States of Consciousness Flashcards
What is CON
CON is the awareness of objects and events in the external world and of our own existence and mental experiences at any given moment
4 common descriptions of CON is that it is
- selective
- personal
- continuous
- changing
CON is selective because
you can choose to attend to certain things and ignore other, in other words you can voluntarily shift your attention
CON is personal because
it is your subjective understanding of both your unique internal world and the external environment
CON is continuous because
there is never a time in the course of a typical day where your consciousness is ‘empty’
CON is changing because
new info continually comes into awareness, particularly while you are awake
Our state of CON is
the level of awareness of our internal state and external events, that determines how much info we take in and respond to
Normal Waking Consciousness (NWC) refers to
the states of CON associated with being awake and aware of our thoughts, memories, feelings, and the sensations we are experiencing from the outside world
Levels of awareness refers to
the varying degrees of awareness when we are awake
The continuum of states of CON go in the order starting from total awareness as
-Focused attention
-Normal Wakefulness
-daydreaming
-meditative state
-hypnotised
-asleep
-anaesthetised
-unconscious (coma)
complete lack of awareness
what is attention?
it is a concentration of mental activity that involves focusing on a specific stimuli while ignoring other stimuli
A controlled process involves
the processing of info that involves conscious, alert awareness and mental effort in which the individual actively focuses their attention on achieving a particular goal
Controlled processes are serial, meaning that
only one activity requiring a controlled process can usually be performed at a time
Content limitations refers to
info that we hold in our NWC is more restricted than the content of CON during an altered state
this is due to the fact that in NWC we can consciously block or ignore what we allow into our NWC
an automatic process requires
little conscious awareness and mental effort, minimal attention, and does not interfere with the performance of other activities
Automatic processes are usually parallel, meaning that
two or more automatic processes can be handled at once
Altered States of CON (ASC) describes
any state of CON that is distinctly different from NWC, in terms of levels of awareness and experience, and the intensity of sensations, perceptions, thoughts, feelings and memories that are experienced
ASC’s that occur naturally include
- sleep
- daydreaming
- dreaming
ASC’s that are purposely induced are
- meditation
- hypnosis
- alcohol consumption
- medications
- illegal drug abuse
Daydreaming is an ASC where
an individual shifts their attention from external stimuli to internal thoughts, feelings and imagined scenarios
EG of daydreaming
one could be involved in conversation with friends and suddenly become aware that their conversation is occurring in the background and they are thinking about what to buy their mum for mother’s day
The 5 characteristics of ASC’s are
- perceptual distortions
- cognitive distortions
- changes in emotional awareness
- self-control
- time orientation
The 2 effects that ASC’s have on perceptual distortions are
- makes senses more receptive to external stimuli
2. dulls sense to the such an extent that some sensations are not experienced at all
Eg of senses being more receptive to external stimuli in an ASC
a drug induced ASC making colours brighter, sounds louder, tastes and smells stronger
Eg of an ASC dulling senses so some sensations are not experienced at all
in a meditative state, some are able to obtain a much higher pain threshold then usual
An ASC often makes cognitive processes
more disorganised
In an ASC, thinking becomes
illogical, lacking in sequence and problems become harder to solve
True or False:
Often in ASC’s, people have difficulty remembering events that occurred during the ASC
True
Time orientation in regards to ASC’s involve
estimation of time during an ASC being frequently distorted, in other words, time passes at a different speed than normal
In ASC’s the passing of time can appear to pass either
quicker than normal time or slower time
Eg of time orientation being distorted
sometimes you may be woken from a nap and be surprised that only an hour has passed, whereas sometimes you may feel as though you slept for a lot longer then you actually did
ASC’s can cause changes in the individual’s emotional awareness such as
putting the person’s feelings into a state of turmoil, which can result in uncharacteristic responses
EG of a change in emotional awareness in an ASC
if in an alcohol-induced ASC, some may be more open to expressing their emotions than compared to NWC
Other changes in emotional awareness in an ASC also include
- having no feelings for situations that would produce a high emotional reaction in NWC
- inappropriate emotional reactions
- unpredictable emotional responses
Methods used to study level of alertness in NWC include
- Electroencephalograph (EEG)
- Heart Rate
- Body temp
- Galvanic skin response
What is an EEG
is a device that detects, amplifies and records general patterns of electrical activity in the brain
EEG’s produce a visual pattern of
brainwaves
Brain wave patterns are distinguished from one another by
the amplitude and frequency of each wave
the amplitude of a brain wave is judged by
the size of the peaks and troughs of the patterns from a baseline of zero activity
high amplitude brain waves have
bigger peaks and troughs than low amplitude brain waves
a high frequency brain wave activity is
faster and as a result has more brain waves per unit of time
low frequency brain wave activity is
slower, there fore has fewer brain waves per unit of time
In regards to ASC’s, a change in heart rate can indicate
a change in alertness and and is also associated with different states of CON
In an ASC, heart rate can either
increase or decrease
EGs of when heart rate would decrease in an ASC
sleeping, meditating, unconsciousness
The most evident info concerning body temp changes in ASC’s is
the drop in body temp during sleep
True or False:
Body temp is a less variable measure of being in an ASC than heart rate
True
What is the galvanic skin response (GSR)
it is a physiological response that indicates the change in resistance of the skin to an electrical current (the electrical conductivity of the skin)
Eg of GSR being used
if the sweat glands in the finger secrete sweat during physiological arousal, the electrical conductivity of the skin increases (the resistance of the skin to an electrical current decreases)
using a GSR, a high emotional arousal usually shows
an increase in sweating which as a result shows a decrease in the electrical resistance of the skin (increase in electrical conductivity)
