AP Psych. Ch. 4: States of Consciousness

Consciousness: an organism’s or individual’s awareness of, or possibility of knowing what is happening inside or outside itself

• Subconscious: consciousness just below the level of awareness. It contains thoughts and ideas just out of our awareness

• Unconscious: a deeper level of awareness is the unconscious. It contains thoughts and desires about which we have no true or direct knowledge

Sleep

• circadian rhythm: out 24-hour biological clock (sleep/wake cycle)

  • it helps change and maintain our body temperature and awareness throughout the day

  • knowing your circadian rhythm can also help you in school, you will often times perform your best on a test during your circadian peaks

• Melatonin: a hormone that is produced by pineal gland at night to help you sleep, sunlight tells your body to stop producing it

  • help regulate your circadian rhythms

• Stages of sleep: there are 4 stages of sleep

  • takes about 90-100 mins to pass through the stages

  • the brain waves will change according to the sleep stage are in

  • the first 3 stages are known as NREM sleep

  • the 4th stage is called REM sleep

Sleep Stages

• 1: we experience a light transitional sleep; where drowsiness and sleep begin

  • lasts between 1 and 5 mins

  • can also experience hallucinations and sleep paralysis

• 2: more stable sleep occurs; chemicals produced in the brain block the senses making it difficult to be woken

  • lasts about 20 mins of the sleep cycle

  • there are periodic appearances of sleep spindles (bursts of rapid, rhythmic brainwave activity)

• 3: deep sleep; growth hormone is released during this stage. Most stage 3 sleep occurs in the first third of the night

  • delta sleep or ‘slow wave’ sleep and may last 15-30 mns

  • deepest stage of sleep and it the most restorative

  • sleep walking takes place

• 4 (REM): sleep revitalizes the memory; in this stage brain activity is very high and intense dreaming is likely to occur

  • rapid eye movement

  • a very active stage of sleep

  • about 10 mins each time

  • vivid dreams can occur

• Sleep deprivation

  • normally the hippocampus processes and neutral memories, the amygdala processes negative memories

  • when you don’t sleep, your hippocampus does not work well but your amygdala works just fine

  • therefore, sleep deprived people will recall negative events more easily than positive or neutral events

  • it’s probably why adults only remember the bad stuff from when they were teens

    • effects

      • fatigue

      • impaired concentration

      • depressed immune system

      • greater vulnerability to accidents

      • has little effect on performance of tasks requiring physical skill or intellectual judgement

      • hurts performance on simple tasks more than challenging ones

Functions of sleep

• there are two theories as to what the function of sleep really:

  • restorative theory: body wears out during the day and sleep is necessary to put it back in shape

  • adaptive theory: sleep emerged in evolution to preserve energy and protect during the time of day when there is little value and considerable danger

Sleep Disorders

• narcolepsy: this is characterized by incontrollable sleep attacks

  • individuals lapse directly into rem sleep and this is done usually during times of stress of joy

• insomnia: a disorder where a person has recurring problems in falling or staying asleep

  • not your once in a while having trouble getting to sleep episodes

  • not defined by the number of hours you sleep every night

• sleep apnea: a sleep disorder characterized temporary cessations of breathing during sleep and consequent momentary awakenings

  • can be cured with a breathing machines or by losing weight

• parasomnia: SIDS

  • aka ‘cot death’ or ‘crib death’, is the sudden unexplained death of a child less then one year of age

  • usually occurs during sleep

• parasomnia: night terrors

  • a sleep disorder characterized by high arousal and an appearance of being terrified

  • occurs in stage 4 and is not often remembered

• parasomnia: REM behavior disorder

  • this is a disorder that is characterized by a loss of normal muscle atonia in REM sleep

  • causes people to act out their dreams which could be violent

• parasomnia: jet lag

  • flying across multiple time-zones all at the same time (over 6+ hrs).

