Unit 4: Sensation & Perception and
Motivation & Emotion
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Sensation and Perception (6–8%)
Everything that organisms know about the world is first encountered when stimuli in the environment activate sensory organs, initiating awareness of the external world. Perception involves the interpretation of the sensory inputs as a cognitive process. AP students in psychology should be able to do the following:
• Discuss basic principles of sensory transduction, including absolute threshold, difference threshold, signal detection, and sensory adaptation.
• Describe sensory processes (e.g., hearing, vision, touch, taste, smell, vestibular, kinesthesis, pain), including the specific nature of energy transduction, relevant anatomical structures, and specialized pathways in the brain for each of the senses.
• Explain common sensory disorders (e.g., visual and hearing impairments). • Describe general principles of organizing and integrating sensation to promote stable awareness of the external world (e.g., Gestalt principles, depth perception).
• Discuss how experience and culture can influence perceptual processes (e.g., perceptual set, context effects).
• Explain the role of top-down processing in producing vulnerability to illusion. • Discuss the role of attention in behavior.
• Challenge common beliefs in parapsychological phenomena. • Identify the major historical figures in sensation and perception (e.g., Gustav Fechner, David Hubel, Ernst Weber, Torsten Wiesel).
Motivation and Emotion (6–8%)
In this part of the course, students explore biological and social factors that motivate behavior and biological and cultural factors that influence emotion. AP students in psychology should be able to do the following:
• Identify and apply basic motivational concepts to understand the behavior of humans and other animals (e.g., instincts, incentives, intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation).
• Discuss the biological underpinnings of motivation, including needs, drives, and homeostasis. • Compare and contrast motivational theories (e.g., drive reduction theory, arousal theory, general adaptation theory), including the strengths and weaknesses of each.
• Describe classic research findings in specific motivation systems (e.g., eating, sex, social) • Discuss theories of stress and the effects of stress on psychological and physical well-being.
• Compare and contrast major theories of emotion (e.g., James–Lange, Cannon– Bard, Schachter two-factor theory).
• Describe how cultural influences shape emotional expression, including variations in body language. • Identify key contributors in the psychology of motivation and emotion (e.g., William James, Alfred Kinsey, Abraham Maslow, Stanley Schachter, Hans Selye)
Everything that organisms know about the world is first encountered when stimuli in the environment activate sensory organs, initiating awareness of the external world. Perception involves the interpretation of the sensory inputs as a cognitive process. AP students in psychology should be able to do the following:
• Discuss basic principles of sensory transduction, including absolute threshold, difference threshold, signal detection, and sensory adaptation.
• Describe sensory processes (e.g., hearing, vision, touch, taste, smell, vestibular, kinesthesis, pain), including the specific nature of energy transduction, relevant anatomical structures, and specialized pathways in the brain for each of the senses.
• Explain common sensory disorders (e.g., visual and hearing impairments). • Describe general principles of organizing and integrating sensation to promote stable awareness of the external world (e.g., Gestalt principles, depth perception).
• Discuss how experience and culture can influence perceptual processes (e.g., perceptual set, context effects).
• Explain the role of top-down processing in producing vulnerability to illusion. • Discuss the role of attention in behavior.
• Challenge common beliefs in parapsychological phenomena. • Identify the major historical figures in sensation and perception (e.g., Gustav Fechner, David Hubel, Ernst Weber, Torsten Wiesel).
Motivation and Emotion (6–8%)
In this part of the course, students explore biological and social factors that motivate behavior and biological and cultural factors that influence emotion. AP students in psychology should be able to do the following:
• Identify and apply basic motivational concepts to understand the behavior of humans and other animals (e.g., instincts, incentives, intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation).
• Discuss the biological underpinnings of motivation, including needs, drives, and homeostasis. • Compare and contrast motivational theories (e.g., drive reduction theory, arousal theory, general adaptation theory), including the strengths and weaknesses of each.
• Describe classic research findings in specific motivation systems (e.g., eating, sex, social) • Discuss theories of stress and the effects of stress on psychological and physical well-being.
• Compare and contrast major theories of emotion (e.g., James–Lange, Cannon– Bard, Schachter two-factor theory).
• Describe how cultural influences shape emotional expression, including variations in body language. • Identify key contributors in the psychology of motivation and emotion (e.g., William James, Alfred Kinsey, Abraham Maslow, Stanley Schachter, Hans Selye)