Download Psychology – 8th Edition (David Myers) Chapter 7 – States of

Psychology – 8th Edition (David Myers)
Chapter 7 – States of Consciousness
Consciousness and Information Processing
 Consciousness – our awareness of ourselves and our environment
 Beneath the surface, our brain processes unconscious information on parallel tracks (simultaneously)…
o Ex: we see a bird flying and are consciously aware of our thought processing – “It’s a
hummingbird!” – but not consciously aware of our subconscious processing of the bird’s color,
form, movement, distance, and identity.
 Theories on consciousness…
o Consciousness is the result of brain activity among interconnected brain areas that crosses a
threshold of intensity
o Consciousness emerges from the interaction of individual brain events
o Consciousness lags behind the brain activities that produce it
 Info processing for conscious mind – relatively slow, sequenced/serial, limited capacity at one time, but
is skilled at problem solving
 Info processing for unconscious mind – fast, multiple/parallel tracks simultaneously
Sleep and Dreams
Biological rhythms – periodic physiological fluctuations – controlled by your “biological clock”
 Annual cycles – hibernation, migration, humans - seasonal variations in appetite/moods (seasonal
affective disorder)
 28-day cycles – menstrual cycle in females
 24-hour cycles – varying alertness, body temperature, growth hormone secretion
 90-minute cycles – various stages of sleep in 90 minute cycles
The Rhythm of Sleep
 Circadian rhythm – the biological clock; regular bodily rhythms that occur in a 24-hour period
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Light, processed by the retina, signals to the brain to be alert by the production of melatonin in the
pineal gland (more melatonin in the evening, and less in the morning/day) – you can buy melatonin OTC
to aid with sleep.
Biological clocks can be reset or disrupted by adjusting your sleeping schedule (jetlag, sleeping in too
late, etc)
Artificial light delays sleep  25-hour circadian rhythm
Sleep Stages
 Sleep – periodic, natural, reversible loss of consciousness
 5 distinct sleep stages – 90 minutes
Awake/relaxed Alpha waves
Stage 1
 slowed breathing, irregular brain waves (typical of unremembered moments)
 may experience hallucinations – sensory experiences that occur without sensory
stimuli – feeling of free falling to be awoken by a jerk
Stage 2
 20 minutes
 Periodic appearance of sleep spindles (bursts of rapid, rhythmic brain wave activity)
Stage 3
 Several minutes
 Begin to produce large delta waves – the large, slow brain waves associated with deep
sleep
 Hard to awaken
Stage 4
 Combined with stage 3 to last about 30 minutes
 Delta waves – deep sleep
 Hard to awaken
 At the end, sleepwalking or wetting the bed may occur
 Sleep-talking can occur in any stage
REM sleep
 REM sleep – rapid eye movement sleep, a recurring sleep stage during which vivid
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dreams commonly occur (also known as paradoxical sleep because the muscles are
relaxed but other body systems are active.)
Occurs about an hour into sleep cycles
Return through stages 3 and 2 from stage 4
10 minutes of sharp, short brain waves – look like waves of stage 1
Heart rate rises, breathing quickens and becomes irregular, eyes dart around behind the
lids
Genitals aroused, except during very scary dreams
Motor cortex is active, but blocks movement messages – essentially paralyzed –
paradoxical sleep
Hard to awaken
Gets longer throughout the night (accounts for 20-25% of a night’s sleep)
Hallucinatory dreams – vivid, story-like
No snoring
While in deep sleep, your brain can still process some stimuli
o You can move in bed, but not fall out
o You will not roll over an infant (unless intoxicated)
o Occasional sounds (cars, tv, etc) will not awaken you, but sounds from a crib might
o The sound of your name will alert you
Everyone dreams, however everyone does not remember their dreams
o 600 hrs/yr dreaming
o 1500 dreams/year
o 100,000 dreams/lifetime
Why Do We Sleep?
