Psychology - Chapter 4 State of Consciousness

NIGHTMARES AND NIGHT TERRORS

A nightmare is a frightening dream that awakens a dreamer from REM sleep

ACTIVATION-SYNTHESIS THEORY

ACTIVATION-SYNTHESIS THEORY According to activation-synthesis theory, dreaming occurs when the cerebral cortex synthesizes neural signals generated from activity in the lower part of the brain. Dreams result from the brain's attempts to find logic in random brain activity that occurs during sleep (Hobson, 1999; Hobson & Voss, 2011).

Alcohol

Alcohol is a powerful drug. It acts on the body primarily as a depressant and slows down the brain's activities

Alcoholism

Alcoholism is a disorder that involves long-term, repeated, uncontrolled, compulsive, and excessive use of alcoholic beverages and that impairs the drinker's health and social relationships.

We can define consciousness in terms of its two parts

Awareness and Arousal

Awareness

Awareness includes awareness of the self and thoughts about one's experiences. Consider that on an autumn afternoon, when you see a beautiful tree, vibrant with color, you are not simply perceiving the colors; you are also aware that you are seeing them. Having awareness means that our sensory experiences are more than the sum of their parts.

Executive function

Executive function refers to higher-order, complex cognitive processes, including thinking, planning, and problem solving. These cognitive processes are linked to the functioning of the brain's prefrontal cortex (Carlson, Zelazo, & Faja, 2013; Liew, 2012). Executive function is the person's capacity to harness consciousness, to focus in on specific thoughts while ignoring others

Nicotine

Nicotine is the main psychoactive ingredient in all forms of smoking and smokeless tobacco. Even with all the publicity given to the enormous health risks posed by tobacco, we sometimes overlook the highly addictive nature of nicotine. Nicotine stimulates the brain's reward centers by raising dopamine levels. Behavioral effects of nicotine include improved attention and alertness, reduced anger and anxiety, and pain relief (Knott & others, 2006). Figure 14 shows the main effects of nicotine on the body.

Psychoactive drugs

Psychoactive drugs act on the nervous system to alter consciousness, modify perceptions, and change moods. Some people use psychoactive drugs as a way to deal with life's difficulties. Drinking, smoking, and taking drugs reduce tension, relieve boredom and fatigue, and help people to escape from the harsh realities of life. Some people use drugs because they are curious about their effects

stream of consciousness

a continuous flow of changing sensations, images, thoughts, and feelings. The content of our awareness changes from moment to moment. Information moves rapidly in and out of consciousness. Our minds can race from one topic to the next—from the person approaching us to our physical state today to the café where we will have lunch to our strategy for the test tomorrow.

hypnosis

altered state of consciousness or as a psychological state of altered attention and expectation in which the individual is unusually receptive to suggestions

Opiates

are highly addictive, and users experience craving and painful withdrawal when the drug becomes unavailable. Opiate addiction can also raise the risk of exposure to HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Most heroin addicts inject the drug intravenously. When they share needles without sterilizing them, one infected addict can transmit HIV to others.

tolerance

the need to take increasing amounts of a drug to get the same effect

addiction

to describe a physical or psychological dependence, or both, on the drug

metacognition

to describe the processes by which we think about thinking

The cognitive theory of dreaming

The cognitive theory of dreaming proposes that we can understand dreaming by applying the same cognitive concepts we use in studying the waking mind. The theory rests on the idea that dreams are essentially subconscious cognitive processing

NARCOLEPSY

The disorder narcolepsy involves the sudden, overpowering urge to sleep (Carter, Acebo, & Kim, 2014; Goodrick, 2014). The urge is so uncontrollable that the person may fall asleep while talking or standing up.

Arousal

The second part of consciousness, is the physiological state of being engaged with the environment. Thus, a sleeping person is not conscious in the same way that he or she would be while awake.

