Intro2Psych.Chapter 9, 11, + 13

Consciousness: The awareness of external stimuli and our own mental activity.

Conscious level: The level of consciousness at which mental activities accessible to awareness occur.

Nonconsciousness level: The level of consciousness at which reside processes that are totally inaccessible to conscious awareness.

Preconscious level: The level of consciousness at which reside mental events that are not currently conscious but can become conscious at will.

Unconscious: The term used to describe a level of mental activity said by Freud to contain unacceptable sexual, aggressive, and other impulses of which an individual is unaware.

Subconscious: Another term that describes the mental level at which influential but normally inaccessible mental processes occur.

Altered state of consciousness: A condition that exists when changes in mental processes are extensive enough to produce noticeable differences in psychological and

behavioral functioning.

NREM (Non-Rapid Eye Movement) Sleep: Sleep stages 1-3 are accompanied by gradually slower and deeper breathing; a calm, regular heartbeat; reduced blood pressure; and slower brain waves

REM (Rapid Eye Movement) Sleep: The stage of sleep during which muscle tone decreases dramatically but the EEG resembles that of someone who is awake.

Insomnia: A sleep disorder in which a person doesn't get enough sleep to feel rested.

Narcolepsy: A daytime sleep disorder in which a person suddenly switches from an active waking state into REM sleep.

Sleep apnea: A sleep disorder in which a person briefly but repeatedly stops breathing during the night.

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS): A disorder in which a sleeping baby stops breathing, doesn't awaken, and dies.

Sleepwalking: Starts primarily in NREM sleep, especially in stage 3, and involves walking while asleep.

Nightmares: Frightening dreams that occur during REM sleep.

Sleep Terror Disorder (Night Terrors): The occurrence of horrific dream images during stage 3 sleep, followed by a rapid awakening and a stage of intense fear.

REM behavior disorder: The decreased muscle tone normally seen in REM sleep doesn’t appear; allowing dreams to be acted out.

Circadian rhythm (human biological rhythm): A cycle, such as waking and sleeping, that repeats about once a day.

Jet lag: Fatigue, irritability, inattention, and sleeping problems caused by air travel across several time zones.

Sleep deprivation: A condition in which people do not get enough sleep; it may result in reduced cognitive abilities, inattention, and increased risk of accidents.

Dreaming: The production during sleep of storylife sequences of images, sensations, and perceptions that last from several seconds to many minutes; mainly in REM.

Lucid dreaming: Being awake that a dream is a dream while it is occurring.

Hypnotic susceptibility: The degree to which a person responds to hypnotic suggestion.

Hypnosis: Brought on by special techniques and is characterized by varying degrees of responsiveness to suggestions for changes in a person’s behavior/experiences.

State theories of hypnosis: Theories proposing that hypnosis creates an altered state of consciousness.

Nonstate theories of hypnosis: Theories, such as role theory, proposing that hypnosis doesn’t create an altered state of consciousness.

Meditation: A set of techniques used to focus on the “present movement”, which create an altered state of consciousness characterized by inner peace and tranquility.

Psychoactive drugs: Chemical substances that act on the brain to create psychological effects.

Psychopharmacology: The study of psychoactive drugs and their effects.

Blood-brain barrier: A characteristic of blood vessels in the brain that prevents some substances from entering brain tissue.

Agonists: Drugs that bind to a receptor and mimic the effects of the neurotransmitter that normally fits that receptor.

Antagonists: Drugs that bind to a receptor and prevent the normal neurotransmitter from binding.

Drug Abuse/Substance Use Disorder: The use of psychoactive drugs in ways that deviate from cultural norms and cause serious problems for the user.

Addiction: Development of a physical need to psychoactive drugs.

Drug withdrawal: A set of symptoms associated with ending the use of an addictive substance.

Drug tolerance A condition in which increasingly larger drug doses are needed to produce a given effect.

CNS depressant drugs: Psychoactive drugs that inhibit the function of the CNS (ex: alcohol, barbiturates, GHB (date rape), flunitrazepam).

CNS stimulating drugs: Psychoactive drugs that increase behavioral and mental activity (ex: amphetamines, cocaine, caffeine, nicotine, MDMA/ecstasy)

Opiates: Psychoactive drugs that productive both sleep-inducing and pain-relieving effects.

Hallucinogenic drugs: Psychoactive drugs that alter consciousness by producing a temporary loss of contact with reality and changes in emotion, perception, and thought (ex: LSD, ketamine, marijuana).

Developmental psychology: The psychological specialty that documents the course of people’s social, emotional, moral, and intellectual development over the life span.

Maturation: Natural growth or change triggered by biological factors independent of the environment.

Chromosomes: Structures in every biological cell that contain genetic information in the form of genes.

Genes: Hereditary units, located on chromosomes, that contain biological instructions inherited from both parents, providing the blueprint for physical development.

DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid): The molecular structure of a gene that provides the genetic code.

Embryo: The developing individual from two weeks to two months after fertilization.

Fetus: The developing individual from the third month after conception until birth.

Teratogens: Harmful substances, such as alcohol and other drugs, that can cause birth defects.

Critical period: An interval during which certain kinds of growth must occur if development is to proceed normally.

Fetal alcohol syndrome: A pattern of defects found in babies born to women who abused alcohol during pregnancy.

Reflexes: Simple, involuntary, unlearned behaviors directed by the spinal cord without instructions from the brain.

Schemas: Mental representations of what we know and expect about the world.

Assimilation: The process of taking in new information about objects by using existing schemas on objects that fit those schemas.

Accommodation: The process of modifying schemas when they do not work on new objects.

Sensorimotor period (Piaget): The first period of cognitive development, when the infant’s mental activity is limited to sensory perception and motor skills.

Object permanence (Piaget): The knowledge that an object exists even when it is not in view.

Preoperational period (Piaget): The second period of cognitive development, during which children begin to understand, create, and use symbols that represent things that are not present.

Conservation (Piaget): The ability to recognize that the important properties of substances or objects, such as quantity, volume, or weight, remain constant despite changes in shape, length, or position.

Concrete operations (Piaget): The third period of cognitive development, during which children can learn to count, measure, add, and subtract.

Formal operations (Piaget): The fourth period of cognitive development, characterized by the ability to engage in hypothetical thinking.

Information processing model: A view of cognitive development which focuses on the processes of taking in, remembering or forgetting, and using information.