Unit 6- States of consciousness

Question 1

Modes of Consciousness

Answer 1

Conscious
Pre-conscious
Unconscious
Automaticity and Dissociation

Question 2

Consciousness involves

Answer 2

1. Monitoring ourselves and our environments so that percepts, memories and thoughts are represented in awareness.

2.Controlling ourselves and our environments so that we are able to initiate and terminate behavioural and cognitive activities.

Question 3

Monitoring

Answer 3

is the processing of information from the environment, which is the main function of the body’s sensory system. It leads to awareness of what is going on in our surroundings as well as within our own bodies. Our consciousness focuses on some stimuli and ignores others. Our attention is selective. Some events take precedence over others in gaining access to consciousness and in initiating action

Question 4

Controlling

Answer 4

is another function of consciousness. It involves planning, initiating and guiding our actions. Our actions must be guided and arranged to coordinate with events around us. Not all actions are guided by conscious decisions, nor are the solutions to all problems carried out at a conscious level. The solution to a problem may occur out of the blue without our being aware that we have been thinking.

Question 5

Preconscious

Answer 5

We cannot focus on everything that is going on around us at any given time, nor can we examine our entire store of knowledge and memories of the past. At any given time, we can focus attention on only a few stimuli. We ignore, select, and reject all the time, so that the contents of consciousness are continually changing. Objects or events that are not the focus of attention can still have some influence on consciousness. For example, you are talking to a friend in a cafeteria line, ignoring other voices and general noise, when the sound of your own name in another conversation catches your attention. You would not have heard your name in the other conversation if you had not, in some way, been monitoring that conversation. We register and evaluate stimuli we do not consciously perceive.

Question 6

Pre-conscious memories

Answer 6

Many memories and thoughts that are not a part of your consciousness at this moment can be brought to consciousness when needed. The term Preconscious Memories is used to refer to memories that are accessible to consciousness. They include specific memories of personal events as well as the information accumulated over a lifetime, such as your knowledge of the meanings of words, the layout of streets of a city, or a particular location or particular country. They also include knowledge about learnt skills like the procedures involved in driving a car or the sequence of steps in tying a shoelace. These procedures, once mastered, generally operate outside conscious awareness, but when our attention is called to them, we are capable of describing the steps involved.

Question 7

The Unconscious

Answer 7

One of the earliest theories of consciousness is the psychoanalytical theory of Sigmund Freud. He and his followers believed that there is a portion of the mind, the Unconscious that contains some memories, impulses and desires that are not accessible to consciousness. Freud believed that some emotionally painful memories and wishes are repressed- that is, diverted to the unconscious, where they may continue to influence our actions even though we are not aware of them. Repressed thoughts and impulses cannot enter into our consciousness, but they can affect us in indirect ways- through dreams, irrational behaviours, mannerisms, and slips of the tongue (today called Freudian slips-they are believed to be unintentional remarks that are assumed to reveal hidden impulses).
Freud believed that unconscious thoughts, desires and impulses are the cause of most mental illnesses. His methods of psychoanalysis attempt to draw the repressed material back into consciousness and in doing so cure the individual. Most psychologists accept the idea that there are memories and mental processes to which we have no conscious access. For example simple mental calculations, although we have conscious access to the outcomes of these mental processes, we have no conscious access to their operations.

Question 8

Automaticity and Dissociation

Answer 8

An important function of consciousness is control of our actions. Some activities however, are practiced so often that they become habitual or automatic. This habituation of responses that initially required conscious attention is termed Automaticity. A skill like riding a bike, once learnt, no longer requires our attention. It becomes automatic and allows a relatively uncluttered consciousness to focus on other matters. The more automatic an action becomes, the less it requires conscious control. One way of interpreting this is to say that the control is still there (we can focus on automatic processes if we want) but it has been dissociated from consciousness.

Question 9

Dissociation

Answer 9

The French psychiatrist Pierre Janet (1889) originated the concept of Dissociation, in which under certain conditions some thoughts and actions become split off, or Dissociated, from the rest of consciousness and function outside of awareness. Dissociation differs from Freud’s concept of repression because the dissociated memories and thoughts are accessible to consciousness. Repressed memories, in contrast, cannot be brought to consciousness. They have to be inferred from signs or symptoms such as slips of the tongue.
When faced with a stressful situation, we may temporarily put it out of our minds in order to function effectively; when bored, we may lapse into daydreams or reverie. These are mild examples of dissociation that involve dissociating one part of consciousness from another. More extreme cases include cases of Dissociative Identity Disorder and Multiple Personality Disorder.