Tranquilizers

Tranquilizers, such as Valium and Xanax, are depressant drugs that reduce anxiety and induce relaxation. In small doses tranquilizers can induce a feeling of calm; higher doses can lead to drowsiness and confusion. Tolerance for tranquilizers can develop within a few weeks of usage, and these drugs are addictive. Widely prescribed in the United States to calm anxious individuals, tranquilizers can produce withdrawal symptoms when use is stopped. Prescription tranquilizers were part of the lethal cocktail of drugs that, in 2008, ended the life of actor Heath Ledger, who played the Joker in the Batman film The Dark Knight. Opiates Narcotics, or opiates, consist of opium and its derivatives and depress the central nervous system's activity. These drugs are used as powerful painkillers. The most common opiate drugs—morphine and heroin—affect synapses in the brain that use endorphins as their neurotransmitter. When these drugs leave the brain, the affected synapses become understimulated. For several hours after taking an opiate, the person feels euphoric and pain-free and has an increased appetite for food and sex.

Barbiturates

Barbiturates, such as Nembutal and Seconal, are depressant drugs that decrease central nervous system activity. Physicians once widely prescribed barbiturates as sleep aids. In heavy dosages, they can lead to impaired memory and decision making. When combined with alcohol (for example, sleeping pills taken after a night of binge drinking), barbiturates can be lethal. Heavy doses of barbiturates by themselves can cause death. For this reason, barbiturates are the drug most often used in suicide attempts. Abrupt withdrawal can produce seizures. Because of the addictive potential and relative ease of toxic overdose, barbiturates have largely been replaced by tranquilizers in the treatment of insomnia.

Caffeine

Caffeine Often overlooked as a drug, caffeine is the world's most widely used psychoactive drug. Caffeine is a stimulant and a natural component of the plants that are the sources of coffee, tea, and cola drinks

We can define consciousness in terms of its two parts: awareness and arousal.

Consciousness is an individual's awareness of external events and internal sensations under a condition of arousal.

The Nature of Consciousness

Consciousness is the awareness of external events and internal sensations, including awareness of the self and thoughts about experiences. Most experts agree that consciousness is likely distributed across the brain. The association areas and prefrontal lobes are believed to play important roles in consciousness. William James described the mind as a stream of consciousness. Consciousness occurs at different levels of awareness that include higher-level awareness (controlled processes and selective attention), lower-level awareness (automatic processes and daydreaming), altered states of consciousness (produced by drugs, trauma, fatigue, and other factors), subconscious awareness (waking subconscious awareness, sleep, and dreams), and no awareness (unconscious thought).

physical dependence

Continuing drug use can also result in physical dependence, the physiological need for a drug that causes unpleasant withdrawal symptoms such as physical pain and a craving for the drug when it is discontinued

Theory of Mind

Developmental psychologists who study children's ideas about mental states use the phrase theory of mind to refer to individuals' understanding that they and others think, feel, perceive, and have private experiences

Hypnosis

Hypnosis is a psychological state or possibly altered attention and awareness in which the individual is unusually receptive to suggestions. The hypnotic state is different from a sleep state, as confirmed by EEG recordings. Inducing hypnosis involves four basic steps, beginning with minimizing distractions and making the person feel comfortable and ending with the hypnotist's suggesting certain events or feelings that he or she knows will occur or observes occurring. There are substantial individual variations in people's susceptibility to hypnosis. People in a hypnotic state are unlikely to do anything that violates their morals or that involves a real danger. Two theories have been proposed to explain hypnosis. In Hilgard's divided consciousness view, hypnosis involves a divided state of consciousness, a splitting of consciousness into separate components. One component follows the hypnotist's commands; the other acts as a hidden observer. In the social cognitive behavior view, hypnotized individuals behave the way they believe hypnotized individuals are expected to behave.

Meditation

Meditation involves attaining a peaceful state of mind in which thoughts are not occupied by worry; the meditator is mindfully present to his or her thoughts and feelings but is not consumed by them.

Meditation

Meditation refers to a state of quiet reflection. Meditation has benefits for a wide range of psychological and physical illnesses. Meditation can also benefit the body's immune system. Research using fMRI suggests that meditation allows an individual to control his or her thoughts in order to "let go" of the need to control. Mindfulness meditation is a powerful tool for managing life's problems. How we think about our lives and experiences plays a role in determining whether we feel stressed and worried or challenged and excited about life. Seeking times of quiet contemplation can have a positive impact on our abilities to cope with life's ups and downs. The goal of lovingkindness meditation is the development of loving acceptance of oneself and others. This type of meditation fosters feelings of warmth, friendliness, compassion, and appreciative joy.

