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.
2.
3.
4.
Sleep protects us from danger
Sleep helps us restore our body
Sleep rebuilds our memories
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
What is the function of dreams?
See Table 5.2 on page 191
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
VI.
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-ofbody 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.
VII. 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