Sleep Flashcards
What is the activation synthesis theory of dreaming?
Activation- neurons in the brain being randomly active and “firing”, which means an electrical impulse in a neuron releases neurochemicals, which crosses synaptic gap and become thoughts.
Synthesis- The firing neurons, which send random thoughts, is seen as internally generated info, as brain uses random info to try to make sense of it as it would with externally generated info from one of our senses.
Hobson and McCarley’s AS theory claims what?
Dreams are neurobiological and an effect of brain functioning
What is one strength of AS theory?
When ppl are observed in a sleep lab, they all show REM , but muscles are paralysed and sense data is not received. It makes sense to conclude that dreaming comes internally just to make sense of random info.
What is one weakness of AS theory?
Used animal to study brain function which is not applicable or relevant to humans.
another one could be that people do not think it is random thoughts, as dreams have relevant meaning to the day they had.
What is oedipus complex?
Part of Freud’s phallic stage- a boy has unconscious feelings for his mom and hates his dad, who he sees as a rival and fears he will castrate him.
What was the aim of Freud (1909) little Hans study?
Aimed to explain how children developed. Specifically, wanted to explain how the kid’s phobia of horses developed.
What was the procedure of the Little Hans study (1909)?
CASE STUDY STARTED WHEN BOY WAS 3.
Hans’s dad recorded interactions w his child and reported them to Freud for analysis. A year into study, kid’s dreams started being recorded.
He then started getting scared of horses that it would fall down, and also that it would bite him
Freud analysed these info to try to reveal and contents of unconscious mind to find origin of phobia by searching for symbols and themes to uncover latent content.
What were the results of Little Hans study (1909)?
Freud thought his specific phobia of horses with black around mouth could represent dad, who had moustache. Hans’s fear of horse could suggest his fear of dad as oedipus complex suggests.
Freud thought the dream of his mum disappearing could support this complex as it could symbolise he is scared if his dad taking his mom away. Shortly after this dream he was with his mom and saw a horse, which could imply that he is displacing his anxieties and fears about losing his mom and against his dad onto horses.
In the little Hans study (1909), how did his phobia of horses eventually stop?
When he solved oedipus complex and passed through phallic stage of his development.
What is the conclusion of the Little Hans study (1909)?
His fear of horses was a result of oedipus complex, which he concluded occurs in phallic stage of dev.
Freud believe that the dreams themselves helped resolve this complex and overcome this.
What are 2 pros of Little hans study 1909?
- Results are useful, support freuds theory of: dreamwork, oedipus complex and psychosexual dev.
-Freud made lots of detailed notes and analysis of the study so another psychologist could repeat to check for consistencies. There was lots of qualitative data , being a case study, which was detailed and high in validity.
What are two cons of Little hans 1909 study?
-Only one person, which is not generalisable. Other children may go through oedipus complex at diff ages.
- hans parents knew abt Freud’s theories and ideas, so info provided by them may be biased and subjective when talking about Hans behaviour.
what are the three parts of our unconscious mind according to frued, and explain them
ID- animal instincts “i wanna eat whole cake”
Superego- Your morality. you cannot eat that whole cake it is unhealthy and you are horrible for eating it
Ego- “reality”. i will eat some.
What is the manifest content of our dreams?
What we actually see in out dreams. The main narrative.
What is the latent content of dreams?
The actual meaning of our dream that is concealed by manifest content.
What is dreamwork?
How our unconscious mind alters the manifest content of dreams in order to conceal their real meaning from the dreamer.
What was the aim of Siffre’s 1975 study?
wanted to see what his natural sleep-wake cycle would be like without external zeitgebers.
What was the procedure in Siffre’s 1975 study?
- he went to live in a cave in texas for 6 months.
-he only had basic necessities like food, water, a bed and some other things like a tent, chair, table, exercise cycle
- there was no natural lighting and he was in complete darkness. the cave would be lit up with only artificial light.
he was tired he would phone researchers to turn light off to sleep. when he woke up, he would
phone them to turn the lights on.
what tests did siffre conduct on himself during the 6 months in a cave experiment in 1975?
- memory test
- cycling 3 miles on exercise bike
-blood pressure
What were the results of Siffre 1975 experiment?
- he became depressed
-eyesight and memory worsened
-he did not get the days and nights right. his sleep wake cycle would vary 18-52 hours.
What was the conclusion of Siffre 1975 6 months in a cave experiment?
Zeitgebers are important
their absence can impact memory and mental health
without natural light sleep wake cycles can almost double.
