Chapter 7 notes - DeForest High School



Unit 5, States of Consciousness Notes

(Updated for 2011; goes with Ch. 7 in 2007 book)

Part 1

1. Consciousness: awareness of our environment and ourselves

2. Subconscious processing: different information simultaneously (parallel processing)

3. Conscious processing: serial processing; information is processed sequentially (slow)

Ex: law making

4. Fantasizing: daydreaming; everyone does it; helps reduce stress, increase creativity, help with future planning

5. Fantasy-prone personality: 4% of pop; spend more than half of time fantasizing, leading to inability to separate fantasy from reality

6. Selective Attention: directs the spotlight of your awareness

Much of our information is processed unconsciously (think two-track mind)

II. Sleep and dreams 176

Biological Rhythms and Sleep

How do our biological rhythms influence our daily functioning?

Annual cycles; winter months can lead to seasonal affective disorder

Biological rhythms

28 day cycles female menstrual cycle

24 hour cycles; varying alertness, body temperature, etc.

90 minute cycles; sleep cycles

Circadian rhythm: biological 24-hour clock; shifts to 25 hours without time cues

Resets after jet lag

Ultradian rhythm: occur more than once each day

Infradian: occur once a month and include the menstrual cycle

Pineal gland; decreases activity in the morning or increases in the evening production of the hormone melatonin; this accumulates adenosine which inhibits neurons making us tired.

Suprachiasmic nucleus: tiny cells that control our circadian clock

REM sleep begins 1.5 hours after sleep begins; only stage in which you dream

Sleep Stages (sleep: reversible loss of consciousness)

What is the biological rhythm of our sleep? P. 178

(See Figure 5.4, p. 179)

Relaxed awake state, slow alpha waves

Stage 1: 2 min./hallucinations/hyponogoic sensations occur here

Stage 2: 20 min./sleep spindles/sleep talking/you’re actually asleep

Stage 3: 15 min./large and slow delta waves; hard to wake you here

Stage 4: 15 min./ even deeper with slow delta waves/bed wetting/sleep walking

5. The cycle continues back to stage 3, 2, then excited REM begins (paradoxical sleep: internally aroused, but externally calm)

REM gets longer.

1. Dreams: everyone has, not everyone remembers;

6. Stages 3 and 4 don’t recur toward the end of the sleep period

Sleep deprived effects:

*Suppressed immune system

*Decreased creativity

*Slight hand tremors

*Slow performance

*Misperceptions on monotonous attacks

*Highly motivated activities NOT affected by sleep deprivation

Why do we sleep? Benefits

Sleep theories

What is sleep’s function?

*Tissue restored

*Energy conserved

*Growth hormone released by pituitary

Melatonin can help fall asleep

Sleep is for making memories; restoring and rebuilding

Sleep feeds creative thinking, particularly during dreams

Sleep plays a role in growth processes; pituitary releases a growth hormone

1. Sleep protects us from danger

2. Sleep helps us restore our body

3. Sleep rebuilds our memories

4. Sleep helps grow the body

III. Sleep disorders 185

What are the major sleep disorders?

1. Insomnia difficulty staying or falling asleep

2. Sleep apnea suddenly stopping breathing---mostly overweight men

3. Narcolepsy suddenly falling asleep; an absence of a hypothalamic neural center that produces hypocretin; often treated with amphetamines to keep the brain from going into REM patterns

4. Night terrors not a nighmare but can be terrifying; happens during stage 4; not usually remembered (nightmares occur near morning in REM stage) children the usual sufferers

5. Sleep walking: children more likely; stage 4 disorder; stage 4 diminishes as we age as does sleep walking

IV. Dreams 187

Why do we dream?

Lucid dreaming awareness that you are dreaming

REMs are vivid and emotional

1. Manifest content what we remember of the dream (Freud said)

2. Latent Content subconscious thoughts/drives underlying the dream (Freud)

3. Dreams organize thought and facilitate memory

4. Dreams keep neural pathways operational

5. Dreams as the result of bursts of activation (Seligman/Yellen) and we try to make sense of them (synthesis)

5. The amygdala (limbic system) is most active leading to emotions

Why do we dream? Dream theories See Table 5.2 on page 191

What is the function of dreams?

1. Freud’s wish fulfillment: expressing unacceptable feelings; help to understand inner conflicts; William Domhoff: no scientific evidence for Freud’s theory

Most dream content is about events that have happened in the life of the dreamer; there are differences in the content of males and females

2. Information processing: sorting out the day’s events

3. Physiological function: preserve neural pathways

4. Activation synthesis: neural activity is turned into dream stories; Hobson’s and McCarley’s theory

5. Cognitive theory: reflects development, learning and understanding

a. REM rebound: if deprived of sleep, you more quickly go into REM than normal

The explanation for dreams probably includes both biological and psychological components

V. Hypnosis 192

What is hypnosis and what powers does a hypnotist have over a subject?

A state of heightened suggestibility; it can relieve pain but does not provide for superhuman ability: what you can do under hypnosis, can also be done normally

Can anyone experience hypnosis? We are all open to suggestion; postural sway as an example

Highly suggestible people, about 20% of us can be deeply absorbed in imaginative activity.