 Not everyone needs 8 hours of sleep
o Newborns spend 2/3 of the day asleep
o Adults spend no more than 1/3 of the day asleep
 Smaller sleep differences can be genetic
 Sleep differences can also be cultural
o Industrialized nations sleep less – light bulb, shift work, social diversions
 Most adults, if unhindered, would sleep 9 hrs/night = no grogginess
 Deprived of sleep – tired, irritable, etc
Sleep Deprivation
 Sleep can…
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o Strengthen memory
o Improve concentration
o Boost mood
o Moderate hunger and obesity
o Strengthen the immune system
Teenagers need about 9 hours of sleep a night, but usually get around 7… sleepiness in class
Sleep deprivation can increase depression, the likelihood of accidents, and irritability, while decreasing
mood, alertness and concentration
Sleep Theories
 Several theories…
o Sleep protects us (evolutionary theory) – our ancestors were better off in a cave to rest and be out
of harm’ rather than try to hunt or navigate treacherous conditions in the dark
o Sleep helps us recuperate – restores and repairs brain tissue; weakens unused connections
between neurons
o Sleep helps us remember – restores and rebuilds our fading memories of the day’s experiences;
helps with creative thinking/problem solving by allowing us to “sleep on it” (incubation)
o Sleep helps us grow – during sleep, the pituitary gland releases growth hormone (sleep often
when young and less when older – lessened amount of growth hormone as we age)
Sleep Disorders
 Insomnia – recurring problems in falling or staying asleep
o Common quick fixes – alcohol and pills
 Alcohol is not helpful because it can lessen REM sleep leaving the person feeling tired
the next day
 Pills can cause addictions which lead to higher doses and the inability to fall asleep
without them.
o Better trustworthy fixes
 Relax before sleeping in dim light (no tv or cell phones or computers)
 Avoid caffeine
 Have a regular sleep schedule
 Avoid naps
 Exercise regularly but not in the evening
 Reassure yourself that a little loss of sleep is not a huge deal.
 Hide the clock to avoid being stressed out by the time if you cannot sleep
 Aim for less sleep to make yourself tired
 Narcolepsy – uncontrollable sleep attacks; falling directly into REM sleep at inappropriate times
o Lasts only about 5 minutes
o 1 in 2,000 people
o Brain disease – underproduction of neurotransmitters that help alertness
o Can be treated with medication that stimulates alertness
 Sleep apnea – temporary cessations of breathing during sleep and repeated momentary awakenings
o Mostly overweight men, high blood pressure
o Causes irritability due to being awaken up hundreds of times in the night - less deep sleep
o 1 in 20 people
o Can cause snoring
o Suffers may not be aware they have sleep apnea
o Can be treated with weight loss or wearing a metal mask attached to a machine that pumps air
into the lungs keeping the airway open
 Night terrors – high arousal and an appearance of being terrified; more severe than nightmares
o Occur during the first few hours of sleep in stage 4, not REM when nightmares occur
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o Seldom remembered
o Targets mostly children
Sleepwalking (somnambulism) and sleep talking
o Occur in stage 4 sleep
o Mostly children
o Genetic
o As we grow older, stage 4 sleep decreases as do sleepwalking and nightmares
Dreams
 Occur in REM sleep
 Dream – a sequence of images, emotions, and thoughts passing through a sleeping person’s mind;
notable for hallucinatory imagery, discontinuities, and incongruities, and for the dreamer’s delusional
acceptance of the content and later difficulties remembering it.
o Hallucinations of the sleeping mind
o Tend to involve familiar details from our lives (people, events  mundane activities)
 Lucid dreaming –aware of dreaming while having a dream; testing the dream to see if it is a dream
(trying to float in mid-air and succeeding  I’m in a dream right now)
 Most dreams report negative emotions (rejection, sadness, fear, failure, being attacked, chased, etc)
 If woken in REM sleep, you can report your dream more vividly than other times.
 sensory input may also be present – the sound of a nearby tv, an odor, telephone ringing
 things that happen in the 5 minutes before slipping into sleep are typically not remembered
Why Do We Dream?
