Consciousness Flashcards
What is consciousness
Our moment to moment awareness of ourselves and our environment
What is selective attention
The process that focuses awareness on some stimuli to the exclusion of others
What do you do in self report measures
Ask people to describe their inner experiences
What do you do in behavioural measures
Record performances on special tasks
What do you do in psychological measures
Establish correspondence between bodily processes and mental states
What does the Freudian viewpoint say the conscious mind is
Thoughts and perceptions of which we are currently aware
What does the Freudian viewpoint say preconscious mental events are
Outside current awareness but easily recalled under certain conditions
What does the Freudian viewpoint say unconscious events are
Cannot be brought into consciousness under ordinary circumstances
What is controlled processing
Conscious use of attention and effort
What is automatic processing
Activities that can be performed without conscious awareness or effort
What is divided attention
The capacity to attend to and perform more than one activity at the same time
What is blindsight
Reported blindness in part of the visual field
What is priming
Exposure to a stimulus influences how you subsequently respond to that same or another stimulus
What are beta waves
Pattern of waves that are present when you are awake and alert
What are alpha waves
Patterns of waves that are present when you are feeling relaxed and drowsy
What happens in the first stage of sleep
Light slee, easily awakened
What happens in stage 2 of sleep
Deep sleep characterised by sleep spindles
What happens in stage 3 of sleep
Regular appearance of slow and large delta waves
What happens in stage 4 of sleep
Deepest level of sleep during which delta waves dominate the EEG pattern
What are the characteristics of REM sleep
Rapid eye movements, high arousal and frequent dreaming
What is REM sleep paralysis
An inability to move muscles during REM sleep
What occurs in paradoxical sleep
Body is highly aroused, but very little movement
What is the hypnagogic state
The transitional state from wakefulness through early stage 2 sleep
What is wish fulfilment
The gratification of our unconscious desires and needs
What is manifest content
The surface story that the dreamed reports
What is latent content
The dreams disguised psychological meaning
What is dream work
The process by which a dreams latent content is transformed into the manifest content
What does the activation synthesis theory state
Dreams do not serve any particular function - they are merely a by-product of REM neural activity
What are problem solving dream models
Dreams aren’t constrained by reality so can help us find creative solutions to our problems and ongoing concerns
What are cognitive process dream theories
Focus on the process of how we dream and propose that dreaming and waking thought are produced by the same mental system in the brain
What is fantasy prone personality
Individuals who often live in a vivid fantasy world that they control
What is hypnosis
A state of heightened suggestibility in which some people are able to experience imagined situations as if they were real
What is hypnotic induction
The process by which one person leads another person into hypnosis
What do hypnotic suggestibility scales do
Contain a standard series of pass fail suggestions that are read to a subject after a hypnotic induction
What do dissociation theories say
View hypnosis as an altered state involving a division of consciousness
What do social cognitive theories state
Hypnotic experiences result from expectations of people who are motivated to take on the role of being hypnotised
