What is Consciousness

4.1 Definition of Consciousness

• Consciousness: a person’s awareness of everything that is going on around him or her at any given time

4.2 Altered States of Consciousness

• Waking Consciousness: state in which thoughts, feelings, and sensations are clear, organized, and the person feels alert

• Altered State of Consciousness: state in which there is a shift in the quality or pattern of mental activity as compared to waking consciousness

Sleep

4.3 The Biology of Sleep

• Circadian Rhythm: a cycle of bodily rhythm that occurs over a 24-hour period

4.4 Why We Sleep

• Microsleeps: brief sidesteps into sleep lasting a few seconds

• Adaptive Theory: theory of sleep proposing that animals and humans evolved sleep patterns to avoid predators by sleeping when predators are most active

• Restorative Theory: theory of sleep proposing that sleep is necessary to the physical health of the body and serves to replenish chemicals and repair cellular damage

• Sleep Deprivation: any significant loss of sleep, resulting in problems in concentration and irritability

4.5 The Stages of Sleep

• Rapid Eye Movement (REM): stage of sleep in which the eyes move rapidly under the eyelids and the person is typically experiencing a dream

• Non-REM (NREM) Sleep: any of the stages of sleep that do not include REM

• Beta Waves: smaller and faster brain waves, typically indicating mental activity

• Alpha Waves: brain waves that indicate a state of relaxation or light sleep

• Theta Waves: brain waves indicating the early stages of sleep

• Delta Waves: long, slow brain waves that indicate the deepest stage of sleep

• Sleep Paralysis: the inability of the voluntary muscles to move during REM sleep

• Rem Rebound: increased amounts of REM sleep after being deprived of REM sleep on earlier nights

4.6 Sleep Disorders

• Nightmares: bad dreams occurring during REM sleep

• REM behavior disorder (RBD): a rare disorder in which the mechanism that blocks the movement of the voluntary muscles fails, allowing the person to thrash around and even get up and act out nightmares

• Night Terrors: relatively rare disorder in which the person experiences extreme fear and screams or runs around during deep sleep without waking fully

• Sleepwalking (somnambulism): occurring during deep sleep, an episode of moving around or walking around in one’s sleep

• Insomnia: the inability to get to sleep, stay asleep, or get a good quality of sleep.

• Sleep Apnea: disorder in which the person stops breathing for 10 seconds or more.

• Narcolepsy: sleep disorder in which a person falls immediately into REM sleep during the day without warning

Dream

4.7 Why Do We Dream?

• Freud - Dream = wish fulfillment

  • Manifest content

• Activation-Synthesis Hypothesis: premise that states that dreams are created by the higher centers of the cortex to explain the activation by the brain stem of cortical cells during REM sleep periods.

• Activation-Information-Mode Model (AIM): a revised version of the activation-synthesis explanation of dreams in which information that is accessed during waking hours can have an influence on the synthesis of dreams

4.8 What Do People Dream About?

• Cognitive Theory of Dreaming: that dreams are just another type of cognitive process, or thinking, that occurred during sleep

Hypnosis

4.9 How Hypnosis Works

• There are four key steps in inducing hypnosis (Druckman & Bjork, 1994):

  • 1. The hypnotist tells the person to focus on what is being said.

  • 2. The person is told to relax and feel tired.

  • 3. The hypnotist tells the person to “let go” and accept suggestions easily.

  • 4. The person is told to use vivid imagination.

• Hypnosis: state of consciousness in which the person is especially susceptible to suggestion

4.10 Theories of Hypnosis

• Dissociation: divided state of conscious awareness

• Social-Cognitive Theory of Hypnosis: theory that assumes that people who are hypnotized are not in an altered state but are merely playing the role expected of them in the situation.

The Influence of Psychoactive Drugs

4/11 Dependence

• Psychoactive Drugs: chemical substances that alter thinking, perception, and memory

• Physical dependence: condition occurring when a person’s body becomes unable to function normally without a particular drug

• Drug tolerance: the decrease of the response to a drug over repeated uses, leading to the need for higher doses of drug to achieve the same effect

• Withdrawal: physical symptoms that can include nausea, pain, tremors, crankiness, and high blood pressure, resulting from a lack of an addictive drug in the body system

• Psychological Dependence: the feeling that a drug is needed to continue a feeling of emotional or psychological well-being

• Stimulants: drugs that increase the functioning of the nervous system

• Depressants: drugs that decrease the functioning of the nervous system

• Hallucinogenics:  drugs including hallucinogens and marijuana that produce hallucinations or increased feelings of relaxation and intoxication.

4.12 Stimulants: Up, Up, and Away

• Amphetamines: stimulants that are synthesized (made) in laboratories rather than being found in nature

• Cocaine: a natural drug derived from the leaves of the coca plant

• Nicotine: the active drug in tobacco

• Caffeine: a mild stimulant found in coffee, tea, and several other plant-based substances

4.13 Down in the Valley: Depressants

• Barbiturates: depressant drugs that have a sedative effect

• Benzodiazepines: drugs that lower anxiety and reduce stress

• Alcohol: the chemical resulting from fermentation or distillation of various kinds of vegetable matter

• Opiates: a class of opium-related drugs that suppress the sensation of pain by binding to and stimulating the nervous system’s natural receptor sites for endorphins.

• Opium: substance derived from the opium poppy from which all narcotic drugs are derived.

• Morphine: narcotic drug derived from opium, used to treat severe pain.

• Heroin: narcotic drug derived from opium that is extremely addictive.

4.14 Hallucinogens

• Hallucinogens: drugs that cause false sensory messages, altering the perception of reality

• LSD: (lysergic acid diethylamide) powerful synthetic hallucinogen.

• PCP: synthesized drug now used as an animal tranquilizer that can cause stimulant, depressant, narcotic, or hallucinogenic effects.

• MDMA (Ecstasy or X): designer drug that can have both stimulant and hallucinatory effects.

• Stimulatory Hallucinogens: drugs that produce a mixture of psychomotor stimulant and hallucinogenic effects.

• Marijuana: mild hallucinogen (also known as “pot” or “weed”) derived from the leaves and flowers of a particular type of hemp plant.