Question 10

Sleep and Dreams

Answer 10

Sleep seems to be the opposite of wakefulness, but the two states seem to have similarities. The phenomenon of dreaming indicates that we think while we sleep, although the type of thinking we do in dreams differs in various ways from the type we do while awake. We form memories while sleeping (we can remember dreams). People who are
asleep are not entirely insensitive to their environments. Sleep in not totally planless; some people can decide to wake up at a certain time and do so. Sleep is not totally quiescent; we are active-tossing and turning, and some people walk in their sleep.

Question 11

Stages of Sleep

Answer 11

Analysis of the patterns of brain waves suggests that there are five (5) stages of sleep. The first four are differing depths of sleep and a fifth stage called REM sleep (rapid eye movement sleep).
Stages 1 & 2 - when a person closes his/her eyes and relaxes, the brain waves characteristically show a regular pattern of 8-12 hertz (cycles per second). These are known as Alpha waves. In stage one sleep the brain waves become less regular. Stage 2 is characterized by the appearance of spindles-short runs of rhythmical responses of 12-16 hertz. There are sleep spindles-occasional sharp rises and falls in the amplitude of the brain waves. This is called K-complex.

Question 12

3-5 Sleep stages`

Answer 12

Stages 3 & 4 - these are deeper stages characterized by slow waves of 1-2 hertz, which are called Delta waves. It is generally harder to wake a sleeper during stages 3 & 4 although it is possible.
REM Sleep/Stage 5 - An adult, after having been asleep for an hour or so, the brain waves become very active, even more than when a person is awake-but the person does not wake up. Rapid eye movement is detected and it is so pronounced that one can see the sleeper’s eye moving around under the closed eye lids.

Question 13

General Stages of Sleep

Answer 13

Stages 1-4 are called non-REM sleep or NREM. We have these variations of sleep stages alternating throughout the night. Sleep begins with NREM stages and proceeds to REM sleep. Over the course of an eight (8) hour night, there are usually about 4 or 5 distinct sleep cycles, each containing NREM and REM sleep. There may be a couple of occasional brief awakenings as morning approaches.

Question 14

Sleep Theory

Answer 14

Dale Edgar and William Dement (1992) have proposed an Opponent-Process Model of Sleep and Wakefulness. According to this model, the brain possesses two opponent processes that govern the tendency to fall asleep and remain awake. They are the Homeostatic Sleep Drive and the Clock Dependent Alerting Process.
The Homeostatic Sleep Drive is a physiological process that strives to obtain the amount of sleep required for a stable level of daytime alertness. The Clock-Dependent Alerting Process is the process in the brain that arouses us at a particular time each day. It is controlled by the so-called biological clock. This “clock” controls a series of psychological and physiological changes, including rhythms of alertness that are termed Circadian Rhythms because they occur every 24 hours. The biological clock is affected by exposure to light: daylight signals it to stop secretion of melatonin, a hormone that induces sleep. The two opponent processes - the Homeostatic Sleep Drive and the Clock-Dependent Alerting process interact to produce our daily cycle of sleep and wakefulness.

Question 15

Sleep Disorders

Answer 15

It appears that most adults require 8-9 hours of sleep to be free from day-time sleepiness. A Sleep Disorder exists when inability to sleep well produces impaired daytime functioning or excessive sleepiness.

Question 16

Sleep Deprivation

Answer 16

A common sign of Sleep Deprivation is inability to get through the day without a temporary loss of energy and alertness, usually occurring during mid-afternoon. Sleep researchers have demonstrated that alertness significantly increases when people who normally get 8 hours of sleep get an additional 2 hours of sleep. The loss of as little as an hour of sleep increases the likelihood of inattentiveness, mistakes, illness and accidents (Maas, 1998).

Question 17

Insomnia

Answer 17

refers to complaints about a symptom, namely, dissatisfaction with the amount or quality of one’s sleep. A perplexing feature of insomnia is that people seem to overestimate the amount of sleep lost. The problem may be that some people remember only time spent awake and think they have not slept because they have no memory of doing so.

