PSYCHOLOGY 3

• Consciousness


  The process underlying the mental model we create of the world of which we are aware; allows us to retrieve a fact, an idea, an emotion, or a memory and combine it with critical thinking
• Conscious Mind


  • Can take on a variety of roles, but must focus sequentially on one thing and then another
  • Multi-tasking is not as effective as it may seem
• What Consciousness Does

  • Restricts our attention
  • Keeps our brain from being overwhelmed by stimulation
  • Provides a mental "meeting place" where sensation combines with memory, emotions, and motives
• Non-Conscious Process


  • Great at multitasking
  • Has the ability to handle many streams of information in parallel
• Freud's View of Consciousness

  • Three levels: Conscious, Preconscious, Unconscious
  • Unconscious mind plays an important role in relationships
  • Mates chosen are substitutes for parents on an unconscious level
• Originally psychologists thought we slept because our neurons disconnected causing us to "drift off"
• Levels of the Non-conscious Mind

  • Preconscious
  • Unconscious
• Melatonin, a hormone connected to wake-sleep cycles, builds up while we sleep
• The hypothalamus is the control center for our 24-hour rhythm of sleep
• Stages of Sleep

  Relaxation leading to slower brain waves, 4 stages of quiet sleep before entering the dreaming stage
• Most adults need about 8 hours of sleep to feel good and function efficiently
• 8 out of 10 dreams have negative emotional content
• People commonly dream about failure, being attacked, pursued, rejected, or struck with misfortune
• Most Americans get significantly less than 8 hours of sleep
• Sleep stages


  Brain waves cycle more slowly before falling asleep, then go through 4 stages of relatively quiet sleep before reaching the more active dreaming stage
• Restlessness is the normal response to boredom, not sleepiness
• Freud's thoughts on dreaming

  • Dreaming serves to guard sleep and serve as a source for wish fulfillment
• Afternoon drowsiness is often attributed to sleep debt rather than a big lunch
• First dreams typically connect with events from the previous day, while later dreams tend to build on a theme from the previous dream
• Sexual dreams are sparse, with men having 1 in 10 and women 1 in 30
• The final dream is often remembered most vividly but may have little to do with previous day's events
• Children are more likely to dream about large and threatening animals, while adults dream more about pets
• There is no solid evidence to support Freud's interpretations of latent dream content
• Women are more likely to dream about men and women, while men are more likely to dream about men
• Dreams vary by age, gender, and culture
• Insomnia is characterized by recurring problems falling or staying asleep
• Sleep apnea is characterized by a temporary stoppage in breathing, affecting roughly 4% of Americans
• Narcolepsy is characterized by uncontrollable sleep attacks
• Bruxism is teeth grinding
• Somnambulism is sleepwalking where the sleepwalker can walk, talk, and see but has little or no memory of the event upon waking up
• Night Terrors are characterized by high alertness and an appearance of being terrified
• Myoclonus is a sudden movement or flinch of a body part occurring in Stage 1 or 2 of sleep
• Hypnosis is a social interaction where the hypnotist suggests certain perceptions, cognitions, or behaviors to the subject
• Everyone is suggestible to a degree, with 20% being highly suggestible
• The real power of hypnosis lies in the subject's own openness to suggestion