States of Consciousness Flashcards
1
Q
What is Consciousness?
A
- awareness of your own thoughts, feelings and perceptions (internal events) and our surroundings (external stimuli) at any given moment.
- It creates our reality and is central to our sense of self.
2
Q
What are Day dreams
A
- private thoughts, feelings and imagined scenarios
- that occur when we shift our attention to internally while ignoring the external environment.
- tend to be visualized thoughts that are usually positive and pleasurable.
- occur naturally and often
3
Q
What is awareness?
A
- Awareness is how conscious (aware) you are of internal and/or external event(s).
- level of awareness can vary in normal waking consciousness.
- level of awareness influences the other characteristics of consciousness.
4
Q
What are alcohol induced States of consciousness?
A
An altered state of consciousness due to the consumption of alcohol, a depressant drug.
5
Q
What is altered state of consciousness
A
- Any state of consciousness that deviates from your ‘normal’ sense of reality
- in terms of marked differences in level of
awareness
memory
perceptions
emotions
thinking
behaviours
sense of times and place
self control - both deliberately or naturally induced.
6
Q
What is automatic processing
A
- Are processes that very require little mental effort or awareness to be performed well
- generally don’t interfere with other automatic or controlled processes.
- two or more can be performed at once
7
Q
What is Meditation ?
A
- deliberately induced altered state of consciousness
- a person uses mental exercises to become highly focussed on a single thought
- to the exclusion of others.
8
Q
What is normal waking consciousness?
A
- the states of consciousness we experience when we are awake and aware of our thoughts, feelings, and perceptions from internal events and the surrounding environment.
- Our experience during NWC creates our reality and a baseline to judge all other states of consciousness.
9
Q
What are states of consciousness?
A
- an individual’s level of awareness of internal events (thoughts, feelings and perceptions). And external surroundings.
- a range of states experienced throughout the day.
10
Q
Streams of consciousness
A
- An analogy, termed by William James,
- that explained consciousness as an ever-changing stream of thoughts
- that can shift smoothly and effortlessly form one moment to the next.
11
Q
What are content limitations?
A
- How much control you have over your thoughts
- and what comes in and out of your consciousness.
- The content of NWC is therefore more restricted then in an ASC.
12
Q
What is attention?
A
- relates to the information that you are actively processing, either consciously or even outside your conscious awareness.
- Attention overlaps with consciousness, as what you are consciously aware of is often also the focus of attention.
13
Q
What is selective inattention?
A
- Selective inattention is avoiding information that may be relevant but emotionally upsetting.
- both helpful and unhelpful effects.
14
Q
What is divided attention
A
- refers to the capacity to attend to and perform two or more activities at the one time.
- harder to perform two or more tasks simultaneously when they require similar mental skills
- and more than one is a controlled process.
15
Q
What is selective attention?
A
- refers to the limitations placed on how much we can focus at any given moment on one stimulus or event to the exclusion of others.
- difficult to attend to more than one stimulus or event at one time.
16
Q
What is the Cocktail party phenomenon?
A
- the active processing of information that takes place outside our conscious awareness.
- Revealing that more information is processed in our consciousness than that which is initially attended.