 Regardless of the theory (listed/explained below) all sleep scientists agree that the body needs REM
sleep.
o If woken several times in REM sleep, you will fall back into REM sleep quicker than before
(REM rebound)
 To satisfy our own wishes - Sigmund Freud claimed that the content of dreams represented our
unconscious wishes
o Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams (1900) – dreams fulfill wishes as a psychic safety valve that
discharges otherwise unacceptable feelings.
 Manifest content – the remembered story line of a dream; sometimes involves the
previous days’ experiences and events
 Freud - Is a censored or symbolic version of the latent content
 Latent content – the underlying meaning of a dream
 Freud - consists of unconscious drives and wishes that would be threatening if
expressed directly (often sexual desires, but not represented sexually in the
manifest representation)
o Freud considered dreams to be the key to understanding our inner conflicts.
o Scientists dismiss Freud’s theories
 No scientific evidence to support the claim that the manifest content represents any kind
of hidden latent content
 Even if dreams have latent meanings, everyone can interpret these differently
 To file away memories – dreams allow for information processing to help sift, file, store, or discard
information
o People deprived of REM sleep (when dreams occur) do poorly on memory tests and other tasks
than those who experience REM sleep and dreams
o Students who get more REM sleep do better in school compared to those without as much sleep
and REM sleep  don’t cram for tests, the brain needs time to process the information with
sleep/dreams
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To develop and preserve neural pathways – psychological function of dreams to help stimulate neural
pathways that are needed and weaken those are not needed
o Babies spend a good deal of time in REM sleep, possibly to help build neural
pathways/networks/connections
To make sense of neural static – activation-synthesis theory of dreams proposes that dreams result from
the brain trying to make sense of random neural firings while sleeping
o Firings in the occipital lobe can cause visions without sensory input
o Firings in the limbic system can produce emotions
o Firings in the frontal lobe can inhibit actions causing us to act inhibited in our dreams.
To reflect cognitive development – dreams reflect maturation and cognitive development (their
knowledge and understanding)
Hypnosis
 Hypnosis – a social interaction in which one person (the hypnotist) suggests to another (the subject) that
certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors will spontaneously occur
 Popularized by Anton Mesmer (1734-1815) who would pass magnets over ailing peoples’ bodies, some
of whom would fall into a trancelike (“mesmerized”) state, then awaken feeling better and improved 
discredited by a commission led by Benjamin Franklin when found to have no actually curing powers
 SNL Hypnotist skit - http://www.hulu.com/#!watch/404165
 During hypnosis, the hypnotist gives a brief introduction and then presents a series of suggested
experiences that range from easy to difficult.
Facts and Falsehoods
 The power of hypnosis lies not in the hypnotist, but in the subject’s openness to suggestion
Can anyone experience hypnosis?
 To some extent, nearly everyone is suggestible.
o Ex: if told to stand with your eyes closed and sway, you will probably sway a little.
 20% of people are highly suggestible – typically become engrossed in movies, novels, stories; have rich
fantasy lives
 Anyone can be hypnotized to some degree if led to expect the results and believe in the power of the
suggestions
Can Hypnosis Enhance Recall of Forgotten Events?
 No – repressed memories uncovered in hypnosis are highly susceptible to be obtained with leading
questions or suggestions from the hypnotist
 People who report recalling past memories and events (especially UFO abductions) are found to be
highly suggestible people, often undergoing hypnosis before
Can Hypnosis Force People to Act Against Their Will?
 1965 study found that hypnosis could induce people to commit dangerous/involuntary acts, however it
depends on the suggestibility of the hypnotized and also their conformity to orders from people in
authority positions
Can Hypnosis Be Therapeutic?
 Post hypnotic suggestions – a suggestion made during a hypnosis session, to be carried out after the
subject is no longer hypnotized; used by some clinicians to help control undesired symptoms and
behaviors.
o Has helped alleviate headaches, asthma, skin related disorders
o Found unhelpful for helping those with drug, alcohol, or smoking addictions.
