Download Unit One * What is Psychology?

Unit Four- Consciousness
[Chapter 5]
The Many Meanings of Consciousness
• Study of consciousness poses a challenge to
psychologists since it can’t be seen or touched
– Psychological construct: concept or theory devised in
order to help make sense of other observations
– Other examples: intelligence, motivation, anxiety
• Consciousness as Awareness
– Sensory awareness of surroundings (environment)
– Selective attention, self-control, inner awareness
• Sigmund Freud’s Divisions of Conscious Mind
– Conscious: material of which we are currently aware
– Preconscious: can be called into conscious mind
– Unconscious: material unavailable to awareness
• Repression: auto ejection of anxiety-causing thoughts
• Consciousness as the Sense of Self
– Distinguishing what is us from what is not
• Consciousness as the Waking State
– Natural state of mental being aware, as opposed to
sleep, hypnotic or meditative state, or being “high”
The Science of Sleep
• We spend approx. 1/3 of our lives asleep
– Without sleep, we struggle, possibly die
– How much is enough? Eight hours? More than that?
– Circadian rhythm: anything that runs on a 24hr cycle
• Experiments have shown that without cues humans
actually seem to operated on a 25 hour cycle. Weird.
• A typical night’s sleep has many stages
– Stages are determined by shifts in brainwave activity
• NREM: the first four stage involve progressively deeper
sleep—slower brain waves—and are not marked by
rapid eye movement and simple dreaming
• REM: stage 5, similar brainwaves as in stage 1, marked
by rapid eye movement & vivid dreaming
– We progress through stages many times in one night
• The benefits of a good night’s sleep
– Serves to rest and rejuvenate the body & recover
from stress, consolidate learning & memories
• REM sleep seems especially important to learning
– Sleep deprivation: insufficient sleep over many days
can have dramatic effects on attention & learning
What is the Stuff of Dreams?
• Psychologists have long debated the purpose
and scientific value of an individual’s dreams
– Introspective in nature: open to interpretation
– Freud: The road to the unconscious mind
• Many different theories as to why we dream
and what our dreams may mean
– Psychoanalytic theory: primal urges that have been
repressed disguise themselves in our dreams
– Dreams serve to help consolidate memory and
learning , solve problems of the previous day
– Dreaming serves to keep us asleep during REM cycle
• Dreaming in the Waking State: Fantasy
– We’re also capable of breaking from reality in waking
state though imagination & selective attention
• Sexual & aggressive fantasies normal for young people
• Combining these two daydreams: not so healthy
• Research is unclear as to the purpose of fantasy
Hold fast to dreams,
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
- Langston Hughes
Hypnosis: I Put a “Spell” on You
• Hypnosis: condition in which people appear
highly suggestible & behave as though in trance
– Started from the ideas of Franz Anton Mesmer
– Freud, others used hypnosis for diagnosis, treatment
– Involves the narrowing of attention, hypnotic trance
• Involves relaxation, but brainwaves differ from sleep
• Some people easier to hypnotize: prone to fantasy, know
expectations of trance, willing to be hypnotized
– Changes in consciousness attributed to hypnosis
• Passivity, narrowed attention, highly detailed/false
memories, suggestibility, playing unusual roles,
perceptual distortions, post-hypnotic amnesia, posthypnotic suggestion
• Modern psychology has accepted hypnosis for a
number of applications, rejected others
– Used for pain and anxiety relief, as an anesthetic, to
help treat addictive behaviors, treatment of phobias
• Intense debate over its use in recovering memories
• Skeptics: suggestion & expectations…placebo effect?
– Text provides theories as to how hypnosis works (pp.
204-5)
Meditation & Biofeedback: Letting Go & Taking Control
• Meditation: various ways of focusing one’s
consciousness to alter one’s relationship with
the outside world
– May involve focusing one’s attention on rituals,
exercises, passive observation to alter consciousness
• Transcendental meditation (TM) involves repetition of
mantras (words or sounds that aide in achieving
meditative state)
– Suspension of problem solving, planning, awareness
are all characteristic of meditative state
– Physical effects: less stress, more relaxation
• Biofeedback: using real-time biological
information on a specific bodily function in
order to gain control over that function
– Involves some type of display of biological feedback
(changing colors, frequency of sounds, etc)
– Rats, humans have learned to influence heart rate,
brain waves, tension, blood pressure, and pain
Drugs: Changing Your Mind
• Psychoactive substance: drug that has psych.
effects (i.e. stimulation, perceptual distortions)
– Depressant: lowers activity of nervous system
• Alcohol, opiates (opium, heroin, codeine), barbiturates
– Stimulant: increases activity of nervous system
• Amphetamines, Adderall, cocaine, nicotine, caffeine
– Hallucinogenic: creates sensory/perceptual distortion
• Marijuana, LSD (acid), hashish, mescaline, ecstasy
– Some drugs work by mimicking neurotransmitters,
other cause excessive release or limit their reuptake
• All drugs impact brain’s “reward center” in the limbic
system, causing excessive dopamine (pleasure) release
• Drug use & abuse evident throughout history
– Biological, cultural, social, psychological influences
• Some use drugs for recreation, others seeking deeper
spiritual/ psychological insight, some use for social
acceptance or defiance, also therapeutic treatment
– Each society has deemed what is inappropriate/illegal
• 80’s War on Drugs vs. today’s pharmaceutical marketing
• U.S. counter-culture movement: Leary’s Psychedelic
Experience and Huxley’s Doors of Perception
Addiction & Rehabilitation
• Continued drug use can lead to complications
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Substance abuse: user continues to use substance
after realizing that use is creating problems in their life
Dependence: adaption of brain chemistry creates a
physical need for drug & withdrawal symptoms
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Addiction: biological disease of the brain resulting in
compulsive use of substance
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Considered more serious than substance abuse
Self-medication Theory: drugs used in order to ease
physical & mental stress issues w/o medical supervision
Tolerance: effect of drug lessens over time, result in
user needing more of drug to achieve the same effect
Genetic, psychosocial, environmental influences
Comparison between addiction & dependence???
Treatment attempts to cure dependence/addiction
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Only an est. 10% of those who need treatment seek it
Treatment programs have been shown to effective in
helping users toward successful recovery (eventually)
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Stages: Detoxification, treatment, relapse prevention
Drug therapy: medication to lessen withdrawal
Behavioral therapy: target attitudes toward drugs, self