AP PSYCHOLOGY
States of Consciousness
Chapter 7
Chapter 7- What is consciousness?
ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
What is consciousness?
GPS STANDARD:
SSPBF2- The student will compare the
different states of consciousness.
Consciousness
 What is the nature of
reality?
 How do we know we exist?
 “I think therefore I am”
- Rene Descartes
Consciousness
 MOVIE REVIEW?
 The Truman Show
Consciousness
Can people achieve
altered states of
consciousness?
Consciousness
 Can we control the content
of our dreams?
Consciousness
 Can we control the content of our dreams?
 YES
 LUCID DREAMING or Conscious Dreaming is to dream
and know you are dreaming. Here you will learn how
to become aware of the dreaming state so you can
take control of the dream.
Consciousness
 Consciousness
 our awareness of ourselves and our
environments
 States of consciousness
 levels of awareness ranging from being
alert and awake to unconsciousness
during deep sleep
 Changing levels of awareness
Consciousness
 Focused awareness
 our consciousness is selective
 we can fully focus on any important task
 we can learn to control and direct our
attention to certain objects, events, or
experiences while filtering out extraneous
stimuli
 as we use the computer or send a text
message we generally ignore or are not
keenly aware of the tactile sensations of
our fingers pressing on the keyboard
Consciousness
 Drifting consciousness
 even though we have the ability for
focused awareness, it is difficult to
maintain a state of focused awareness
for too long
 our minds start drifting from thought to
thought
 drifting consciousness is a state of
awareness characterized by drifting
thoughts or mental imagery
Consciousness
 Drifting consciousness
 daydreaming a form of consciousness
when one is awake in which one’s mind
wanders to dreamy thoughts or fantasies
Consciousness
 Divided Consciousness
 a state of awareness characterized by
divided attention between two or more
tasks or activities performed at the same
time
 typically, one of these activities is a
mechanical task such as driving a car
 when we drive our brain seems to be on
automatic pilot while we are free to think
about other things [unless we are driving
in a violent rainstorm]
Consciousness
 States of unconsciousness
 unconsciousness a lack of
awareness of our external
surroundings or a loss of
consciousness (due to sleep,
head injury, surgical anesthesia,
or coma)
Consciousness
 Altered States of consciousness
 sense of time may seem to stand still or
speed up
 colors may seem more vibrant
 the person may see visions or hear
voices
 the person may claim to taste colors or
see sounds
Consciousness
 Altered States of consciousness
 Altered states of consciousness a states
of awareness that differ from one’s usual
waking state
 daydreaming
 exercise- being “in the zone”; in which the
outside world fades out of awareness
 meditation
 hypnosis
 use of mind-altering drugs- alcohol,
marijuana, hallucinogens, other psychoactive
substances
Consciousness
 Altered States of consciousness
 all of the world’s major religious figures claimed
to have experienced altered states of
consciousness
 they experienced altered states of
consciousness when they had mystical
experiences:
 prophetic visions
 visitation by gods, or angels
 achieving a state of enlightenment
 were able to perform certain types of
miracles after prayer, or meditation, even
though the miracle was performed
through a supernatural method within
that belief system
Dreams: Freud
 Sigmund Freud--The Interpretation of
Dreams (1900)
 wish fulfillment
 eliminate or deal with otherwise
unacceptable feelings
 Manifest Content
 remembered story line of the dream
 Latent Content
 underlying meaning of the dream
Dreams: Freud
 Dreams
 sequence of images, emotions, and
thoughts passing through a sleeping
person’s mind
 hallucinatory imagery
 discontinuities- lack of logical sequence
 incongruities- lack of harmony or
agreement; incompatible
 delusional acceptance of the content
 difficulties remembering
Dreams:
Why do we Dream?
 To satisfy a desire or wish
 dreams provide a psychological safety
valve that discharges otherwise
unacceptable feelings
Dreams:
Why do we Dream?
 To satisfy a desire or wish
 dreams provide a psychological safety valve that
discharges otherwise unacceptable feelings
 As Information Processing to file away
memories
 REM sleep facilitates memories
 dreams help sift, sort, and fix the day’s
experiences in our memories
Dreams:
Why do we Dream?
 To develop and preserve neural pathways
 dreams may serve a physiological function by
providing the sleeping brain with periodic
stimulation
 To make sense of neural static
 dreams are activated from neural activity that
spreads upward from the brainstem
 This is called the activation-synthesis theory
 the signals from the brainstem are processed
and our brain creates a story to try to make
sense of the random signals
Dreams:
Why do we Dream?
