AP Psychology
Guided Notes #4
Fall Semester 2014
Bacile
Unit IV: Consciousness
Corresponding Modules : 22-25
Topic: Consciousness (2-4%)
CONSCIOUSNESS: STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Consciousness: The Basics



Consciousness
o Awareness of _______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
o Both internal & external stimuli
 Contents are __________________________________________________
 Consciousness rarely comes to a standstill
 _______________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________
Includes
o ________________________________________________________________
o ________________________________________________________________
o Your awareness of yourself as the unique being that is having these
experiences
o Your awareness of your thoughts regarding these experiences
Waking Consciousness
o State in which __________________________________________________________________________________ are clear & organized; person feels alert
 Theories of Waking Consciousness
 The Stream of Consciousness
o William James
 “ ___________________________________________________”
 40 times per second; each sweep results in a single image or “moment of consciousness”
 Iceberg Theory
o _______________________________________________
 Consciousness is NOT an all-or-nothing
phenomenon
The conscious mind…
The unconscious mind…

Altered States of Consciousness
o State in which there __________________________________________________________________________________________________ as compared to waking
consciousness
 Is it possible to divide one’s consciousness?
Some occur
spontaneously
Some are physiologically
induced
Some are psychologically
induced

Most common altered state?
o Sleep; humans spend approximately ______________________________________________________________________________________________
 Do humans maintain awareness during sleep?
 ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Where does consciousness come from?
o Most psychologists believe that it arises from _________________________________________________________________________________________________
How do scientists “measure” consciousness?
o ___________________________________________________________
 Summarizes electrical activity in terms of brain waves
 Brain waves vary in:
o ______________________________________________
o ______________________________________________

EEG Pattern
Frequency
Typical State of Consciousness
13-24
8-12
4-7
Less than4
Consciousness: Hypnosis

Hypnosis
o State of consciousness in which the subject is especially susceptible to suggestion
 Four Steps in Hypnosis
 _______________________________________________________________
 _______________________________________________________________
 _______________________________________________________________
 _______________________________________________________________
o Alternate Definition: “Merely a blend of conformity, relaxation, imagination, obedience, suggestion and role-playing…”

Posthypnotic Suggestion
o _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
 Has been shown to help alleviate headaches, asthma, skin disorders, etc.
Dissociation
o A split of ___________________________________________________ into two separate, simultaneous streams of awareness
 Has been shown to provide hypnotic pain relief

Hypnosis CAN…
Hypnosis CANNOT…
Create amnesia for anything that happens during the session, at
least for a brief period of time…
Relieve pain by allowing a person to remove conscious
attention from the pain…
Regress people back to childhood…
Consciousness: Hypnosis Theories

Divided Consciousness (Ernest Hilgard, 1994)
o ___________________________________________________________________________________________________
o Hypnosis is a special state of dissociation, or divided consciousness
 ___________________________________________________________________________________________, while another part of the subject’s mind
(the “hidden observer”) remains aware of all that is going on
 ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Social-Cognitive (Irving Kirsch, 2000)
o __________________________________________________________________________________________________
o People who are hypnotized are not in an altered state of consciousness, but rather ______________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
 Subjects might actually believe that they are being hypnotized; often unaware that they are role-playing
o __________________________________________________________________________________________________
Consciousness: Meditation


Meditation
o A family of practices that train attention to heighten awareness and bring mental processes under greater voluntary control
 A deliberate effort to alter consciousness
 Rooted in what?
Two Primary Approaches
o Focused Attention
 Attention is concentrated on a specific object, image, sound or bodily sensation
 Intent is to narrow attention & clear mind of its clutter
o Open-Monitoring
 Attention is directed to one’s moment-to-moment experience; non-judgmental
 Intent is to become a detached observer