Psychology Chapter 3 Test Review

What is the definition of psychology?

psychology define consciousness as the awareness we have of ourselves and our environment

What happens if you lack REM sleep?

A REM rebound effect takes place, spending more time in the REM stage on subsequent nights to make up for lost REM time.

Are we control of our consciousness?

Our level of conscious is both within and without control.

What is our sleep affected by and what are they?

Our sleep is affected by biological rhythms or periodic physiological rhythms. Biological rhythms are regular, periodic changes in a body's functioning. The three types are: -Circadian Rhythm -Infradian Rhythm -Ultradian Rhythm

Describe Stages 1-4

When people are relaxed and ready to fall asleep, their EEG (Electroencephalographs) will show alpha waves. When people fall asleep, they enter Stage 1 sleep, which lasts just a few minutes. The EEG shows mostly theta waves in stage 1. Heart rate, breathing rate, and body temperature drop, and muscles relax. Fantasies or bizarre images may float around in the mind. Next, stage 2 lasts about 20 minutes and is characterized by short bursts of brain waves called sleep spindles. People then pass into slow wave sleep, which occurs during stages 3 and 4. Together, these stages last about 30 minutes. The EEG shows mostly delta waves. People in stage 3 and 4 sleep show slow breathing and pulse rates, having simple muscles, and are difficult to rouse.

Chronic use of Psychoactive Drugs

When people regularly use drugs, they develop a tolerance to it. People with tolerance need more and more of the drug for the same effect. If the drug is not used in a long time, withdrawal symptoms occur. People can get physically dependent when they take it to avoid withdrawal symptoms. Psychological dependence is when a person keeps taking the drug because of cravings. Drug use can be damage body tissues or organs, Overdoses include sedatives, stimulants, and narcotics, can be lethal. They can cause people to behave in risky, accident prone, or unhealthy ways.

Circadian Rhythm

biological causes that occur about every 24 hours. Sleep follows a Circadian Rhythm. Hormone secretion, blood pressure, body temperature, and urine production also have circadian rhythms.

Ultradian rhythms

biological cycles that occur more than once a day. Sleep follows and ultradian rhythm of about 90 minutes as well as a Circadian Rhythm. Alertness and hormone levels also follow Ultradian Rhythms.

Infradian rhythms

biological cycles that take longer than 24 hours. For example, women's menstrual cycles occur about every 28 days

What is REM Sleep

At the end of Stage 4, people go back through the stages in reverse order. When they reach stage 1, they enter REM sleep, or rapid eye movement sleep. REM sleep is a stage of deep sleep in which, paradoxically, brain wave activity resembles that of an alert person, also called paradoxical sleep. Pulse rate, breathing becomes irregular, genital arousal occurs. In women, the clitoris becomes swollen with blood and vaginal lubrication increases. In men, the penis becomes erect. EEGs show mostly beta waves during REM sleep. Dream are most vivid and frequent during REM sleep. People usually go through 4 sleep cycles. The REM stage of sleep gets longer and longer as the night passes, while stage 3 and 4 gets shorter. During the first sleep cycle, REM lasts 10 minutes and during the last cycle, REM lasts 40-60 minutes. NREM sleep becomes more shallow and eventually the sleeper awakens.

What does it mean to have endogenous biological rhythms?

Biological rhythms usually synchronize with environmental events, but there are some which continue without cues from the environment. These biological rhythms are known as endogenous. Endogenous rhythms exist because the body has biological clocks that keep time. Biological clocks can be adjusted by environmental cues, such as changes in temperature.

Is consciousness static?

Consciousness is not static. There are experiences that constantly move in and out of our awareness as our states of mind and environment change. We may dream about things that aren't always present in our waking state.

What are the two theories of hypnosis?

Dissociation theory: Ernest Hilgard proposed that hypnosis causes people to dissociate and divide their consciousness into two parts: on that responds to the outside world and the other that observes but doesn't participate (hidden observer). Social Phenomenon Theory: Theodore Barber and Nicholas Spanos think hypnosis happens when a suggestible person plays the role of a hypnotized person. People behave as they are expected to.

What is a lucid dream?

During lucid dreams, people are aware that they are dreaming and may be able to control their actions to some extent within their dream.

How many sleep cycles are there and how long are they generally?

During one night's sleep, people pass through stages of sleep lasting 90 to 100 minutes each. There is stage 1, 2, 3, 4, and REM.

What can hypnosis do vs. what it can't do?

Hypnosis can: -cause people to be relaxed, have a narrowed focus of attention, and be highly engaged in fantasies; produce anesthesia and treat psychological problems; cause hallucinations; reduce inhibitions; cause changes in behavior after hypnosis has ended Hypnosis can't: -Work equally for everyone -Force people to do things against their will -Make people act in ways that would normally be beyond their capability -increase accuracy of memory -experience past events

Describe hypnosis

Hypnosis is a procedure that opens people to the power of suggestion. A hypnotist puts a subject in an altered state by encouraging relaxation and sleepiness and often describing the sorts of physical sensations a subject should be feeling. Once a subject is in the altered state, he or she may act perceive, think, or feel according to the hypnotist's suggestions. Posthypnotic amnesia is when hypnotized people forget what happened during hypnosis because they were told to.

Sleep disorders

Insomnia is a chronic problem with falling or staying asleep. Narcolepsy is a tendency to fall asleep periodically during the day. Sleep apnea is when the sleeper stops breathing many times during the night, and each time this happens, they wake up gasping for air. This leads to irritability and high blood pressure.

Psychoactive Drugs

Psychoactive drugs have psychological effects, meaning that they change the sensory experience, perception, mood, thinking, and behavior. They are sometimes called recreational drugs. Psychoactive drugs work by affecting the neurotransmitter function. It can cause more or less of a neurotransmitter to be released at synapses, block reuptake of a neurotransmitter by presynaptic cells, stimulate or block neurotransmitter receptors on postsynaptic cells

Dreams

Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud believed that dreams allow people to express unconscious wishes they find unacceptable in real life. The manifest content is the plot of the dream. The latent content is the dream's hidden meaning. The manifest content is a symbolic representation of the latent content. Another theory, known as activation-synthesis theory, propose that neurons in the brain randomly activate during REM sleep. Dreams arise when the cortex tries to make meaning out of theses random neural impulses.

Describe Sleepwalking.

Sleepwalkers become physically active during stage 4. They may do normal activities that they would do if they were awake. Becuase they are in deep sleep, most sleepwalkers remember nothing of their actions when they wake up.

In humans, what is an example of an biological clock?

The Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN) is the main biological clock that regulates circadian rhythms of sleep. The SCN lies in the brain's hypothalamus. When light stimulates receptors in the retina of they eye, the receptors send signals to SCN. The SCN then sends signals to the nearby pineal gland, which secretes melatonin, a hormone that regulates the sleep cycle.