 To reflect cognitive development
 dreams may be a part of brain maturation and
the development of thinking
 dreams are created from our personal
knowledge and memories
 REM Rebound
 We need REM sleep
 When deprived of REM, people return more
and more quickly to REM sleep when they
finally get to sleep
 REM sleep increases following REM sleep
deprivation
 When finally allowed to sleep undisturbed,
people sleep deeply and experience REM
Rebound
Sleep and Dreams
 Measuring sleep activity
Electroencephalogram
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
REM occurs approximately
every 90 minutes
3
4
Hours of sleep
5
6
7
Sleep Across the
Lifespan
Sleep and Dreams
 Biological Rhythms
 periodic physiological fluctuations
 Circadian Rhythm
 the biological clock
 regular bodily rhythms that occur on
a 24-hour cycle [23 hrs, 56 minutes],
such as of wakefulness and body
temperature
Sleep and Dreams
 REM (Rapid Eye Movement) Sleep
 recurring sleep stage (occurs
approximately every 90 minutes)
 vivid dreams
 “paradoxical sleep”
 muscles are generally relaxed, but other
body systems are active
 a mechanism of the brainstem that
controls sleep also inhibits spinal motor
neurons thus preventing actual physical
movement
PSYCHOLOGY
“Sleep,
those little slices of
death; Oh how I loathe
them.”- Edgar Allan Poe
US short story author, editor, & poet
(1809 - 1849)
Sleep Deprivation
Effects of Sleep Loss
•fatigue
• memory problems
•impaired concentration
•depressed immune system
•greater vulnerability to
accidents
• promotes obesity
Sleep Deprivation
Effects of Sleep Loss continued….
• makes our behavior mimic certain
pathological psychiatric conditions
like schizophrenia
• can cause hallucinations
• can cause delusional beliefs &
paranoia
Sleep Deprivation
Effects of Sleep Loss continued….
• makes us more primitive
• makes us more violent
• makes us more emotional
• makes us more fearful
• can lead to depression
• suicidal thoughts or actions
Sleep Disorders
 Night Terrors (not nightmares)
 occur within 2 or 3 hours of falling asleep,
usually during Stage 4
 high arousal-- appearance of being
terrified
 usually occurs in children
 they may sit up and walk around
 they may talk incoherently
 heart rate and breathing rate doubled
Night Terrors
Sleep
stages
Awake
1
2
 Night Terrors
 occur within 2 or
3 hours of falling
asleep, usually
during Stage 4
3
REM
4
0
1
2
3
4
5
Hours of sleep
6
7
Sleep Disorders
 Somnambulism (sleepwalking is also a
Stage 4 sleep disorder)
 an abnormal condition of sleep in which
motor acts (walking) are performed
 children are also most prone to
sleepwalking
 young children have the deepest and
lengthiest stage 4 sleep which makes
them more likely to experience
sleepwalking
Sleep Disorders
 Somnambulism (sleepwalking is also a
Stage 4 sleep disorder)
 sleepwalking is usually harmless and is
not recalled the next morning
 sleepwalkers usually return to bed on
their own or are guided by a family
member
 it is not dangerous to wake them up
 after the age of 40, sleepwalking is rare
because stage 4 sleep diminishes
Other Sleep Disorders
 Insomnia
 persistent problems in falling or staying
asleep
 Narcolepsy
 uncontrollable sleep attacks
 Sleep Apnea
 temporary cessation of breathing
 momentary reawakenings
Sleep Across the
Lifespan
Brain Waves and
Sleep Stages
Stages in a Typical
Night’s Sleep
Awake
Sleep
stages
1
2
REM occurs
approximately
every 90
minutes
3
REM
4
0
1
2
3
4
Hours of sleep
5
6
7
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
 Anton Mesmer (1734-1815)
 an Austrian physician
 Mesmer passed magnets over the bodies
of sick people
 some of the people would lapse into a
trancelike state
 this trancelike state became known as
being mesmerized
Hypnosis
 Anton Mesmer (1734-1815)
 Benjamin Franklin was the head of a
commission which studied this
phenomenon
 the commission found no evidence that
the phenomenon was “real”
 instead the commission found that
Mesmer’s “cures” were the “mere
imagination” of his subjects
Hypnosis
 Can anyone experience hypnosis?