Psychoactive Drugs

Psychoactive drugs act on the nervous system to alter states of consciousness, modify perceptions, and change moods. Humans are attracted to these types of drugs because they ease adaptation to change. Addictive drugs activate the brain's reward system by increasing dopamine concentration. The reward pathway involves the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and nucleus accumbens (NAc). The abuse of psychoactive drugs can lead to tolerance, psychological and physical dependence, and addiction—a pattern of behavior characterized by a preoccupation with using a drug and securing its supply. Depressants slow down mental and physical activity. Among the most widely used depressants are alcohol, barbiturates, tranquilizers, and opiates. After caffeine, alcohol is the most widely used drug in the United States. The high rate of alcohol abuse by high school and college students is especially alarming. Alcoholism is a disorder that involves long-term, repeated, uncontrolled, compulsive, and excessive use of alcoholic beverages that impairs the drinker's health and work and social relationships. Stimulants increase the central nervous system's activity and include caffeine, nicotine, amphetamines, cocaine, and MDMA (Ecstasy). Hallucinogens modify a person's perceptual experiences and produce visual images that are not real. Marijuana has a mild hallucinogenic effect; LSD has a strong one.

Psychological dependence

Psychological dependence is the strong desire to repeat the use of a drug for emotional reasons, such as a feeling of well-being and reduction of stress.

Sleep apnea

Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder in which individuals stop breathing because the windpipe fails to open or because brain processes involved in respiration fail to work properly.

Sleep and Dreams

Sleep is a natural state of rest for the body and mind that involves the reversible loss of consciousness. The biological rhythm that regulates the daily sleep/wake cycle is the circadian rhythm. The part of the brain that keeps our biological clocks synchronized is the suprachiasmatic nucleus, a small structure in the hypothalamus that registers light. Such things as jet travel and work shifts can desynchronize biological clocks. Some strategies are available for resetting the biological clock. We need sleep for physical restoration, adaptation, growth, and memory. Research studies increasingly reveal that people do not function optimally when they are sleep-deprived. Stages of sleep correspond to massive electrophysiological changes that occur in the brain and that can be assessed by an EEG. Humans go through four stages of non-REM sleep and one stage of REM sleep, or rapid eye movement sleep. Most dreaming occurs during REM sleep. A sleep cycle of five stages lasts about 90 to 100 minutes and recurs several times during the night. The REM stage lasts longer toward the end of a night's sleep. The sleep stages are associated with distinct patterns of neurotransmitter activity. Levels of the neurotransmitters serotonin, norepinephrine, and acetylcholine decrease as the sleep cycle progresses from stage 1 through stage 4. Stage 5, REM sleep, begins when the reticular formation raises the level of acetylcholine. Sleep plays a role in a large number of diseases and disorders. Neurons that control sleep interact closely with the immune system, and when our bodies are fighting infection our cells produce a substance that makes us sleepy. Individuals with depression often have sleep problems. Many people in the United States suffer from chronic, long-term sleep disorders that can impair normal daily functioning. These include insomnia, sleepwalking and sleep talking, nightmares and night terrors, narcolepsy, and sleep apnea. Contrary to popular belief, most dreams are not bizarre or strange. Freud thought that dreams express unconscious wishes in disguise. The cognitive theory of dreaming attempts to explain dreaming in terms of the same cognitive concepts that are used in studying the waking mind. According to activation-synthesis theory, dreaming occurs when the cerebral cortex synthesizes neural signals emanating from activity in the lower part of the brain. In this view, the rising level of acetylcholine during REM sleep plays a role in neural activity in the brain stem that the cerebral cortex tries to make sense of.

SLEEPWALKING AND SLEEP TALKING

Somnambulism is the formal term for sleepwalking, which occurs during the deepest stages of sleep (Umanath,

STIMULANTS

Stimulants are psychoactive drugs that increase the central nervous system's activity. The most widely used stimulants are caffeine, nicotine, amphetamines, and cocaine.

the social cognitive behavior view of hypnosis

hypnosis is a normal state in which the hypnotized person behaves the way he or she believes that a hypnotized person should behave. The social cognitive perspective frames the important questions about hypnosis around cognitive factors—the attitudes, expectations, and beliefs of good hypnotic participants—and around the powerful social context in which hypnosis occurs (Accardi & others, 2013; Lynn & Green, 2011). Individuals being hypnotized surrender their responsibility to the hypnotist and follow the hypnotist's suggestions; and they have expectations about what hypnosis is supposed to be like.