Consciousness Flashcards
consciousness
A state of awareness of ourselves and of the world around us
States of consciousness
- Focused awareness
- Drifting consciousness
- Divided consciousness
Focused awareness
- A state of heightened alertness in which one is fully absorbed in the task at hand
- Fully absorbed into something, all of your concentration is on one thing.
Ex. exams
Drifting consciousness
A state of awareness characterized by drifting thoughts or mental imagery.
Divided consciousness
A state of awareness characterized by divided attention to two or more tasks or activities performed at the same time
Daydreaming
A form of consciousness during a waking state in which one’s mind wanders to dreamy thoughts or fantasies.
Images in your head
Inattentional Blindness
The failure to notice something right in front of your eyes because your attention is directed elsewhere
Altered state of consciousness
States of awareness during wakefulness that are different than the usual waking states.
Circadian rhythm
A pattern in fluctuations in certain bodily functions that happens on a regular basis
Melatonin
- Helps the body to fall asleep
- Secreted chemical that makes you sleepy, or puts you in a deeper sleep
- Affects the sleep wake cycle
- Helps with jetlag
- Doesn’t do much if you have insomnia
Jet lag
- A disruption of sleep–wake cycles caused by the shifts in time zones that accompany long-distance air travel.
- Asking your circadian rhythm to adjust
- Changes your sleep wake cycle
- Messes up all your patterns
The stages of Sleep
- Each cycle takes 90 minutes
- Cycles vary for each person
- Wake up sensitivity varies for each person as well
- Stages 1 to 4 (Non REM sleep)
Stage 1: - Small, irregular waves
- Easy to wake up
Stage 2:
`- Sleep Spindles - Easy to wake up
Stage 3: - Delta waves appear
- Harder to wake up
Stage 4: - Mostly delta waves
- Hard to wake up
REM sleep
Stage 5: - Rapid, somewhat irregular waves
- Brain activity is similar to being awake
- Really hard to wake up
- Dreaming
- Muscles are as if you are paralyzed
(PARADOXICAL SLEEP)
REM
Rapid Eye Movement
The stage of sleep that involves rapid eye movements and that is most closely associated with periods of dreaming.
Sleep Paralysis
- Awakened dream
- Body is paralyzed
- Eyes open in between stages 4-5, the brain is transitioning to a dream so your brain is awake but your body is paralyzed.
- This transition causes you to see a vision of a monster which is really just a dream vision with your eyes open.
Why we sleep
- Restorative function
- Conserve energy
- Consolidating new memories
- Normal mental functioning
- Strengthening the Immune system
Sleep deprivation
- Sleep deprivation
- Health hazards
- Irritability
- Negative impact on attention, learning, memory and creativity
Sleep – Wake disorders
A diagnostic category of psychological or mental disorders involving disturbed sleep patterns.
Insomnia
- Difficulty falling asleep, remaining asleep, or returning to sleep after nighttime awakenings.
Causes: Substance abuse, psychological illness, mental disorders, physical illness, chemical imbalance, environmental factors.
Sleep Apnea
- Temporary cessation of breathing during sleep
- Blockage of breathing while sleeping
- Use a mask to get oxygen
Narcolepsy
- A sleep–wake disorder characterized by sudden unexplained “sleep attacks” during the day.
- A rare disorder where you fall asleep randomly
- Stay away from dangerous tasks
nightmare disorder
- A type of sleep–wake disorder involving a pattern of frequent, disturbing nightmares.
- When you have constant nightmares
- A serious disorder
- Due to psychological reasons
Night terror disorder
- A type of sleep– wake disorder involving repeated episodes of intense fear during sleep, causing the person to awake abruptly in a terrified state.
- When you wake up in the middle of a nightmare gasping for air.
- Terrorizes you
- Seen a lot in kids, could be caused by environmental factors, growing up.
sleepwalking disorder
- A sleep–wake disorder characterized by repeated episodes of sleepwalking.
- Common among children
- Sleep with eyes half open
- No bumping or falling, can do normal tasks
- Might not remember
Dreams
- Replaying experiences
- Memory consolidation
- Solutions to problems
Activation synthesis hypothesis
The proposition that dreams represent the brain’s attempt to make sense of the random discharges of electrical activity that occur during REM sleep.
