States of Consciousness
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Transcript States of Consciousness
States of Consciousness
Consciousness
Is our awareness of ourselves and our
environment.
Allows one to think and plan
Enables concentration
Jake doesn’t agree with this
formulation…
Waking Consciousness
Selective Attention – the limited aspect of
experience that we focus our attention on.
Dichotomoue hearing; cocktail party effect
Can you sing along with the radio when you
drive?
Daydreams & Fantasies –
Bad when escapist and counterproductive
Adaptive when relieving boredom, problem
solving, or a coping method.
Sleep and Dreams
Circadian Rythyms – biological clock set
for 24 hour period.
– Melatonin – produced in darkness, and slows
biological activity.
Sleep Stages
Awake and relaxed – alpha waves
Stage 1 Sleep – ca. 5 min, hallucinations
(perception w/o sensation)
Stage 2 – ca. 20 min, sleep spindles (bursts of
brainwave activity)
Stage 3 – transition, a few minutes
Stage 4 – delta waves
– Stages 3 & 4 are slow wave sleep and are difficult to
awaken people from
REM – paradoxical sleep
REM
After about an hour of sleep return to
stage 1: REM
Lasts about 10 minutes
Cycle repeats every 90 minutes
Genital arousal ‘always’ occurs
Brainstem blocks messages to muscles
Why Sleep?
Growth hormone released
Low sleep: poor attention
Tissue repair – lowers body temperature
So we don’t run into (or off of) stuff in the
dark
Sleep Disorders
Insomnia – persistent problems falling or
staying asleep
Sleep Apnea – stop breathing during
night; snoring
Narcolepsy – spontaneously fall asleep
Night terrors – occur during stage 4 sleep,
not REM
Dreams
Might put together information from the
day (manifest content: the storyline)
Might be subconscious desires, conflicts
that would be unsafe to express otherwise
(latent content)
Freud’s interpretation of dreams… (1900)
REM rebound – when deprived of REM you
will return more and more rapidly to REM
sleep
Hypnosis
• Facts & Falsehoods – you cannot recall
more accurately in hypnosis
• you can separate awareness
• some people are more hypnotizeable than
others
• can alleviate pain
• Hypnosis may be an authority effect –
remember Stanley Milgram?
Drugs
Dependence & Addiction
• Tolerance – with use effects diminish, so you
gotta take more to get the same effect
• Withdrawal – pain after cessation of
administration
• Physical dependence – characterized by
withdrawal
• Psychological dependence – drug becomes an
important part of person’s life, often as a way
of relieving negative emotions
Psychoactive Drugs
Depressants (alcohol, barbiturates, opiates) –
reduce neural activity & slow body functions
Stimulants (caffeine, nicotine, amphetamines, nose
candy) – excite neural activity & speed up body
functions
Hallucinogens (weed, LSD, shrooms, X) – distort
perception & evoke sensory images w/o input from
environment
• X is real bad! – triggers dopamine release (reinforcing use);
triggers release of serotonin & prevents reuptake
• X can break your brain. Serotonin receptors can be
damaged, which can result in depressed mood, interference
in circadian rhythms, suppress immune system, inhibit
memory & cognitive functions
Influences on Drug Use
Genetics
Culture
NDE
• Near Death Experience (more accurately,
“I came back from the dead” experience)
– About 1/3 people who die and come back
experience NDEs, not everyone
– Stable across cultures and time
– Explained by oxygen deprivation
– People who experience isolation/extreme
conditions also have ‘mystic experiences’
Monism or Dualism
• Monism – there is no mind, just brain
• Dualism – mind and brain are distinct (but
not necessarily separate)
• Both have problems that are very difficult
to address, but most biopsychologists take
a monistic stance.
References
Myers, D. (2005). Exploring Psychology
(6th ed.). New York: Worth Publishers.
www.crystalinks.com/ reality.html