5.12-5.18: Chemically Altered Consciousness, Hypnosis, and Meditation

Question 1

Chemical substances that alter a person’s thoughts, feelings, or behaviors by influencing the activity of neurotransmitters in the nervous system

Answer 1

Psychoactive drugs

Question 2

The diminished response to a drug that results from prolonged use, leading the drug user to require larger doses to achieve the same original effect

Answer 2

Drug tolerance

Question 3

Unpleasant physical symptoms that result when a person is physically dependent on a drug and its effects wear off

Answer 3

Withdrawal

Question 4

An uncontrollable compulsion to use a substance even though that substance damages the user’s health and everyday functioning

Answer 4

Drug addiction

Question 5

Drugs that decrease activity levels in the nervous system

Answer 5

Depressants

Question 6

The idea that alcohol narrows attention and perception, such that intoxicated people use restricted information in deciding how to think and behave

Answer 6

Alcohol myopia theory

Question 7

Drugs that increase activity levels in the nervous system

Answer 7

Stimulants

Question 8

Drugs that distort perception and can trigger sensory experiences such as sights and sounds in the absence of any sensory input

Answer 8

Hallucinogens

Question 9

A relaxed state of mind in which a person is especially receptive to suggestions made by a hypnotist and feels their actions and thoughts are happening to them rather than being produced voluntarily

Answer 9

Hypnosis

Question 10

A reduction in pain perception caused by a hypnotic suggestion

Answer 10

Hypnotic analgesia

Question 11

,A splitting of conscious awareness. In the case of hypnosis, one stream of awareness stays connected to the hypnotist’s suggestions whereas another stream observes the person’s experiences in a disconnected way

Answer 11

Dissociation

Question 12

A set of practices used in various religious traditions to train a person’s ability to control attention, awareness, and sometimes emotions

Answer 12

Meditation

Question 13

A type of meditation in which the meditator focuses their attention on a specific target

Answer 13

Focused attention meditation

Question 14

A word or phrase that a meditator focuses on

Answer 14

Mantra

Question 15

A type of meditation in which the meditator monitors the contents of their experiences from moment to moment

Answer 15

Open monitoring meditation