Anton Mesmer: animal magnetism; associated with quackery

Can hypnosis enhance recall of events? No.

Refreshed memories can combine fact with fiction

Can it force you to act against your will? 193

Unhypnotized subjects will perform the same acts depending on how authoritative the person directing the activity is; famous acid in the face test; Orne’s research: authoritative persons in a legitimate context can influence behavior

Posthypnotic amnesia temporarily not remembering something after hypnosis

Freud felt you could retrieve lost or hidden memories using hypnosis and dream interpretation.

Can Hypnosis be therapeutic? 194

Posthypnotic suggestions:

Drug, alcohol and smoking addictions don’t respond very well

Posthypnotic suggestion to be carried out when you are not hypnotized

These have been shown to help those with headaches, asthma, and stress related skin disorders.

Can Hypnosis alleviate pain? Yes.

Dissociation involves the splitting of the emotion of pain from the sensation of pain

Is hypnosis and extension of consciousness or an altered state? 194

Social Phenomenon, 195

Social influence theory the hypnosis subject is caught up in playing a role

Divided consciousness

Hidden observer; Ernest Hilgard determined that a person has a split consciousness that involuntarily knows what is happening; dissociation

Distinctive brain activity does accompany hypnosis

Hypnotic pain relief may result from selective attention; PET scans do show reduced activity in pain processing centers of the brain, but not in the sensory cortex

Hypnosis is evidence of the two track mind concept

Kihlstrom and McConkey believe the two competing theories can be combined. Brain activity, attention and social influence interact to produce the experience.

Age regression claims hypnotized children are not more genuinely childlike

a. hypnotic claims and memory: unpredictable

Drugs and Consciousness 197

What are tolerance, addiction and dependence?

1. Using drugs more often won’t necessarily cause addiction

2. Addiction is not like a disease and can be overcome voluntarily

3. Psychoactive drugs chemicals that change how you think and feel and usually produce

4. Tolerance larger and larger doses of a drug are needed to produce the same effect

5. Psychological dependence and Physical dependence to a drug

Becomes evident during withdrawal

Misconceptions about addiction, 197

What are they?

1. Addictive drugs can quickly corrupt

2. Addictions cannot be overcome voluntarily

3. Addiction as a concept can be applied to many other repetitive, pleasure-seeking behaviors

Psychoactive drugs, 198

What are depressants and what are their effects?

Depressants drugs that slow or calm neural activity

Disinhibition; slowed neural processing; memory disruption

Reduced self-awareness and self-control; expectancy effects

Alcohol impairs judgment and inhibitions; people who think they are drinking alcohol exhibited less sexual restraints

Abrams and Wilson Rutgers experiment: if people believe they are drinking alcohol they will behave as if they are.

Alcohol increases sexual aggression and casual sex.

Barbiturates (tranquilizers) similar to alcohol because it lowers SNS activity; large doses can cause death

Opiates (morphine, heroin) depress brain activity and bring pleasure with addiction; pain results with withdrawal because the brain stops producing its own endorphins; the two are chemically similar

What are Stimulants and what are their effects?

These speed up and excite bodily activity

12. Caffeine increases heart and breathing boosting mood/athletic performance

13. Nicotine: tobacco products are as addictive as cocaine and heroin; triggers the release of epinephrine and norepinephrine reducing appetite and increasing alertness

14. Amphetamines after these wear off the user experiences a crash: headaches, tiredness, even depression; methamphetamine (speed)

15. Cocaine most powerful stimulant: blocks the re uptake of dopamine because it is chemically similar; neurotransmitters (remains in the synapse, leading to intense mood)

Ecstasy: MDMA, both a stimulant and hallucinogen; it releases stored serotonin and blocks its reabsorption; taking this drug even once can lead to serotonin neuron destruction.

What are Hallucinogens and what are they effects:

They distort perceptions and evoke vivid images

17. LSD (PCP) leads to intense emotions and seeing of colors, shapes, even out-of-body experiences; chemically similar to serotonin; synthetic substance; Albert Hoffman created this in 1943

Hallucinations during LSD usage can include experiences like near death experiences, a separation from the body feeling

18. Marijuana; natural substance

a. contains an organic compound called THC that causes euphoric high, relaxation, increased sensitivity to colors

b. Impairs judgment; causes lung damage; disrupts memory, decreases reaction time; lowers sex hormones

Influences on drug use, 208

Why do some people become regular users of psychoactive drugs?

1. biology: alcoholism influenced by heredity; identical v. fraternal twins

2. psychology: the feeling that life is meaningless

3. psychology: stress and/or depression; failure

African American drug usage is lower

People in poverty use to mask pain of being poor; wealth use because they can afford

4. sociology and culture : Peer culture; behavior v. belief

Teens may feel their own behavior is not destructive; they attribute their own behavior to the situation and blame others for their own problems (rather than the situation); they’ll say they take drugs due to outside factors but assess others’ behavior based on internal factors; this is known as the fundamental attribution error.

Near Death Experiences

1. A state of consciousness reported after being close to death.

2. May see bright tunnel

3. LSD or oxygen deprivation are similar experiences

4. Dualism mind and body are two distinct parts separating after death

5. Monism we cannot exist without our bodies

Terms to know: page 212 (See Study Guide)

AP Practice Quiz: page 213

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