Question 18

Narcolepsy

Answer 18

is a relatively rare but severe sleep disorder. A person with Narcolepsy has recurring, irresistible attacks of drowsiness and may fall asleep at any time. Such episodes can happen several times a day in severe cases and last from a few seconds to 30 minutes. Narcoleptics have difficulty keeping jobs because of their daytime sleepiness and are potentially dangerous if they are driving a car, or operating machinery when an attack occurs. Essentially, narcolepsy is the intrusion of REM episodes in daytime hours. During attacks, victims go quickly into an REM state, so rapidly, in fact, that they may lose muscle control and collapse before they can lie down.

Question 19

Sleep Apnea

Answer 19

is another rare but sevre sleep disorder. In Apnea, the individual stops breathing while asleep. There are two reasons for apnea attacks:
1. The brain fails to send a “breathe” signal to the diaphragm and other breathing muscles, thus causing breathing to stop
2. The muscles at the top of the throat become too relaxed, allowing the windpipe to partially close and forces the breathing muscles to pull harder on incoming which causes the airway to completely collapse.

Question 20

Sleep apnea episode

Answer 20

During an apnea episode, the oxygen level of the blood drops dramatically, leading to the secretion of emergency hormones. This reaction causes the sleeper to awaken in order to begin breathing again. Most people have a few episodes each night, people with severe sleep problems may have several hundred episodes per night. With each one, they wake up to resume breathing, but these arousals are so brief that the person is unaware of them. They can spend up to 12 hours or more in bed each night and still be so sleepy the next day that they cannot function. Sleep apnea is common among older men.

Question 21

Dreams

Answer 21

Dreaming is an altered state of consciousness in which picture stories are constructed based on memories and current concerns, or on fantasies and images. Investigators do not yet understand why people dream much less why they dream what they do.
* Although many people do not recall their dreams in the morning, evidence from studies of REM sleep suggest that non-recallers often do not wake up as much as dreaming recallers. Most times when people say that they do not dream, it usually means that they do not recall their dreams. Evidence suggests that preschool children as well as adults with certain types of brain damage do not appear to dream. Primary school children also do not seem to dream as often as adults do.
*
From studies, it appears that dreams last as long as the incidents will take in reality
Sometimes people do know when they are dreaming. Their awareness, however, does not seem to interfere with the spontaneous flow of the dream.

Question 22

Meditation

Answer 22

refers to achieving an altered state of consciousness by performing certain rituals and exercises such as controlling and regulating breathing, sharply restricting one’s field of attention, eliminating external stimuli, assuming yogic body positions, and forming mental images of an event or symbol. The result is a pleasant, mildly altered subjective state in which the individual feels mentally and physically relaxed.

Question 23

meditation techniques

Answer 23

Two common meditation techniques are Opening-Up Meditation, in which a person clears his/her mind in order to receive new experiences, and Concentrative Meditation, in which the benefits are obtained by actively attending to some object, word or idea.

Question 24

Benefits of meditation

Answer 24

may reduce arousal (especially in people who are easily stressed) and may be valuable for people suffering from anxiety and tension. Some researchers argue that the benefits of meditation are largely from relaxation of the body. Others suggest that the psychological benefits of meditation may be due to learning to put aside repetitive and troubling thoughts

Question 25

Hypnosis

Answer 25

a willing and co-operative individual (the only kind that can be hypnotized under most circumstances) relinquishes control over his/her behaviour to the hypnotist and accepts some distortion of reality. Like sleep, hypnosis is a relaxed state in which a person is out of touch with ordinary environmental demands. The same stat can be induced by methods other than relaxation. A hyperalert hypnotic trance is characterized by increased tension and alertness. Modern hypnotist do not use authoritarian commands any more, indeed, with a little training, people can hypnotize themselves (Ruch 1975). The person enters the hypnotized state when the conditions are right; the hypnotist simply helps set the conditions.

Question 26

Characteristics of a hypnotized state

Answer 26

✓ Attention becomes more selective than usual. A person who is told to listen only to the hypnotist’s voice will ignore all other voices.
✓ Planfulness ceases. A deeply hypnotized individual does not like to initiate any activity and would rather wait for the hypnotist to suggest something to do.
Enriched fantasy is readily evoked. People may find themselves enjoying experiences at places that are distant in time and space.
Reality testing is reduced and reality distortion is accepted. A person may uncritically accept hallucinated experiences.
Suggestibility is increased. An individual must accept suggestions in order to be hypnotized at all.
Posthypnotic amnesia is often present. When instructed to do so, an individual who is highly responsive to hypnotism will forget all or most of what took place during the hypnotic session. When a prearranged release signal is given, the memories are restored.

