Chapter 7 STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS

 What does the film say about four characteristics of Consciousness?  Its Personal  Its Changing  Its Selective  Its Continuous AN OCCURRENCE AT OWL CREEK BRIDGE

WAKING CONSCIOUSNESS

 Psychology began as the study of consciousness  Scientifically difficult to study  Psychologists turned to studying behavior  By 1950’s it becomes known as the Science of Behavior  Advances in technology  Made possible to relate brain activity to various mental states  Waking, sleeping, and dreaming THE NATURE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF CONSCIOUSNESS IN PSYCHOLOGY

 Conscious information processing  Enables us to exert voluntary control and to communicate our mental states to others  Slow and limited capacity  Beneath the surface  Faster subconscious processing is taking place.  Example: First meeting someone CONTRAST CONSCIOUSNESS AND SUBCONSCIOUS INFORMATION PROCESSING

 Nearly everyone has day dreams or waking fantasies  Young adults spend more time daydreaming  Also admit to more sexual fantasies  Most daydreams involve familiar details  Can also be adaptive  Prepare for future events  Substitute for impulsive behavior DAYDREAMS AND FANTASIES

SLEEP AND DREAMS

 Varying periods of time cause psychological fluctuations in our biological rhythms  Annual cycle  People experience seasonal variations in appetite, sleep length, and moods  Menstrual Cycle in Females  Causes fluctuation in mood  Male 24 Hr. Cycle  Varying alertness, body temp, and hormone secretion BIOLOGICAL RHYTHMS

 Our daily schedule or waking and sleep is based on a biological clock called then circadian rhythm  Each nights sleep has its own rhythm  From Stage 1 to Stage 4 and back up REM sleep (Stage 5) CYCLICAL NATURE OF SLEEP

STAGES OF SLEEP

 percent of adults complain about insomnia  Other disorders  Narcolepsy  Periodic, overwhelming sleepiness  Sleep Apnea  Intermittently stop breathing during sleep  Night Terrors  Extreme paranoia or terror in Stage 1  Sleepwalking  Name says it all SLEEP DISORDERS

 Most are ordinary events that relate to everyday experiences  Freud  Dreams manifest content is censored latent content  New ideas about dreams  Help process and fix information in our memory  Serve a physiological function  Neural activates areas of the brain that processes visual images DREAMS

HYPNOSIS

 A social interaction in which the hypnotist suggests to a subject that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts or behaviors will occur  Afterward subjects may experience posthypnotic amnesia WHAT IS IT?

 Subjects under hypnosis  Reliving childhood experiences (age regression)  Recall  Although hypnotist beliefs may interfere  Temporarily therapeutic (posthypnotic suggestion)  Pain Relief  Explained through dissociation  **Can not be made to do things against their will BEHAVIOR OF HYPNOTIZED PEOPLE

 Not altered state argument  Hypnosis is a by-product of normal social and cognitive processes  Behaviors produced can be done without hypnosis  Acting the role  Is an altered state argument  Subjects carry out behaviors on cue  Pain relief and hallucenations  Ernest Hilgard: a hidden observer explains a subjects awareness of experiences that go unreported during hypnosis HYPNOSIS AN ALTERED STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS?

DRUGS AND CONSCIOUSNESS

DRUG DEPENDENCE  Psychoactive Drugs  Chemicals that change perceptions and moods  Continued use creates tolerance  Cessation can produce effects of withdrawal  Pain of withdraw indicates physical dependence  Psychological Dependence can occur especially with stress relieving drugs

 Medical drugs, like pain killers, are powerfully addictive  Addictions can only be overcome through treatment  Addiction can extend to a large spectrum of pleasure seeking behaviors  Overeating, excerise, sex, surfing the net THREE MYTHS OF DRUG ADDICTION

 Depressants act by depressing neural functioning  Offer pleasures but at the cost of impaired memory, self- awareness, and other physical consequences  Depressants:  Alcholol, barbituates, opiates (vicodin) DRUG TYPES: DEPRESSANTS

 Stimulants act by stimulating neural functioning  Act at the synapses by influencing the brains neurotransmitters  Stimulants  Nicotine, Caffeine, cocaine, meth, any amphetamine DRUG TYPES: STIMULANTS

 Hallucinogens distort the user’s judgment of time and can alter sensations and perceptions  Hallucinogens  Marijuana (THC), LSD, Peyote, mushrooms  Ecstasy: Both a stimulant and hallucinogen DRUG TYPES: HALLUCINOGENS

NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE  1/3 of those who survive a brush with death recall a near- death experience  Out-of-body sensations, visions of tunnels, bright lights, feelings of love, joy, peace  Dualists  Believe mind and body are distinct entities  Monists  Believe these are hallucinations and just the brain under stress