Myers’ PSYCHOLOGY
(7th Ed)
Chapter 7
States of Consciousness
James A. McCubbin, PhD
Clemson University
Worth Publishers
Waking Consciousness
 Consciousness
 our awareness
of ourselves
and our
environments
Sleep and Dreams
 Biological Rhythms
 periodic physiological fluctuations
 Circadian Rhythm
 the biological clock
 regular bodily rhythms that occur on
a 24-hour cycle, such as of
wakefulness and body temperature
Premenstrual
Syndrome
3
Recalled mood is
worse than
earlier reported
Negative mood
score
2
1
Premenstrual
Actual
Menstrual Intermenstrual
Menstrual phase
Recalled mood
Sleep and Dreams
 REM (Rapid Eye Movement) Sleep
 recurring sleep stage
 vivid dreams
 “paradoxical sleep”
 muscles are generally relaxed, but other
body systems are active
 Sleep
 periodic, natural, reversible loss of
consciousness
Sleep and Dreams
 Measuring sleep activity
Brain Waves and
Sleep Stages
 Alpha Waves
 slow waves of a
relaxed, awake
brain
 Delta Waves
 large, slow waves
of deep sleep
 Hallucinations
 false sensory
experiences
Stages in a Typical
Night’s Sleep
Awake
Sleep
stages
1
2
3
REM
4
0
1
2
3
4
Hours of sleep
5
6
7
Stages in a Typical
Night’s Sleep
Minutes
of
Stage 4
and
REM
Decreasing
Stage 4
25
20
15
Increasing
REM
10
5
0
1
2
3
4
5
Hours of sleep
6
7
8
Sleep Deprivation
 Effects of Sleep
Loss
 fatigue
 impaired
concentration
 depressed immune
system
 greater
vulnerability to
accidents
Sleep Deprivation
Less sleep,
more accidents
Accident
frequency
More sleep,
fewer accidents
2,800
2,700
4,200
2,600
4000
2,500
3,800
2,400
3,600
Spring time change
(hour sleep loss)
Monday before time change
Fall time change
(hour sleep gained)
Monday after time change
Sleep Disorders
 Insomnia
 persistent problems in falling or staying
asleep
 Narcolepsy
 uncontrollable sleep attacks
 Sleep Apnea
 temporary cessation of breathing
 momentary reawakenings
Night Terrors and
Nightmares
 Night Terrors
Sleep
stages
Awake
1
2
3
REM
4
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
Hours of sleep
7
 occur within 2 or
3 hours of falling
asleep, usually
during Stage 4
 high arousal-appearance of
being terrified
Dreams: Freud
 Dreams
 sequence of images, emotions, and
thoughts passing through a sleeping
person’s mind
 hallucinatory imagery
 discontinuities
 incongruities
 delusional acceptance of the content
 difficulties remembering
Dreams: Freud
 Sigmund Freud--The Interpretation of
Dreams (1900)
 wish fulfillment
 discharge otherwise unacceptable
feelings
 Manifest Content
 remembered story line
 Latent Content
 underlying meaning
Dreams
 As Information Processing
 helps facilitate memories
 REM Rebound
 REM sleep increases following REM
sleep deprivation
Sleep Across the
Lifespan
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
 Posthypnotic Amnesia
 supposed inability to recall what one
experienced during hypnosis
 induced by the hypnotist’s suggestion
Hypnosis
 Unhypnotized
persons can
also do this
Hypnosis
 Orne & Evans (1965)
 control group instructed to “pretend”
 unhypnotized subjects performed the same
acts as the hypnotized ones
 Posthypnotic Suggestion
 suggestion to be carried out after the subject
is no longer hypnotized
 used by some clinicians to control undesired
symptoms and behaviors
Hypnosis
 Dissociation
 a split in consciousness
 allows some thoughts and behaviors to
occur simultaneously with others
 Hidden Observer
 Hilgard’s term describing a hypnotized
subject’s awareness of experiences, such as
pain, that go unreported during hypnosis
Explaining Hypnosis
Drugs and
Consciousness
 Psychoactive Drug
 a chemical substance that alters perceptions
and mood
 Physical Dependence
 physiological need for a drug
 marked by unpleasant withdrawal symptoms
 Psychological Dependence
 a psychological need to use a drug
 for example, to relieve negative emotions
Dependence and
Addiction
Big
effect
Drug
effect
 Tolerance
 diminishing effect
with regular use
Response to
first exposure
 Withdrawal
After repeated
exposure, more
drug is needed
to produce
same effect
Little
effect
Small
Large
Drug dose
 discomfort and
distress that follow
discontinued use
Psychoactive Drugs
 Depressants
 drugs that reduce neural activity
 slow body functions
 alcohol, barbiturates, opiates
 Stimulants
 drugs that excite neural activity
 speed up body functions
 caffeine, nicotine, amphetamines, cocaine
Psychoactive Drugs
 Hallucinogens
 psychedelic (mind-manifesting)
drugs that distort perceptions
and evoke sensory images in
the absence of sensory input
 LSD
Psychoactive Drugs
 Barbiturates
 drugs that depress the
activity of the central nervous
system, reducing anxiety but
impairing memory and
judgement
Psychoactive Drugs
 Opiates
 opium and its derivatives
(morphine and heroin)
 opiates depress neural
activity, temporarily lessening
pain and anxiety
Psychoactive Drugs
 Amphetamines
 drugs that stimulate neural
activity, causing speeded-up
body functions and associated
energy and mood changes
Cocaine Euphoria and
Crash
Psychoactive Drugs
 Ecstasy (MDMA)
 synthetic stimulant and mild hallucinogen
 both short-term and long-term health risks
 LSD
 lysergic acid diethylamide
 a powerful hallucinogenic drug
 also known as acid
 THC
 the major active ingredient in marijuana
 triggers a variety of effects, including mild
hallucinations
Psychoactive Drugs
Trends in Drug Use
80%
High school
seniors
reporting
drug use
70
60
50
Alcohol
40
Marijuana/
hashish
30
20
Cocaine
10
0
1975 ‘77 ‘79
‘81
‘83
‘85
‘87 ‘89
Year
‘91 ‘93
‘95
‘97 ‘99
Perceived Marijuana
Risk
100%
Percent
of
twelfth
graders
Perceived “great risk of
harm” in marijuana use
90
80
70
60
50
40
Used marijuana
30
20
10
0
‘75
‘77
‘79 ‘81 ‘83
‘85
‘87 ‘89 ‘91 ‘93
Year
‘95 ‘97 ‘99
Near-Death Experiences
 Near-Death
Experience
 an altered state of
consciousness
reported after a close
brush with death
 often similar to druginduced
hallucinations
Near-Death Experiences
 Dualism
 the presumption that mind and
body are two distinct entities that
interact
 Monism
 the presumption that mind and
body are different aspects of the
same thing