 to some extent, nearly everyone is
suggestible
 however, about 20% are highly
hypnotizable
 the highly hypnotizable usually have rich
fantasy lives
 they very easily become absorbed in the
imaginary events in a novel or movie
Hypnosis
 Hypnotic ability
 Many researchers refer to the highly
hypnotizable, those who are most
susceptible to hypnosis, as having:
 hypnotic ability- the ability to focus
attention totally on a task, to become
totally absorbed in it, to be able to
exhibit an almost unrestrained
imagination
Hypnosis
 Unhypnotized
persons can
also do this
Hypnosis
 Orne & Evans (1965)
 hypnotized subjects can be induced to
perform dangerous acts
 control group instructed to “pretend”
 unhypnotized subjects performed the same
dangerous acts as the hypnotized ones
Hypnosis
 Orne & Evans (1965) continued…
 this illustrates an important concept of social
psychology illustrated by Solomon Asch’s
experiments on group pressure and
conformity
 A person in a position of authority in a
legitimate context or role can induce people
through social influence to perform some
unlikely or even dangerous acts
Hypnosis
Posthypnotic Suggestion
 suggestion to be carried out after the subject
is no longer hypnotized
 used by some clinicians to control undesired
symptoms and behaviors:
 headaches
 asthma
 stress-related skin disorders
 treatment of obesity (helps the person adjust
eating habits toward more healthy foods and
eating in moderation)
Conversational
Hypnosis ?
 Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP)
 a series of well choreographed strategies
and verbal manipulations to bring others
influence others to take a different point of
view
 NLP uses rapport, indirect suggestions, and
confusions to induce a suggestible state of
consciousness and to influence conformity
Conversational
Hypnosis ?
 Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP)
 the principles of conversational hypnosis were first
presented by the psychotherapist and hypnotist
Milton Erickson
 Erikson believed people are altering their state of
consciousness constantly throughout the day:
 thinking while waiting for the bus
 reading
 concentrating on a problem
Conversational
Hypnosis ?
 Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP)
 Rapport- the first step in conversational
hypnosis is to establish rapport with the
patient or subject by agreeing with what
they have to say
 If the subject says, “There’s no way out of
this problem of mine. The therapist
responds with, “You’re right. There is no
way out.”
Conversational
Hypnosis ?
 Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP)
 Confusion- the next step in conversational
hypnosis is to confuse the issue
 The therapist says, “ Even though you are
right and there is no way out, can you be
absolutely sure that there is no solution to
this problem?”
Conversational
Hypnosis ?
 Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP)
 Suggestion- the final step in conversational
hypnosis is to make an indirect suggestion
 The therapist finally says, “ You seem to be feeling
a little less hopeless now, aren’t you? I don’t know
why but it seems to me that you look more
optimistic than you did when we started our
session today.”
Conversational
Hypnosis ?
 Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP)
 Tony Robbins travel from town to town to
teach their wisdom for a fee. Robbins is
probably the most successful practitioner of
NLP. He started his own empire after
transforming from a self-described "fat
slob" to a firewalker to (in his own words)
"the nation's foremost authority on the
psychology of peak performance and
personal, professional and organizational
turnaround."
Conversational
Hypnosis ?
 Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP)
 While I do not doubt that many people benefit from NLP
training sessions, there seem to be several false or
questionable assumptions upon which NLP is based. Their
beliefs about the unconscious mind, hypnosis and the ability
to influence people by appealing directly to the subconscious
mind are unsubstantiated. All the scientific evidence which
exists on such things indicates that what NLP claims is not
true. You cannot learn to "speak directly to the unconscious
mind " as Erickson and NLP claim, except in the most obvious
way of using the power of suggestion through regular
hypnosis.
Conversational
Hypnosis ?
 Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP)
 NLP makes claims about thinking and
perception which do not seem to be
supported by neuroscience. This is not to
say that the techniques won't work due to
the placebo affect. They may work and
work quite well, but there is no way to
know whether the claims behind their origin
are valid.
Hypnosis
 Can hypnosis alleviate pain?
 hypnosis can relieve pain
 in surgical experiments, hypnotized
patients:
 have required less anesthesia
 recovered sooner
 left the hospital earlier than the
unhypnotized
How does hypnosis alleviate
pain?
 Dissociation (a divided consciousness)
 a split between different levels of
consciousness
 allows some thoughts and behaviors to
occur simultaneously with others
 hypnosis separates the sensation of the
pain stimulus (of which the person is still
aware) from the emotional suffering that
defines our experiences of pain
How does hypnosis alleviate
pain?
