Download 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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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