Behavioural Psychology

Is the awareness of internal (ourselves) and external stimuli (our environment).

Consciousness

• Awareness of external events.

• Your awareness of internal sensations.

• Your awareness of self as the unique being the experience.

• Your awareness of your thoughts about these experiences.

What is included in consciousness.

• Coined term as he observed that consciousness would rarely come to complete standstill, it moves.

• Even when asleep consciousness moves through transitions.

William James - Steam of Consciousness.

• Model of mind.

  • Is like an iceberg. It’s mostly hidden, and below surface lies unconscious mind. Precocious stores temporary memories.

Variations in levels of awareness.

• Freud examined beneath the surface of stream.

• Needs, wishes, and conflicts that lie below the surface of conscious awareness.

Unconscious

Requires alert awareness, absorb awareness, absorb attention, and interfere with ongoing activities.

Controlled Process.

• State of consciousness experience when awake, but on autopilot.

• From controlled to automatic.

• Occur with little awareness, requires minimal attention, and does not interfere with much other activities.

Automatic Process.

• Familiar example of lowered awareness which involves drifting into a world of fantasy.

• You can remain awake, awareness of the world around you tends to be reduced.

• Everyone does this frequently.

Daydreams.

• Help you relax.

• Endure frustration.

• Alleviate boredom.

• Rehearse how you’re going to handle real-life situations.

Functions of Daydreams.

• Are closest to the bottom of continuum.

• States people experience when asleep of under anesthesia.

• Some stimuli will penetrate awareness. Ex. Surgeons comments, Thunder storm, Alarm Clock.

States of Consciousness When People Are Asleep.

• Many misunderstand sleep and believe it to be a single, uniform state of physical and mental activity.

• In reality, sleepers pass several stages of consciousness and experience quite a bit of physical and mental activity.

Sleep and Awake Cycle.

• Widespread around the world, humans and animals are tied to planetary rhythms.

Ex. Day and night, seasons.

Sleep as a Biological Rhythms.

• 1 year

• 28 days

• 24 hours

• 90 minutes.

Time Cycles.

Patterns of sexual activity, onset of mood disorders as depression.

Yearly.

Menstrual cycle, hormonal secretions in both male and female.

28 days.

Eating, sleeping, productivity, etc.

24 hour.

Related to fluctuations of alertness and daydreaming.

90 minute.

Any rhythmic changes continues at close to a 24 hr. Cycle in absence of 24 hr. cues.

• Body temperature.

• Hormonal secretions.

• Urine production.

• Sleep & Wakefulness

• Blood pressure.

Circadian Rhythm.

If you go to sleep at unusual times, quality of sleep will suffer.

Ignoring Circadian Rhythm.

When flying across several time zones, biological clock stays the same. You go to sleep at the “wrong” time, experiencing low quality of sleep.

Jet Lag.

Electrodes placed on scalp provide gross (bulk) recordings of electrical brain activity.

Electroencephalogram (EEG).

Awake and attentive. Low amplitude, fast and irregular.

Beta Waves.

Awake but non attentive. Large and regular.

Beta Waves.

Brief transition when first falling asleep.

Stage 1 of Sleep.

Successively deeper stages of sleep.

Characterized by increasing percentage of slow irregular, high amplitude, delta waves.

Stage 2-4 of Sleep (Slow Wave Sleep)

• Upon reaching end of stage 4 after 70 minutes, fall into REM for 10-15 minutes and returns to stages 2&3.

• REM EEG patterns resemble beta waves of alertness.

• 4-5 sleep cycles occur in full nights sleep. Less time spent in slow-wave, more in REM sleep.

Stages of Sleep.

Body wears out during the day and sleep is necessary to put it back in shape.

Restoration Theory.

• Sleep emerged in evolution.

• Regulated by neural mechanisms to pursue energy and protect during the time of day when there is little value and considerable danger.

Circadian Theory.

• Occurs when people “make do” with substantially less sleep than normal over a period of time.

• Occurs more in everyday life than complete sleep deprivation.

