CHAPTER 4

Consciousness

Consciousness

Your awareness of everything that is going on around you inside your own head at any given moment, walking or sleeping, which you use to organize your behavior, including thoughts, sensations, and feelings

Different types of consciousness

Walking consciousness – thoughts, feelings, and sensations are clear and organized, and they feel alert.

Altered state of consciousness – there is a shift in the quality or pattern of your mental activity

Fuzzy, disorganized, feel less alert

Driving to school and wondering how you got there? Thinking about the day ahead, perhaps

Altered state of consciousness

Dangerous

Texting and driving, driving and talking on the phone

Drinking and driving

Other states: drugs, daydreaming, hypnotized, meditating, and the most common - sleep

Processing conscious information

Explicit Processing – aware of your thought process and are focusing your full attention on the task at hand

Ex: testing

Implicit Processing – processing that happens without conscious awareness – automatic

Ex: walking

Biological Rhythms

Natural cycles of activity that the body must go through

Ex: rise and fall of blood pressure, body temperatures

Most common is the sleep-wake cycle

Circadian Rhythm

Circa (about) diem (day) “about a day”

Need to complete at least once every 24-hour period

Microsleeps

Brief sidesteps into sleep lasting only seconds

Rats on a wheel

What happens when you miss sleep?

Hell Week video

Sleep Deprivation

Loss of sleep

Trying to make up for sleep on the weekends “sleep debt”

Staying up late for a test actually decreases scores, a good nights sleep is more important for memory consolidation

Symptoms: trembling hands, inattention, staring off into space, droopy eyelids, general discomfort, depression Class Demonstration 112

What do we need sleep for?

Adaptive theory – states that sleep is a product of evolution to avoid predators during normal hunting times

Restorative theory – states that sleep is necessary for the physical health of the body

What kind of sleep is there?

REM (rapid eye movement) – stage of sleep in which the eyes move rapidly under the eyelids and the person is typically experiencing a dream

non-REM (NREM) sleep – any of the stages of sleep that do not include REM

Sleep waves

Beta waves – wide awake

Alpha waves – drowsy

Theta waves – slower, larger waves

Delta waves – deepest, slowest waves

video

Which is more important?

After a physically demanding day, people tend to spend more time in NREM sleep

After a emotionally stressful day people need more REM sleep

REM rebound – experience greatly increased amounts of REM after being deprived

Sleep Disorders

Sleepwalking (somnambulism) – typically occurs during Stages Three and Four sleep. 20 % of the population, partially due to heredity, more common in childhood and boys

Sleep Disorders

Nightmares – bad dreams, lessen over time

REM behavior disorder – Get up and act out nightmares

Night Terrors – Rare, found in children, during Stage Four sleep, sit up and scream, run around the room, sweat profusely and unable to breath

video

Read page 117

Sleep Disorders

Insomnia – the inability to sleep – inability to get to sleep, stay asleep, or get a good quality of sleep

Psychological and physiological

Worrying, trying too hard to sleep, anxiety Too much caffeine, indigestion, aches or

pains

Ways to break insomnia

1. Go to bed only when you are sleepy2. Use your bed only for sleep, not studying

or watching TV3. Don’t try too hard to get to sleep, and

especially do not look at the clock and calculate how much sleep you aren't getting

4. Keep to a regular schedule. Go to bed at the same time and get up at the same time

5. No caffeinated drinks or foods6. TCOB during the day so you don’t have to

at night

Sleep Disorders

Sleep apnea – person stops breathing for nearly half a minute or more.

Do not get a good nights sleep

Narcolepsy – “sleep seizure” – person slips suddenly into REM sleep during the day. Falling asleep throughout the day at inappropriate times and inappropriate places.

Chart on page 119 – sleep disorders

videos

Sigmund Freud’s Dream Fulfillment

Problems of his patients stemmed from conflicts and events that had been buried in their unconscious minds

Manifest content – the dream itself

Latent content – expressed through symbols

Ex: climbing over a fence/life

What do people dream about?

Men usually dream about more aggressive things while women usually dream about past and people they know

Are you sleep deprived?

Page 120

Discuss

Practice quiz - 122

Meditation and Hypnosis

Meditation – a mental series of exercises meant to refocus attention and achieve a trancelike state of consciousness.

Can use to cope with stressful situations

Concentrative Meditation

Goal is to focus the mind on some repetitive or unchanging stimulus

Relaxes you and lowers blood pressure

Use in a classroom before a big test

Receptive Meditation

Expand consciousness outward

Being awed by a starry night

Hypnosis

A state of consciousness in which a person is especially susceptible to suggestion

4 steps of hypnosis

1. Hypnotist tells the person to focus on what is being said

2. Person is told to relax and feel tired3. Hypnotist tells the person to “let go” and

accept suggestions easily4. Person is told to use vivid imagination

Hypnosis

Only 80% can be hypnotized, and only 40% are good subjects

If you fantasize a lot, dream a lot, imagine a lot, or really get into what you do, you may be more subjective to hypnosis than other people

DRUGS!

Psychoactive drugs – alter thinking, perception, memory, or some combination of those abilities

Useful and originally designed to help people

Also, very dangerous, create either a physical or psychological dependence, or the worst – drug overdose

DRUGS!

In this section, we will look at the four major drug categories:

Stimulants – amphetamines, cocaine, nicotine, caffeine

Depressants – barbiturates, benzodiazepines, alcohol

Narcotics – Opium, morphine, heroin

Hallucinogenic – LSD, PCP, ecstasy, mescaline, psilocybin, marijuana

TEACH

Where does it come from?What does it do to the body?What part of the brain/body does it affect?What happens if used?PictureNicknames?Is it physically addictive?

Effects

Physical dependence – addicted, cannot function normally without the drug

Person may experience WITHDRAWS - symptoms experienced when without the drug – headache, nausea, irritability, severe pain, cramping, shaking, and high blood pressure

Dependence

Psychological dependence – belief that the drug is needed to continue a feeling of emotional or psychological well-being

They think they need it

Is America drug dependent? Either legally or illegally

Practice quiz 134