Can Hypnosis Alleviate Pain?
 Yes – hypnosis can relieve fear which can be linked to stress and pain (dentists); hypnotized patients in
surgical experiments were found to require less medication, recover sooner, and leave the hospital
earlier  inhibition of pain-related brain activity.
 Theory 1: Dissociation – a split in consciousness, which allows some thoughts and behaviors to occur
simultaneously with others.
o Hypnosis can dissociate the sensation of the pain stimulus from the emotional suffering that
defines the pain experience.
 Theory 2: The alleviation of pain can come from selective attention – not focusing on the painful
stimulus (like distraction)
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Hypnosis does not block sensory input, but it may block our attention to and perception of the stimuli 
does hypnosis relieve pain by dissociating the pain sensation from conscious awareness OR does
hypnosis relieve pain by distracting our attention on to other things or away from certain things?
Is Hypnosis an Altered State of Consciousness?
 Hypnosis as a Social Phenomenon  Social Influence Theory
o Power of social influence
o Attention guiding perception (ex: distracted attention from pain, not hypnosis, changes the
perception of pain)
o Imaginative actors getting caught up in playing the good hypnotism patient
 Hypnosis as Divided Consciousness  Divided Consciousness Theory
o Special state of divided alertness/consciousness
 Hypnosis could be explained by both theories
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Biological
Distinctive brain activity
Unconscious information
processing
Hypnosis as a Biopsychosocial Phenomenon
Psychological
 Focused attention (selective
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 Expectations
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 Heightened suggestibility
 Dissociation between
normal sensations and
conscious awareness
Social-Cultural
Presence of an authoritative
figure in legitimate context
Role-playing “good
subject”
Drugs and Consciousness
 Psychoactive drugs – a chemical substance that alters perceptions and mood
Dependence and Addiction
 Tolerance – the diminishing effect with regular use of the same dose of a drug requiring the user to take
larger and larger doses before experiencing the drug’s effect.
 Neuroadaption – the brain adapts its chemistry to offset the drug
 Withdrawal – the discomfort and distress that follows discontinuing the use of an addictive drug (aches,
nausea, distress)
o Physical dependence – a physiological need for a drug, marked by unpleasant withdrawal
symptoms when the drug is discontinued
o Psychological dependence – a psychological need to use a drug, such as to relieve negative
emotions
Misconceptions About Addiction
 Addiction – compulsive drug craving and use
 Addictive drugs do not lead every user to quick and chronic addiction.
o 10% of people using a psychoactive drug develop addiction
o People typically do not become addicted to medical drugs with psychoactive properties
 Addictions can be overcome individually or alone, or with the help of groups/therapy.
o it depends on the individual and their needs
 There is debate on whether the addiction-as-disease model can be extended past drug/substance
addictions and be applied to all rewarding/repetitive actions.
o Can we call “gambling addictions” fed by embezzling a disease? What about extensive credit
card debt due to “shopping addiction?”
Psychoactive Drugs
 Depressants, stimulants, and hallucinogens
 Work at the brain’s synapses by stimulating, inhibiting, or mimicking neurotransmitters
 Effects also influenced by expectations
Depressants
 Depressants – drugs that reduce neural activity and slow body functions (slow the activity in the CNS)
o Alcohol, barbiturates, opiates
 Alcohol
o Increases harmful tendencies (aggressive, sexually aggressive)
o Increases helpful tendencies (leaving large tips for waiters, becoming more chatty and pleasant)
o The urges you would feel if you were sober are the ones you will more likely act upon if
intoxicated.
o Slow reaction time, slurred speech, decreased skills, lower inhibitions
o More alcohol  higher blood alcohol content/level (BAC/BAL)
o Large amounts of alcohol  blackouts in memory because alcohol suppresses REM sleep when
your day’s events become memories
o Alcohol works biologically, but also is affected by expectations of drunkenness
 Barbiturates
o Barbiturate – (tranquillizers) suppress the CNS, reduce anxiety, impair memory and judgment
o Can be used as anti-anxiety drugs or sleep aids
o Often consumed during suicides
 Opiates
o Opiates – opium and its derivatives, such as morphine and heroin; lessen pain and anxiety
o Can cause the brain to stop producing endorphins (natural opiates)
Stimulants
 Stimulants – drugs that easily excite neural activity and speed up body functions
o Amphetamines – drugs that stimulate neural activity causing speeded up body functions and
associated energy and mood changes.