Freud and dreams
- Wish fulfillment, looked at dreams as if they fulfilled wishes
- Symbols, would look at symbols in dreams
- Latent content, manifest content, sexual content
Manifest content
- What you see
- The manifest content refers to events that occur in a dream. You might dream, for example, of driving fast and getting a speeding ticket from a police officer.
Latent content
- deep desires, hidden meanings
- This is the true, underlying meaning of a dream, disguised in the form of dream symbols.
- The disguise conceals the dream’s real meaning, thereby helping preserve sleep by preventing emotionally threatening material from waking you up.
- Driving fast might symbolize an unacceptable sexual wish.
- The police officer, a symbol of male authority, might represent your father punishing you for having the sexual wish.
Lucid dreaming
Having a dream and being aware that you’re dreaming, also having the ability to control the dream.
Steps to lucid dream
1- select a topic 2- rehearse 3- decide 4- fantasize 5- write 6- evaluate 7- exercise
Meditation
- A process of focused attention that induces a relaxed, contemplative state.
- Altered state of consciousness
Transcendental meditation TM
A form of meditation in which practitioners focus their attention by repeating a particular mantra
Mantra
repeated phrase to keep focus
Hypnosis
- An altered state of consciousness characterized by focused attention, deep relaxation, and heightened susceptibility to suggestion.
- Can reduce pain
- Brings up repressed traumatic memories
- Deep state of focused relaxation
- You have to be certified to do hypnosis
Hypnotic age regression
A hypnotically induced experience that involves reexperiencing past events in one’s life.
Hypnotic analgesia
A loss of feeling or responsiveness to pain in certain parts of the body occurring during hypnosis.
Hypnotic amnesia
An inability to recall what happened during hypnosis.
The power of the hypnotized
Have to be ready
Have to believe in hypnosis
Psychoactive drugs
substance that alters perception, mood, thinking, memory or behavior by changing the body’s biochemistry
Drug abuse
Maladaptive or dangerous use of a chemical substance.
When is drug use harmful?
- Maladaptive use
- dependence
- Polyabusers
Polyabusers
People who abuse more than one drug at a time.
Drug dependence
A severe drug-related problem characterized by impaired control over the use of the drug.
Physiological dependence
A state of physical dependence on a drug caused by repeated usage that changes body chemistry
Withdrawal symptoms
A cluster of symptoms associated with abrupt withdrawal from a drug.
Tolerance
A form of physical habituation to a drug in which increased amounts are needed to achieve the same effect.
Psychological dependence
A pattern of compulsive or habitual use of a drug to satisfy a psychological need
Depressants
- Drugs, such as alcohol and barbiturates, that dampen central nervous system activity.
- Calm you down
- Alcohol
- Barbiturates and tranquilizers
- Opioids (narcotics)
Opioids (narcotics)
Addictive drugs that have pain- relieving and sleep-inducing properties
Stimulants
- A drug that activates the central nervous system, such as amphetamines and cocaine.
- Amphetamines
- Cocaine
- Nicotine
- Caffeine
- Ecstasy
Psychedelic (Hallucinogens)
- Drugs that alter sensory experiences and produce hallucinations.
- LSD
- Mushroom
- Marijuana
- Hash
Sociocultural factors
Cultural and social factors that can affect a persons chances of becoming a drug abuser or addict. For example, pressure from class mates or to fit in, neighborhoods of living, money, the drug culture in the area of habitation.
Biological factors
Biological and genetic factors that can affect a persons chances of becoming a drug abuser or addict. Traits can be carried down from family members as well.
Psychological factors
Factors such as thrill seeking, psychological disorders, and desire to escape emotions can be contributors to the development of drug use and dependence. Some people use alcohol or other drugs as a form of self-medication to relieve anxiety, such as social anxiety, to dull emotional pain, to cope with negative experiences
Drug treatment
drug treatments can consist of rehab, detox, using substitute therapeutic drugs, support groups like AA.
Detoxification
A process of clearing drugs or toxins from the body