 Hidden Observer- Ernest
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
Psychoactive Drugs
 Barbiturates
 drugs that depress the
activity of the central nervous
system, reducing anxiety but
impairing memory and
judgement
Brain on depressants: Alcohol
Normal Brain
Alcohol
Psychoactive Drugs
 Mixing Alcohol &
Barbiturates
 The most dangerous thing to mix with a
sedative (alcohol) is another sedative or
"downer". The combination can lead to
extreme depression of the Central Nervous
System and be fatal. When combined with
alcohol these drugs have a synergistic effect,
meaning that the combined depression of the
CNS is greater than the sum of the depression
caused by alcohol and that of the sedative.
 This effect can be expressed with the equation
1+1=3 (the combined effect is more intense
than the separate effects combined).
Psychoactive Drugs
 Stimulants
 drugs that excite neural activity
 speed up body functions
 caffeine, nicotine, amphetamines, cocaine
Psychoactive Drugs
 Amphetamines
 drugs that stimulate neural
activity, causing speeded-up
body functions and associated
energy and mood changes
 Amphetamine withdrawal is
often accompanied by suicidal
thoughts
Brain on stimulants:
Methamphetamine
Normal Brain
Methamphetamine
Psychoactive Drugs
 Hallucinogens
 psychedelic (mind-manifesting)
drugs that distort perceptions
and evoke sensory images in
the absence of sensory input
 LSD
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
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
Brain on Hallucinogens: Marijuana
Normal Brain
Marijuana
Psychoactive Drugs
 Marijuana & Alcohol
 Prolonged marijuana & alcohol abuse can
lead to depression
Psychoactive Drugs
 Mixing Marijuana & Alcohol
 Smoking pot when drinking alcohol can
suppress the drinkers sensations of
nausea or need to vomit, making
overdose more possible.
 When a person has consumed enough
alcohol that alcohol poisoning is a
concern, their body needs to vomit.
 Pot suppresses the instinct to vomit, and
excess alcohol is not expelled, making
overdose more likely.
Psychoactive Drugs
 Opiates
 opium and its derivatives
(morphine and heroin)
 opiates depress neural
activity, temporarily lessening
pain and anxiety
Cocaine Euphoria and
Crash
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
Psychoactive Drugs
Meditation
 Meditation
 is a process of focused attention that induces a
relaxed, calm, and thoughtful state of
awareness
 to attempt to remove all other thoughts from
consciousness, practitioners of meditation
narrow their attention to a single object or
thought
Meditation
 Meditation (a healthy practice)
 many people do not believe in the spiritual or religious
aspects of meditation but rather practice it for the health
benefits that it can provide
 scientific evidence shows that the regular practice of
meditation helps relieve the effects of stress
 others believe that it is a useful therapeutic treatment
for:




alcohol & drug addiction
anxiety disorders
chronic pain
headaches
Meditation
 Meditation (testimony & science)
 people who practice meditation describe it as a
relaxed but alert state
 scientific evidence indicates that the people are
relaxed and alert
 the research indicates that they are much more
relaxed than people who just close their eyes
and rest quietly
Meditation
 Meditation as practiced in some religions
 the particular meditative technique which is
used varies among the different cultures that
use it:
 Ancient Egyptians stared at an oil-burning
lamp
 Hindu Yogis focused on the design on a vase
or some other graphic symbol
 Turkish “Whirling Dervishes” focus on their
breathing as they spin themselves around &
around in religious devotion
Meditation
 Japanese Zen Buddhists sometimes use a
musical chant
 Many meditation practitioners repeat a phrase
or sound like (ohhmmm) which is called a
mantra
Meditation
 Temporal lobe
 the temporal lobe is involved with mood stability
as well as rhythm and music
 Singing is good for us…
 sing whenever you can
 Humming and “Toning” are good for the
brain
 humming & toning have a healing affect on the
temporal lobes as well as the limbic system
(emotional center of the brain)
Meditation
 Toning with mantras- toning balances
brainwaves, deepens the breath, reduces the
heart rate, and imparts a general sense of wellbeing. ( Daniel G. Amen, M.D. from Change
Your Brain, Change Your Life)
Meditation
 Certain sounds have effects on the body &
emotions: ( Daniel G. Amen, M.D. from Change
Your Brain, Change Your Life)
 Ahhh- immediately causes a relaxation response
 Ee or ayyy- is the most stimulating of vowel sounds;
helps us with concentration, releasing pain and anger
 Oh or ohm- considered the richest of sounds; can
warm skin temperature and relax muscle tension
Meditation
 Meditation (a spiritual practice)
 some people who practice meditation believe it
does more than just relax the body and mind
 they believe that it can expand consciousness
and help them achieve a state of pure
awareness and inner peace
 some believe it leads to a form of spiritual
enlightenment (Buddhism- nirvana,
Hinduism- moksha)
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