intrinsic motivation comes from personal enjoyment or interest (e.g., reading a novel because you love the genre). Extrinsic motivation comes from external rewards or pressures (e.g., reading a textbook chapter to earn a quiz grade).
Q: A person values healthy eating but regularly eats fast food. According to Festinger, what will they experience, and how might they resolve it?
A: They will experience cognitive dissonance, the uncomfortable tension between their belief ("healthy eating matters") and their behaviour (eating fast food). They might resolve it by changing the behaviour (eating healthier), changing the belief ("fast food isn't that bad"), or adding a justifying thought ("I only do it when I'm busy").
Q: Name the Big Five personality traits and identify which trait is most associated with being organised and dependable.
A: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism. Conscientiousness is the trait most linked to organisation, dependability, and self-discipline.
Q: How does the bystander effect explain why people sometimes fail to help in emergencies?
A: The bystander effect occurs because the presence of others creates diffusion of responsibility: each individual assumes someone else will step in. The larger the group, the less personal responsibility any single person feels, and the less likely they are to act.
Q: What distinguishes a phobic disorder from generalized anxiety disorder?
A: A phobic disorder involves intense, irrational fear of a specific object or situation (e.g., spiders, flying). GAD involves broad, persistent worry that is not tied to one trigger and spans many areas of life.
Motivation theories (Chapter 9) connect directly to health behaviour change models in Chapter 14, such as the stages of change and theory of planned behaviour.
Defence mechanisms from Chapter 10 resurface in Chapter 13 (Therapies), where psychodynamic therapy aims to uncover them.
Social psychology concepts (Chapter 11), particularly cognitive dissonance and persuasion, are useful for understanding how health messages succeed or fail (Chapter 14).
The disorders in Chapter 12 set up the therapies in Chapter 13: each therapy approach targets the type of disorder it is best equipped to address.
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