• Negative effects occur when subjects are asked to work on long lasting, difficult, or uninteresting tasks.

• Little effect on performance tasks requiring physical skill or intellectual judgment.

Partial Sleep Deprivation.

• At 17 set world record and managed to stay awake for 264 hr. (11 days) breaking Peter Tripps record.

• Did so without experiencing immediate major ill effects which is abnormal. Experienced long-term insomnia later in life.

Randy Gardener - Sleep Deprivation Experiments.

• Research indicates that sleep loss can be made up fairly quickly. Ex. Randy Gardener slept 15 hours after staying up for 11 days to recover.

• Most people compensate sleep deprivation relatively easily by getting few extra hours of sleep for 1-3 nights.

Repairing Sleep Deprivation.

• Make sure bedroom is cool, dark, and quiet.

• Exercise during the day. At least 3hr. before.

• Avoid big meals before bed. Drink warm milk or healthy light snack.

• Have bedtime routine.

• Don’t drink, pop with caffeine.

• Try to go to bed at the same time every night.

More Ways to get Night Sleep.

Some individuals need more than 8hr. of sleep and some less.

Individual Differences in Sleep Drive.

Sleep less than most, but don’t feel tired during the day.

Nosomniacs.

Have normal desire for sleep but are unable to and feel tired during the day.

Insomniacs.

• Difficulty in falling asleep initially.

• Difficulty in staying asleep.

• Persistent early-morning awakening.

Insomnia - Sleep Disorder.

Sleeper acts out their dreams

REM Sleep Disorder.

Sudden arousal from sleep and intense fear accompanied by physiological reactions (rapid heart rate, perspiration) that occur during slow-wave sleep.

Night Terrors.

Overpowering urge to fall asleep that may occur while talking or standing up.

Narcolepsy.

Failure to breath while sleeping.

Sleep Apnea.

• Mental experience during sleep that includes vivid visual imagery.

• Seem to belong in their own world, but is affected most often by what is going on in our lives.

• If struggling with finances, worried for an exam, you might be seeing that.

• According to theories what are the true ones for.

Dreaming.

• Psychoanalytic interpretation.

• Activation synthesis model.

• Problem solving view.

Distinct interpretive models.

• Day Residue - Contents of waking life tend to spill into dreams.

• Looked at dreams as “wish fulfillments.”

• Manifest Content - Elements of dream that are consciously experienced and remembered.

• Latent Content - Unconscious wishes that are concealed in the manifest content (the analysis).

Freuds Psychoanalytic Model.

• Displacement

• Projection

• Symbolism

• Condensation

Tools Used to Psychoanalyze Dreams.

Have dreamer do some free association on a few of the manifest symbols to get their deeper meanings.

Displacement.

Look for other people in dream to be acting out the dreamers desires.

Projection.

When dreamers wish is acted out metaphorically or symbolically.

Symbolism.

When dreamers true feelings are hidden in a brief image or symbol - can be very hard to detect.

Condensation

• Brain activity during sleep produce dream images (activation) are combined by brain into a dream story (synthesis).

• Meaning is found by analyzing way dreamers makes sense of progression of chaotic dream images.

Activation Synthesis Model - Hobson & McCarly.

• Dreams provide opportunity to work through everyday problems.

• There is considerable between and sleeping thought.

• Dreams allow people to engage in creative thinking about problems because dreams are not restrained by logic or realism.

The Problem Solving View - Cartright.

Systematic procedure that typically produces heightened state of suggestibility.

• State of awareness

• Highly focused attention

• Increased responsiveness to suggestion

• Vivid imagery

• Willingness to accept distortions of logic

• Alteration of sensation and perception

Hypnosis.

• Sustained concentration that focuses attention and heightens awareness.

• Lowered psychological arousal. (Decreased heart rate, decreased blood pressure.)

• Predominance of alpha brain waves.

Meditation.

Follow powerful or “respected” leaders. People conform to like minded ideas to ensure harmony of the group AND each person will experience less responsibility for their actions, as the action as a whole, is being diffused to the group at large.

Group think.