Question 27

Hypnotic Suggestions

Answer 27

Suggestions given to a hypnotized individual can result in a variety of behaviours and experiences. The person’s motor control may be affected, new memories may be lost or old ones re-experienced, and current perceptions may be radically altered

Question 28

Positive and Negative Hallucinations

Answer 28

The vivid and convincing perceptual distortions of hallucinations, are relatively rare in hypnotized individuals. Two (2) types of suggested hallucinations have been documented: Positive Hallucinations, in which the person sees an object or hears a voice that is not actually present; and Negative Hallucinations, in which the person does not perceive something that normally would be perceived. Many hallucinations have both positive and negative components. For example, in order to not see a person sitting in a chair (a negative hallucination) an individual must see parts of the chair that would normally be blocked from view (a positive hallucination).
Hallucinations can also occur as a result of posthypnotic suggestion. Negative hallucinations can be used to control pain. In many cases, hypnosis eliminates pain even though the source of pain - a sever burn - continues.

Question 29

The Hidden Observer

Answer 29

originated with Hilgard’s 1986 observation that in many hypnotized individuals, a part of the mind that is not within awareness seems to be watching the person’s experience as a whole. Thus, the Hidden Observer metaphor refers to a mental structure that monitors everything that happens, including events that the hypnotized individual is not consciously aware of perceiving. Hilgar and his colleagues have compared this phenomenon to everyday experiences in which an individual divides attention between two or more tasks, such as driving a car and conversing at the same time or making a speech and simultaneously evaluating one’s performance as an orator.

Question 30

Hypnosis as Therapy

Answer 30

Hypnosis is used to treat a number of physiological and psychological disorders. In medicine, hypnosis has been used to reduce anxiety related to medical and dental procedures, asthma, gastrointestinal diseases, and the nausea associated with cancer treatment, and used for general pain management. In treatment for psychological disorders, hypnosis has been used to help people overcome additions. Proponents of the therapeutic use of hypnosis suggest that it allows therapists to uncover repressed memories that are behind psychological problems, but several researchers caution against the use of hypnosis in psychotherapy. They argue that hypnosis amounts to no more than a therapist planting false memories in the minds of clients, including memories of horrendous abuse experiences that never happened.

Question 31

Psychoactive Drugs

Answer 31

In addition to mediation and hypnosis, drugs can be used to alter a person’s state of consciousness. Since ancient times, people have used drugs to stimulate or relax, to bring to sleep or to prevent it, to enhance ordinary perceptions, or to produce hallucinations. The word drug can be used to refer to any substance (other than food) that chemically alters the functioning of an organism. The term Psychoactive Drugs refers to drugs that affect behaviour, consciousness, and/or mood.

Question 32

Key componence of drug dependence

Answer 32

1. Tolerance - with continued use, individuals must take more and more of the drug to achieve the same effect.
2. Withdrawal - if use of the drug is discontinued, the person experiences unpleasant physical and psychological reactions
3. Compulsive use - the individual takes more of the drug than intended, tries to control his/her drug use but fails, ad spends a great deal of time trying to obtain the drug.
4. Drug dependence is usually distinguished from Drug Abuse, which is the continued use of a drug, despite serious consequences, by a person who is not dependent on it (that is, shows no symptoms of tolerance, withdrawal or compulsive craving

Question 33

Effects of Major PsychoActive Drugs

Answer 33

Alcohol- lightheadedness, relaxation, release of inhibitions, increased self-confidence, slowing of motor reactions
Heroin- sense of well-being, feeling of euphoria, reduced anxiety
Amphetamines-Drowsiness, increased alertness, decreased fatigue and boredom
Cocaine- increased energy and self-confidence, euphoric high, restless irritability, high likelihood of dependence
PCP/Angel Dust-feelings of dissociation from the environment, insensitivity to pain, confusion, loss of inhibition, poor coordination
Cannabis-stimulation and euphoria followed by tranquility and sleep, sense of well-being, distortions of space and time, changes in social perception, impaired motor coordination, disruption of memory.