CONSCIOUSNESS

Question 1

WAKING CONSCIOUSNESS

Answer 1

• Thoughts, feelings and perceptions that occur when we are awake and alert

Question 2

ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS

Answer 2

• A mental state that differs noticeably from normal waking consciousness including sleep, daydreaming, mediation or drug induced states
• Some of the states don’t occur naturally and are induced; hypnotic, meditative or drug induced

Question 3

CONSCIOUSNESS

Answer 3

• Is the aware off we have of ourselves and our environment
• Different states of consciousness are associated with different patterns of brain waves
• Brain waves are tracings of electrical activity that is going on in the brain
• Recorded using an EEG

Question 4

FOUR TYPES OF BRAIN WAVES

Answer 4

• Alpha
• Beta
• Theta
• Delta

Question 5

ALPHA

Answer 5

• Mental State; Very Relaxed or Meditating

Question 6

BETA

Answer 6

• Mental State; Awake and Alert

Question 7

THETA

Answer 7

• Mental State; Lightly Asleep

Question 8

DELTA

Answer 8

• Delta; Deeply Asleep

Question 9

EXPLAINING WAKING CONSCIOUSNESS

Answer 9

• Stream of information resulting from the activity of the thalamus which analyses and interprets information
• Viewed as an adaption allowing us to get along with others in our group (humans)

Question 10

DAYDREAMING AND FANTASY

Answer 10

• Spontaneous shift in attention away from the here and now into a make believe world
• Urge to daydream peaks every 90 minutes
• Daydreams may provide stress relief and encourage creativity

Question 11

HYPNOSIS

Answer 11

− A hypnotist puts a subject in an altered state by encouraging relaxation and sleepiness and often describing the sorts of physical sensations a subject should be feeling.
− Once a subject is in the altered state, he or she may act, perceive, think, or feel according to the hypnotist’s suggestions.
− Not everyone can be hypnotized, and some people are more hypnotizable than others.
− If hypnotized people are instructed to forget what happened during hypnosis, they later claim to have no memory of it. This phenomenon is called posthypnotic amnesia.
− A hypnotic state isn’t sleep—brain waves, for example, do not reliably change during hypnosis as they do during sleep.
− Researchers don’t even agree that hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness. Researchers propose two main theories about hypnosis:
− Ernest Hilgard proposed that hypnosis causes people to dissociate or divide their consciousness into two parts. One part responds to the outside world, and the other part observes but doesn’t participate. According to this theory, hypnosis can make people not react to pain because hypnosis separates the part of consciousness that registers pain from the part of consciousness that communicates with the outside world.
− Many other researchers, such as Theodore Barber and Nicholas Spanos, think hypnosis happens when a suggestible person plays the role of a hypnotized person. According to this theory, hypnotized people simply behave as they think they are expected to.

Question 12

MEDITATION

Answer 12

− Meditation is the practice of focusing attention.
− People meditate to enhance awareness and gain more control of physical and mental processes.
− Techniques used in meditation vary and include activities such as repetitive chanting and breathing exercises.
− Meditative states are associated with an increase in alpha and theta brain waves, and physical indicators of relaxation such as slowed pulse and breathing.
− Some researchers have found that meditation has long-term effects such as improving physical and mental health and reducing stress.
− However, researchers disagree about whether meditative states are unique states of consciousness.
− Some researchers believe relaxation techniques can produce the same kind of state produced by meditation.