Chapter 4: Consciousness

• Consciousness


  A concept with many meanings, including sensory awareness of the world outside, direct inner awareness of one's thoughts and feelings, personal unity, and the waking state
• Other aspects of Consciousness

  • Selective attention - the focus of one's consciousness on a particular stimulus
  • Direct inner awareness - knowledge of one's own thoughts, feelings, and memories without the use of sensory organs
• Self-awareness is connected with the firing of billions of neurons hundreds of times per second. Even so, we detect psychological processes but not neural events
• Preconscious


  (in psychodynamic theory) Descriptive of material that is not in awareness but can be brought into awareness by focusing one's attention
• Unconscious


  (in psychodynamic theory) Descriptive of ideas and feelings that are not available to awareness; also: without consciousness
• Repression


  (in psychodynamic theory) The automatic (unconscious) ejection of anxiety-evoking ideas, impulses, or images from awareness
• Suppression


  The deliberate, or conscious, placing of certain ideas, impulses, or images out of awareness
• Nonconscious


  Descriptive of bodily processes, such as growing hair, of which we cannot become conscious; we may "recognize" that our hair is growing, but we cannot directly experience the biological process
• Consciousness as Personal Unity


  We develop a sense of being persons, individuals. There is a totality to our impressions, thoughts, and feelings that makes up our consciousness—our continuing sense of self in the world. That self forms intentions and guides behavior
• Consciousness as the Waking State


  The word conscious also refers to the waking state as opposed, for example, to sleep. From this perspective, sleep, meditation, the hypnotic "trance," and the distorted perceptions that can accompany use of consciousness-altering drugs are considered altered states of consciousness
• We spend about one-third of our adult lives asleep
• Animals that are most at risk of being hunted by predators tend to sleep less—an adaptive response to the realities of life and death
• Circadian rhythm


  A cycle that is connected with the 24-hour period of the earth's rotation. A cycle of wakefulness and sleep is normally 24 hours long
• Circadian clock adjustment


  1. Shining sun activates proteins in the retinas of the eyes

  2. Proteins signal the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) in the hypothalamus

  3. SCN stimulates the pineal gland to decrease melatonin output
• Alpha waves


  Rapid low-amplitude brain waves that have been linked to feelings of relaxation
• Non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep


  The first four stages of sleep
• Theta waves


  Slow brain waves produced during the Hypnagogic state
• Sleep spindles


  Brief bursts of brain activity that have a frequency of 12 to 16 cycles per second
• Delta waves


  Strong, slow brain waves usually emitted during stage 4 sleep
• Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep


  A stage of sleep characterized by rapid eye movements, which have been linked to dreaming
• Researchers do not have all the answers as to why we sleep, but sleep seems to serve several purposes: It rejuvenates the body, helps us recover from stress, helps us consolidate learning, and may promote development of infants' brains
• The amount of sleep we need seems to be in part genetically determined
• Under deprivation of REM sleep, animals and people learn more slowly and forget what they have learned more quickly
• Findings about dreams


  • Artists are more likely than other people to have nightmares
  • Children are more likely than adults to dream about animals
  • Younger people are more likely to have dreams in which they know they are dreaming
  • Nonreligious people have more dreams than highly religious people
  • 82% dream of being chased
  • 74% dream of falling
  • 60% dream that they are too late to do something such as catch a train
  • 77% dream of sex
  • 48% dream of flying
  • 37% dream of being a child again
• Continuity Hypothesis


  If we are preoccupied with illness or Death, sexual or aggressive urges, or moral dilemmas, we are likely to dream about them
• Activation-synthesis model of dreams

  Acetylcholine (a neurotransmitter) and the pons stimulate responses that lead to dreaming. The cortex then synthesizes these sources of stimulation to yield the stuff of dreams
• Insomnia


  A sleep disorder where trying to get to sleep can compound sleep problems by creating autonomic activity and muscle tension
• Narcolepsy


  A "sleep attack" in which a person falls asleep suddenly and irresistibly, accompanied by the collapse of muscle groups or the entire body
• Sleep apnea


  Temporary absence or cessation of breathing while sleeping, associated with obesity and chronic snoring, and can lead to high blood pressure, heart attacks, and strokes
• Sleep terrors


  Frightening, dream-like experiences that occur during the deepest stage of NREM sleep
• Hypnosis


  An altered state of consciousness in which people are suggestible and behave as though they are in a trance
• Hypnosis


  • It is more than a nightclub act, used as an anesthetic in dentistry, childbirth, and medical procedures, and to help clients reduce anxiety, overcome fears, or lessen the perception of chronic pain
• Role theory of hypnosis

  Explains hypnotic events in terms of the person's ability to act as though he or she were hypnotized
• Response set theory


  The view that response expectancies play a key role in the production of the experiences suggested by the hypnotist
• Meditation


  Refers to various ways of focusing one's consciousness to alter one's relationship to the world
• Transcendental meditation (TM)


  People practice TM by concentrating on mantras—words or sounds that are claimed to help the person achieve an altered state of consciousness
• Meditation


  Thinking deeply about the universe or about one's place in the world, often within a spiritual context
• Meditation (as used by psychologists)


  • Various ways of focusing one's consciousness to alter one's relationship to the world
  • Can also refer to a process by which people seem to suspend thinking and allow the world to fade away
• Transcendental Meditation (TM)


  • Has some goals that cannot be assessed scientifically, such as expanding consciousness to encompass spiritual experiences
  • Has measurable goals, such as reducing anxiety and lowering blood pressure
• Mindfulness Meditation (MM)

  Provides clients with mantra-like techniques they can use to focus on the present and cope with anxiety as well as reducing stress