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Chapter 5: Consciousness

Chapter 5: Consciousness. Chapter Outline. The Nature of Consciousness Sleep. Altered States of Consciousness. Learning Objectives. Understand how consciousness may provide us with survival advantages. Understand how daily body rhythms regulate our activities.

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Chapter 5: Consciousness

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  1. Chapter 5: Consciousness

  2. Chapter Outline • The Nature of Consciousness • Sleep • Altered States of Consciousness

  3. Learning Objectives • Understand how consciousness may provide us with survival advantages. • Understand how daily body rhythms regulate our activities. • Understand the distinct stages of sleep. • Understand how psychoactive drug use can lead to dependence. • Understand how depressants slow body functions and induce relaxation.

  4. Definition of Consciousness • Consciousness is awareness of yourself and your environment. • Consciousness is: • Subjective • Selective • Divided • Continuous • Consists of many levels

  5. Attention • Selective attention is focused awareness on a single stimulus to the exclusion of all others. • Our brains have the ability to separate different signals from each other. • Divided attention is split and simultaneously focused on different stimuli. • For example, getting dressed while listening to music

  6. Continuous Consciousness • Consciousness is continuous and changing. • Daydreaming is a relatively passive state involving turning attention away from external stimuli to internal thoughts and imaginary situations. • Fantasy-prone personalities have regular, vivid fantasies, and they sometimes cannot separate fantasy from reality.

  7. Levels of Consciousness • Mindfulness is a heightened state of awareness of the present moments. • Survival advantages: • Consciousness helps plan future activities • Consciousness helps make sense of emotions

  8. Daily Body Rhythums • Sleep-wake cycle • Circadian rhythms are internally generated behavioral and physiological changes that occur on a daily basis. • Suprachiasmaticnucleus located in the hypothalamus controls the timing of the sleep-wake cycle. • Melatonin is a hormone produced by pineal gland that induces sleep.

  9. Stages of Sleep • Approximately every 90 to 100 minutes we cycle through distinct sleep stages. • Awake brain wave patterns: • Beta waves are associated with active and alert mind • Alpha waves are associated with relaxed wakefulness

  10. NREM Sleep (Slide 1 of 2) • NREM sleep: non-rapid-eye-movement; brain activity slows • Stage 1 sleep is a transitional state between wakefulness and sleep. • Characterized by theta waves (smaller, more rapid and irregular) • Stage 2 sleep lasts about 20 minutes. • Characterized by sleep spindles (rapid, rhythmic waves)

  11. NREM Sleep (Slide 2 of 2) • Stage 3 sleep: deeper slow wave sleep • Characterized by delta waves (higher amplitude and slower frequency) • Stage 4 sleep: deep sleep • Characterized by delta waves becoming more pronounced

  12. Figure 5-4: EEG Brain Wave Patterns

  13. Why Do We Sleep? • A body needs to sleep. • Restorative theory of sleep:Sleep allows the body to restore itself. • Adaptive theory of sleep:Sleeps prevents us from moving about and being injured during a time of day in which our bodies are not well adapted.

  14. Dreaming • Dreams: a story-like sequence of vivid images experienced during sleep • People awakened from REM sleep often report dreams. • Lucid dreams: dreamer aware of dreaming and often able to change the plot of the dream • Manifest vs. latent content dreams

  15. Dreams • Problem-solving theory: provides people with the opportunity to creatively solve everyday problems • Off-line dream theory: cognitive processes that consolidates and stores information gathered during the day and occurs during dreaming • Activation-synthesis theory:forebrain’s attempt to interpret random brain activity during dreaming

  16. Hypnosis (Slide 1 of 2) Hypnosis:state of altered attention and awareness in which a person is unusually responsive to suggestions • Has been practiced for thousands of years • Characteristics of hypnosis: Enriched fantasy Cognitive passivity Hyper-selective attention Reduced reality testing Posthypnotic amnesia

  17. Hypnosis (Slide 2 of 2) • The common misconceptions of hypnosis: • Hypnotized people can be forced to violate their moral values. • Memory is more accurate. • People are stronger than normal. • It can act as a truth serum. • It can be age-regressed • Hypnotizability: degree to which a person can enter a hypnotic state • In western culture, children are the most hypnotizable.

  18. Psychoactive Drugs • Chemicals that modify mental processes and behavior

  19. Stimulants • Stimulants: class of drugs that speed up the nervous system and increase mental and physical activity • Cocaine • Amphetamines • Ecstasy • Methylphenidate • Stimulant-induced psychosis: schizophrenic-like symptoms that can occur following excessive or prolonged use of cocaine or amphetamines

  20. Hallucinogens • Hallucinogens– Psychoactive drugs that distort perceptions and generate sensory images without any external stimulation • LSD • Marijuna

  21. Factors in Drug Use • Genetic predisposition toward drug use • Interpersonal factors • Cultural factors

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