  • messes up circadian rhythm

  • cure: do not go to sleep on the plane and don’t fall asleep until night after you land

• parasomnia: sleep walking

  • a disorder that affects 10% of all humans at least once in their lives

  • often occurs during non-REM sleep early in the night

Dreams

• there are sequence of images, emotions, and thoughts passing through a sleeping person’s mind

  • manifest content: the remembered storyline of a dream

  • latent content: the underlying meaning of a dream

  • why do we dream? there are three theories. . .

    • freud’s wish fulfillment theory: dreams are access to our unconscious mind and it shares with us our wishes and our anxieties so that we may act them out

    • information process theory: dreams act to sort out and understand the memories that you experience that day

      • evidence: REM sleep does increase after stressful events

    • activation-synthesis theory: dreams may be a way to make sense of random neural activity

Hypnosis

• this is an induced state of altered awareness, characterized by heightened suggestibility and deep relaxation

• attention is focused on certain objects, acts, or feelings

• Anton Mesmer believed power came from magnetism

• hypnotic results really come from the power of suggestion to focus or block

• no one can be hypnotized to do something they wouldn’t do anyway

• hypnotizability: degree to which an individual is responsive to hypnotic suggestions

• hypnosis as an altered state is a social interaction in which one person (the hypnotist) suggests to another (the subject) that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors will spontaneously occur

  • posthypnotic amnesia: supposed inability to recall what one experienced during hypnosis

• Oran & Evans

  • the control group was instructed to ‘pretend’

  • unhypnotized subjects performed the same acts as the hypnotized ones

  • posthypnotic suggestion

    • this is a suggestion to be carried out after the subject is no longer hypnotized

    • it is used by some clinicians to control undesired symptoms or behaviors

• Dissociation: a split in consciousness

  • this allows some thoughts or behavior to occur simultaneously with others

• Hidden observer: Hilgard’s term describing a hypnotized subject’s awareness of experiences, such as pain, that go unreported during hypnosis

Practical Uses for Hypnosis

• hypnosis can have practical uses for all of the following

  • researchers

  • psychological treatment (such as fighting addiction)

  • medical and dental treatment

    • hypnotic analgesia: diminished sensitivity to pain while under hypnosis

Psychoactive Drugs & Near Death Experiences

• Depressants: drugs that reduce neural activity

  • slows down body function

    • i.e.: alcohol, barbiturates, opiates

• Stimulants: these are drugs that excite neural activity

  • they speed up body function

    • i.e.: caffeine, nicotine, cocaine

• Hallucinogens: psychedelic (mind manifesting) drugs that distort perceptions and evoke sensory images without sensory input

  • i.e. LSD

    • Lysergic acid diethylamide

      • a powerful hallucinogenic drug

• Alcohol: in very large or small dosages it is a depressant. small doses can enliven a drinker, but they do so by slowing brain activity that controls judgement and inhibitions. it contributes to the greatest number of deaths

• Barbiturates: drugs that depress the activity of the central nervous system, reducing anxiety but impairing memory and judgement

• Opiates: these are derived from Opium, and include morphine as well as heroin

  • depress neural activity, temporarily lessening pain and anxiety

• Amphetamines: drugs that stimulate neural activity, causing the speeding-up of body functions and associated energy and mood changes

  • cocaine euphoria and crash

• Ecstasy (MDMA): synthetic stimulant and mild hallucinogen

  • has both short term and long term health risks

• THC

  • major active ingredient in marijuana

    • triggers a variety of effects, including mild hallucinations

Near Death Experiences

• this is considered an altered state of consciousness reported after having a close brush w/ death

• the effects are often similar to drug-induced hallucinations

• 15% of Americans report that they have had a near death experiences in their lives

• 1/3 of those effected reported having a mystical event occur

• brings up the debate of Dualism nd Monism

  • dualism: the presumption that the mind and body are two separate entities

  • monism: mind and body are part of the same thing