 Caffeine, nicotine, cocaine
o Methamphetamine – a powerfully addictive drug that stimulates the CNS with speeded up body
functions and associated energy and mood changes; reduces baseline dopamine levels 
permanent dopamine deficiency
o Increase heart rate, decrease appetite (blood sugar increases), energy/self-confidence rises
o Addictive, followed by a “crash” (fatigue, irritability, depression)
o Cocaine
 Sniffed (“snorted”) or injected/smoked (“free-based”)
 Quick euphoria. Followed by deep crash
 Crack is a more potent form of cocaine (higher high, lower low)
 Emotional disturbance, suspiciousness/paranoia, convulsions, cardiac arrest, respiratory
failure, aggression
 Highly addictive (studies show monkeys, rats, and cats that are addicted will push buttons
thousands of times to receive cocaine or will sustain shocks to receive the drug)
 Its effects are also linked to expectations  placebo cocaine and same results
o Ecstasy – MDMA, stimulant and hallucinogen; produces euphoria and social intimacy, with
risks to serotonin-producing neurons, and risks to mood and cognition
 Triggers the release of dopamine and serotonin, but blocks the reabsorption of serotonin
 A few hours of social connectedness and intimacy
 Dehydration, overheating, increased blood pressure, death; damage to serotonin
producing neurons permanently reduced mood
Hallucinogens
 Hallucinogens – psychedelic drugs, such as LSD, that distort perceptions and evoke sensory images in
the absence of sensory input
o LSD – a powerful hallucinogenic drug; also known as acid
o Effects depend on expectations – pleasure or panic
 Marijuana
o Leaves and flowers of the hemp plant
o THC – major active ingredient in marijuana, triggers a variety of effects including mild
hallucinations
o Smoked or eaten
o Relaxes, lowers inhibitions, may produce a euphoric high; amplifies sensitivity to color, sound,
taste, and smell
o Effects depend on the users expectations
o Can be therapeutic in relieving pain
o Disrupts memory, impairs motor coordination and reaction time
o Brain has special cannabinoid receptors that prove the brain naturally produces a THC pain
relieving substance.
o Byproducts of THC can linger in the body for months
Influences on Drug Use
 Drug use increased in the 1970s (in the US) and has fluctuated since
Biological
Drug Use
Psychological
Social Cultural
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Genetic tendencies
(alcoholism)
Dopamine reward circuit –
drug use activates the
reward circuit triggering the
production of dopamine 
signaling reward/pleasure…
increased drug use =
tolerance = more drugs to
feel effect  cycle
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Lacking sense of purpose or
direction
Significant stress and urge
to avoid
Psychological disorders,
such as depression
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Cultural ethnic group
Belonging to a drug using
culture group
Peer pressure/influence
Possible channels for drug prevention for young people…
 Education about drugs’ negative effects
 Efforts to boost self esteem and purpose in life
 Attempts to modify peer associations, or inoculate youth against peer pressure
Near Death Experiences – an altered state of consciousness reported after a close brush with death; often
similar to drug-induced hallucinations
 Replay of memories
 Out-of-body sensations
 Vivid visions of tunnels and bright lights
 1/3 of people who have had a brush with death report having a near-death experience
 Can the mind exist apart from the body?
o Dualism – the presumption that the mind and body are two distinct entities that interact.
o Monism – the presumption that mind and body are different aspects of the same thing.