environmental stress theory

the concept that autonomic and cognitive factors combine to form an individual’s appraisal of stressors in the environment as threatening or nonthreatening. Stressors perceived as threatening may lead to stress reactions involving physiological, emotional, and behavioral elements, which in turn may elicit strategies designed to cope with and potentially adapt to the threat.

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Psychology term of the day

January 11th 2025

deficiency motivation

in Abraham Maslow’s humanistic psychology, the type of motivation operating on the lower four levels of his hierarchy of needs (see Maslow’s motivational hierarchy). Deficiency motivation is characterized by the striving to correct a deficit that may be physiological or psychological in nature. Compare metamotivation.