AP Psych - States of Consciousness

Consciousness

Our awareness of ourselves and our environment

Biological Rhythms

Periodic physiological fluctuations

Circadian Rhythm

The biological clock:

• It involves regular body rhythms (ex: temperature and sleep) that occur on a 24-hour cycle

Stage 1 of Sleep

Stage of sleep:

• Alpha waves

• Hypnagogic hallucinations

• Sleep talking

• Myoclonic jerk

• Slowdown of biological functions (eg. blood pressure, heart rate, respiration)

• Decrease in temperature

Stage 2 of Sleep

Stage of sleep:

• Waves are slower (see some theta waves)

• Sleep spindles

• K-complexes

• Sleep talking

• Biological functions continue to slow

Stage 3/Stage 4 of Sleep

Deep sleep.

• All delta waves

• Bed wetting & sleepwalking most likely

• Biological functions are at their lowest

REM Sleep

Rapid eye movement

• Dreaming

• Erections in males

• Paralysis

• Also called “paradoxical sleep” because while the person is totally asleep, their biological function and brain waves appear more like a person who is awake

90 Minutes

A full sleep-cycle length:

• As the cycles continue throughout the night, stage 4 deep sleep gets shorter and REM sleep gets longer.

• Sleep waves go from:

  • Beta —> Alpha —> Theta —> Delta

Sleep Theories

The conjectures that sleep:

1. Possibly certain chemicals depleted during the day are restored during sleep

2. Pituitary gland is more active during deep sleep. So, sleep may be involved in the growth process (babies and young people spend more time in deep sleep than older people)

3. Evolutionary view: sleeping when it was dark kept us safe

Freudian theory

Theory that dreams help disguise unconscious conflicts and motives:

• Believes that symbols are very important to dreams

• Phallic symbols - represent male sexuality: ex. Tall towers, poles, guns, swords, rockets

• Yonic symbols - represent female sexuality - ex. Rooms, houses, tunnels, ships, boxes

• Sex itself is never dreamed of but rather is symbolized by the up and down motion of walking, flying, riding, dancing, etc.

Manifest Content

According to Freud, this content is the remembered storyline of the dream

Latent Content

According to Freud, this content is the underlying “meaning” of a dream

Activation-synthesis Theory

Theory that dreams spring from the mind’s relentless effort to make sense of random visual bursts of electrical activity which originate in the brainstem and are given their emotional tone as they pass through the limbic system

Information Processing Theory

The theory that the parts of the brain active when we learn something are similarly active later when we sleep and dream, effectively pointing to dreaming being a way to process the information and events happening that day.

Cognitive Development Theory

The theory that periodic stimulation during dreaming helps form neural connections, especially in infants.

Physiological Function Theory

The theory that neural activity during REM sleep provides periodic stimulation of the brain. Dreams are purely physical neural firings - no meaning behind them

REM Rebound

What happens when we don’t get enough REM sleep:

• The tendency for REM sleep to increase following a period of REM deprivation

Eric Fromm’s Theory

Theory that states:

1. Dreams solve problems for us (We come up with solutions to daily problems in the dream experience)

2. Dreams give you experience or practice at doing something new or anxiety provoking.

• ex. Dream about taking a test, having an interview, attending a funeral, etc.

• Repeating Dreams = a problem you keep trying to solve. You will continue to have this dream until the problem is solved

Insomnia

Recurring problems falling or staying asleep

Narcolepsy

Disorder characterized by uncontrollable sleep attacks. The sufferer may lapse directly into REM sleep at inopportune times.

Sleep Apnea

Disorder characterized by temporary cessation of breathing during sleep and momentary awakenings throughout the night.

Night terror

Disorder characterized by high arousal and an appearance of being terrified. Unlike nightmares, these occur during deep stage sleep and are typically not remembered