Consciousness Flashcards
What is consciousness and how is it generated?
A person’s awareness of everything ongoing around them at any given time.
It is generated by a set of action potentials in the communication among neurons just sufficient enough to produce a specific perception, memory, or experience in our awareness.
What are the two kinds of thought processes?
Controlled and automatic.
What is a controlled thought process and what are some examples of it?
A controlled thought process is when it requires our conscious attention to a fairly high degree. For example, driving a car or having a conversation.
What is an automatic thought process and what are some examples of it?
An automatic thought process requires a comparatively low
level of conscious awareness. For example, breathing or walking.
What is waking consciousness?
A state where thoughts, feelings and sensations are clear and organised and the person feels alert.
What is an altered state of consciousness?
Occurs when there is a shift in the quality or pattern of mental activity compared to the waking consciousness.
What are the 2 factors that an altered state of consciousness are dependent on?
Wakefulness (Level of alertness, whether you are asleep or awake)
Awareness (How aware you are of your feelings and what you are experiencing)
What is sleep defined as?
A reversible behavioural state of perceptual disengagement from, and unresponsiveness to, the environment.
What is a sleep-wake cycle?
A circadian rhythm, which is a cycle of bodily rhythm occurring over a 24-hour period.
Which part of the brain controls the sleep-wake cycle?
The hypothalamus, specifically the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN).
What are the stages of sleep?
REM (R) and NREM (N1-N3).
N1: Light Sleep
N2: Sleep Spindles
N3: Deep Sleep
What occurs when someone is deprived of REM/R sleep?
It would lead to REM rebound, where a person experiences increased amounts of REM sleep on later nights.
What is R/REM stage of sleep, how are the brainwaves during this stage?
Stage of sleep which the eyes move rapidly under the eyelids, the person is typically experiencing a dream.
Brain waves are similar to those during alert wakefulness.
What are the 4 different type of brain-waves usually used to determine what type of sleep the person has entered?
Beta (Smaller faster brain waves, indicates presence of mental acitivty)
Alpha (High amplitude, slower and normal frequency, indicates relaxation or light sleep)
Theta (Slower than alpha, erratic with higher and lower amplitude, indicates early stages of sleep)
Delta (Longer and slower brain waves, high amplitude but lower frequency, indicates deepest stage of sleep)
What is the recommended amount of sleep for adults to perform their best?
7-8 hours of sleep.
What occurs when a person has been deprived of general sleep?
The person experiences negative effects on physical, emotional and psychological well-being.
What are sleep disorders?
Disorders which affect an individual’s sleep pattern.
What are the 7 most common sleep disorders?
Insomnia/hypersomnia (Inability to sleep/excessive day sleeping)
Sleep Apnea (Respiratory disorder, leads to snoring)
Narcolepsy (Sudden REM sleep, often accompanied by cataplexy or sudden loss of muscle control)
Parasomnia (Unwanted/disruptive motor activities and/or experiences while sleeping)
Night Terrors/Nightmares
Sleepwalking/Somnambulism
Restless Leg Syndrome (Causes strong urge to move legs when at rest/sleeping)
What are the 2 theories as to why we sleep?
Adaptive theory: Animals and humans evolved sleep patterns to avoid predators by sleeping when predators are most active.
Restorative theory: Sleep is necessary to the physical health of the body and serves to replenish chemicals and repair cellular damage.
What are dreams and when do they occur?
Dreams are a succession of images, ideas, emotions and sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep (usually REM).
What are the 3 theories of dreams?
Sigmund Freud’s theory, activation-synthesis hypothesis and activation-information-mode model.
What is the Sigmund Freud’s Theory of Dreams?
Dreams are meant to fulfill unconscious wishes and urges.
He believed that these urges were disguised as symbols to guard sleep from disruption by threatening content.
He also believed that dreams consist of manifest content (actual content of a dream) and latent content (hidden underlying meaning of a dream).
What is the activation-synthesis hypothesis theory of dreams?
Dreams are the result of some areas of the cortex interpreting, or attempting to piece together (“synthesise”), the random neural signals (“activation”) arising from the pons in the brainstem during REM sleep.
What is the activation-information-mode model theory of dreams?
A revised version of activation-synthesis explanation that proposes that information accessed during waking hours can influence the synthesis of dreams.
What is hypnosis?
A state of consciousness in which the person is especially susceptible to suggestion.
What are the 4 general steps to induce hypnosis on a subject?
- The hypnotist tells the person to focus on what is being said.
- The person is told to relax and feel tired.
- The hypnotist tells the person to “let go” and accept suggestions easily.
- The person is told to use vivid imagination.
What are the 2 views on the psychological mechanisms of how hypnosis works?
Hypnosis as Dissociation (Divided State of Conscious Awareness)
Hypnosis as Social Role-Playing
What are psychoactive drugs and what are some examples of them?
Any chemical substances that alter our mental processes (thinking, perception, and memory) and behaviour.
Some examples are stimulants, depressants and hallucinogens.
What happens when someone becomes physically dependent on psychoactive drugs?
The person’s body becomes unable to function normally without the drug and they may experience withdrawal symptoms which can range from headaches, nausea, irritability to severe pain, cramping, shaking and dangerously elevated blood pressure.
What happens when someone becomes psychologically dependent on psychoactive drugs?
The person is in the belief that a drug is needed to continue a feeling of emotional or psychological well-being.
People may not experience the symptoms of physical withdrawal or tolerance, but they will continue to use the drug because they think they need it.
What happens to the brain when people use psychoactive drugs?
It activates the mesolimbic system, or the brain’s “reward pathway”, causing a release of dopamine and intense pleasure.
The brain tries to adapt to this large amount of dopamine by decreasing the number of synaptic receptors for dopamine, developing a drug tolerance for the person.
What are stimulants in psychoactive drugs and what are some examples?
Drugs that cause either the sympathetic division and/or the central nervous system to increase levels of functioning temporarily.
Caffeine, nicotine, cocaine & amphetamines are examples of stimulants.