Awareness states Flashcards
Topographical model of the mind
- Freud
- Conscious mind
- Pre-conscious mind
- unconscious mind
Conscious mind
- Freud
- consists of all the mental processes of which we are aware
Pre-conscious mind
- Freud
- contains thoughts and feelings that a person is not currently aware of, but which can easily be brought to consciousness
- recall of things
Unconcious mind
- Freud
- mental processes that are inaccessible to consciousness but that influence judgements, feelings, or behavior
- primary source of behaviour
- Our feelings, motives and decisions are actually powerfully influenced by our past experiences, and stored in the unconscious.
Psychoanalytic theory of personality
- Freud
- Id, Ego, Superego
Id
- The id is the only component of personality that is present from birth.
- This aspect of personality is entirely unconscious and includes the instinctive and primitive behaviors.
- According to Freud, the id is the source of all psychic energy, making it the primary component of personality.
Id and pleasure principle
- The id is driven by the pleasure principle, which strives for immediate gratification of all desires, wants, and needs.
- If these needs are not satisfied immediately, the result is a state anxiety or tension.
Ego
The ego is the component of personality that is responsible for dealing with reality.
- the ego develops from the id and ensures that the impulses of the id can be expressed in a manner acceptable in the real world.
- The ego functions in both the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious mind.
- The ego operates based on the reality principle, which strives to satisfy the id’s desires in realistic and socially appropriate ways
Ego and the reality principle
- The reality principle weighs the costs and benefits of an action before deciding to act upon or abandon impulses.
- In many cases, the id’s impulses can be satisfied through a process of delayed gratification—the ego will eventually allow the behavior, but only in the appropriate time and place.
The Superego
- The superego is the aspect of personality that holds all of our internalized moral standards and ideals that we acquire from both parents and society—our sense of right and wrong.
- The superego provides guidelines for making judgments.
- According to Freud, the superego begins to emerge at around age five.
Two parts of the superego
- The ego ideal includes the rules and standards for good behaviors. These behaviors include those which are approved of by parental and other authority figures. Obeying these rules leads to feelings of pride, value, and accomplishment.
- The conscience includes information about things that are viewed as bad by parents and society. These behaviors are often forbidden and lead to bad consequences, punishments, or feelings of guilt and remorse.
Arousal
- the physiological and psychological state of being awoken or of sense organs stimulated to a point of perception.
- It involves activation of the ascending reticular activating system (ARAS) in the brain, the autonomic nervous system, and the endocrine system
- leads to increased heart rate and blood pressure and a condition of sensory alertness, mobility, and readiness to respond.
Attention
- refers to how we actively process specific information in our environment
- defined by William James
Vigilance
- an ability to sustain attention to a task for a period of time (Davies and Parasuraman
Sleep–wake systems
- the hypothalamus (tuberomamillary histaminergic projections and preoptic nuclei);
- the serotonin projection system from the raphe nuclei; the norepinephrine projection system from the locus coeruleus;
- the cholinergic system including both thalamic projections from the midbrain and cortical projections from basal forebrain regions
- several thalamic nuclei.
Cataplexy
Cataplexy is associated with conscious wakefulness but atonia related to partial intrusions of REM sleep
Catatonia
In catatonia there is intact wakefulness but a significantly reduced ability to interact with the environment
Fatal familial insomnia
Fatal familial insomnia (FFI) associated with thalamic pathology produces marked decreases in total sleep and REM time with the awake state characterized by increased slowing, decreased alpha and deficits in attention and vigilance
Dreams
A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep
Dreams mainly occur in the rapid-eye movement (REM) stage of sleep—when brain activity is high and resembles that of being awake.
Sleep structure
Sleep occurs in repeating periods, in which the body alternates between two distinct modes: REM sleep and non-REM sleep.
Somnambulism
Sleep walking
Rhythmic movement disorder
A neurological disorder characterized by involuntary (however may sometimes be voluntary), repetitive movements of large muscle groups immediately before and during sleep often involving the head and neck. Children usually grow out of it
Narcolepsy
- unknown etiology
- excessive sleepiness
- associated with cataplexy and other REM sleep phenomena, such as sleep paralysis and hypnagogic hallucinations.
- A history of cataplexy is a characteristic and unique feature of narcolepsy.
Sleep paralysis, hypnagogic hallucinations, automatic behaviour, and nocturnal sleep disruption commonly occur in patients with narcolepsy. Both sleep paralysis and hypnagogic hallucinations almost always correspond with sleep-onset REM periods.
Narcolepsy most commonly begins in the second decade, with a peak incidence around 14 years of age.
Cataplexy
- characterized by sudden loss of bilateral muscle tone provoked by strong emotion.
- Consciousness remains clear, memory is not impaired, and respiration is intact.
- usually short duration, ranging from a few seconds to several minutes, and recovery is immediate and complete.
- Cataplexy is always precipitated by emotion that usually has a pleasant or exciting component, such as laughter, elation, pride, anger, or surprise.
-TCAs almost always ameliorates cataplexy.
Periodic limb movement disorder
-characterised by periodic episodes of repetitive and highly stereotyped limb movements that occur during sleep.
Restless legs syndrome
-characterised by disagreeable leg sensations that usually occur prior to sleep onset and that cause an almost irresistible urge to move the legs.
Risk factors for restless legs syndrome Older age Female sex Pregnancy Iron deficiency and anemia Renal failure Hypothyroidism Diabetes B12 deficiency
Sleep terrors
-characterized by a sudden arousal from slow wave sleep with a piercing scream or cry, accompanied by autonomic and behavioural manifestations of intense fear.
Sleep starts
Jumping as you fall off to sleep
Biorhythm
- A biorhythm is an attempt to predict various aspects of a person’s life through simple mathematical cycles.
- The theory was developed by Wilhelm Fliess in the late 19th century, and was popularized in the United States in late 1970s
