STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESSPertemuan 6

Matakuliah : L0014/Psikologi UmumTahun : 2007

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CONSCIOUSNESS VS UNCONSCIOUSNESS

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CONSCIOUSNESS

• State of awareness• is a characteristic of the mind generally regarded

to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and one's environment

• There is more than one kind of conscious states and conscious awareness qualities

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DAY DREAMS

• Period of thinking and feeling that is not bound by what is logical or likely to happen

• Sigmund Freud : daydreams reduced the tension left by our unfulfilled needs and wishes. While daydreaming, we can see all our needs, fantasies, etc.

• Pope & Singer, 1978 – research : many daydreams are filled with regret, sorrow and guilt, sexual. Day dreams maybe merely a slightly distorted reflection of our current concerns and emotions.

DIVIDED CONSCIOUSNESSErnest Hilgard, 1975, Stanford University, Psychologist

• The splitting of two conscious activities that occur simultaneously

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UNCONSCIOUS MIND

• Mental processes that occur without conscious awareness

Cocktail party phenomenonWhen you are in a room where more than one person is talking, most of the time we will pay attention to one voice and “tune out” the other voice

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SLEEP AND DREAMS

STAGES OF SLEEPREM SLEEP AND DREAMS

NON-REM SLEEP AND DREAMSCIRCADIAN RHYTHMS

SLEEP DEPRIVATION AND THE NEED FOR SLEEPNIGHTMARES AND OTHER SLEEP PHENOMENA

SLEEP DISORDERSCONTENT OF DREAMSMEANING OF DREAMS

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STAGES OF SLEEP

• Hypnagogic State– A relaxed state of dreamlike awareness between wakefulness and

sleep– Myoclonia : on some occasion, we are rudely snapped out of the

peaceful hypnagogic state, then we suddenly feel as if we are falling and our bodies experience a sudden jerk. These jerk are caused by brief (and normal) seizure – like states of the brain as sleep commences

• Stages of Light and Deep Sleep– 4 stages– Measurement of electrical brain activity : electroencephalogram

(EEG)– Sleep is an almost constantly changing state

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REM SLEEP AND DREAMS

• Dreaming– Concious awareness during sleep that primarily occurs during

REM

• REM : Rapid Eye Movement– Kleitman & Aserinsky, 1952 : The subject brain activity looked

more like he awake than asleep– The phase of sleep that characterized by movement of the

eyes under the lids; often accompanies dreams

• Autonomic Storm– The autonomic nervous system and the other part of the

pheriperal nervous system are very active during dreams, causing noticeable changes in many parts of the body

• Time spent dreaming– Young adults have 30 – 40 REM dreams/week– 2 hours of REM dreaming/night

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NON-REM SLEEP AND DREAMS

• Occurring during half of the other 4 – 6 hours that we sleep each night

CIRCADIAN RHYTHMS

• Internally generated cycles lasting about 24 hours a day that regulate sleepiness and wakefulness, body temperatures and the secretion of some hormones

• Influenced to some extent by differences illumination during the day and night

• Jet lag and work shift

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SLEEP DEPRIVATION

• We sleep less; 19 – 30 years old average 7 – 8 hours/night and elderly adults average just under 6 hours

• Sleep deprivation :(-) Mood (e.g. irritability), cognitive (mental task –

e.g. logical reasoning, word memory), physical tasks (e.g. walking)

(-) health, slow down body’s immune system

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THE NEED FOR SLEEP

• Sleep and body restoration– Sleep recharges our run-down bodies and allow us to recover

from physical and mental fatigue (Hess, 1965)– Adenosien : cells consume energy. Adenosine accumulates, it

inhibit brain circuits responsible for keeping us awake, thereby signaling the body to slow down because the energy has been burned

• Sleep as an evolved adaptation– Sleep’s main purpose is to increase a species’ chances of

survival in relation to its environmental demands (Webb, 1974)– Evolved as a mechanism for conserving energy

• Sleep and memory consolidation– A gradual process by which the brain transfers information in

the long term memory (Smith et al.,1004, Winston, 1990)

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SLEEP DISORDRES (1)

• Insomnia– Chronic difficulty in falling asleep, staying asleep or experiencing

restful sleep– Frequent and persistent sleep troubles– Medical conditions, mental disorders, drugs, stress, lifestyles, jet lag,

etc– Treatment : stimulus control – conditioning your body to associate

stimuli in your sleep environment with sleep

• Narcolepsy– Extreme daytime sleepiness and sudden, uncontrollable sleep attacks

that may last from less than a minute to an hour– May experienced cataplexy a sudden loss of mucles tone often

triggered by excitement and other strong emotion

• REM-sleep behavior disorder– The loss of muscle tone that causes normal REM-sleep paralysis is

absent

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• Sleepwalking– Waking and carrying on complicated activities during the deepest

part of non-REM sleep– Inherited, daytime stress, alcohol and certain illnesses and

medication– Treatments : psychotherapy, hypnosis, and awakening the children

before the time they typically sleepwalk• Nightmare and Night Terrors

– Nightmare : bad dreams– Night terrors : frightening dreams that arouse the sleeper to a near –

panic state• Sleep talking

– Talking during any phase of the sleep cycle• Sleep Apnea

– Repeatedly stop and restart breathing during sleep– Stoppages usually last 20 – 40 seconds but can continue for 1 to 2

minutes– Cause by obstruction in the upper airways

SLEEP DISORDRES (2)

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CONTENT OF DREAMS

• Images and characters of dreams– Most of the conscious experience in dreams is visual– Black and white or color – in between– Main character : the dreamer (75%), other character :

friends, acquaintances, family member, or other people that you don’t know (50%), animal (4%)

– Mixture between man and woman

• Sweet dreams : the emotional content of dreams– Most of the dreams contain positive emotions– We forget our positive dreams (because the don’t wake us

up) and are most likely to be aware of the negatively charged dreams that awaken us

• Creative and Bizarre Aspects of dreams

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MEANING OF DREAMS

• Day residue and Stimulus incorporation– Day residue (Freud) : dream content that is similar to events

in the person’s waking life– Stimulus incorporation : stimuli occurring during sleep that

are incorporated in dreams either directly or in altered form

• Dream Interpretation– Dreams (Freud) : Royal road to unconscious allow us to

travel deep in the unconscious mind and view hidden conflict and motives cloaked only by the symbols of dreams

– Content of dreams (2) • Manifest : the events that we experience in dreams (the

symbols)• Latent : the true meaning

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ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS (1)

• Unusual and less familiar realms of conscious experience

• Occur during : meditation, drug use, an unusually intense sexual orgasm, a moment of religious conversion, etc

• The general characteristic :1. Distortions of perception2. Intense positive emotions3. Sense of unity4. Illogical5. Indescribable6. Transcendent7. Self-evidence reality

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• Meditation– Several methods of focusing concentration away from thoughts

and feelings and generating a sense of relaxation

• Mindfulness– The state of focusing conscious awareness completely on what

is going on at the present moment

• Hypnosis– The individual is highly relaxed and susceptible for suggestions

• Depersonalization– The perceptual experience of one’s body or surroundings

becoming distorted of unreal– Astral projection : illusion that the mind has left the body

ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS (2)

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DRUGS AND ALTERED CONSCIOUSNESS

• Psychotropic drugs : the various classes of drugs, including stimulants, depressants and hallucinogens, that alter conscious experience

• 4 major categories :– Depressants : reduce the activity of inhibitory centers of the

central nervous system, leading to a sense of relaxation and lowered inhibitions

– Stimulants : drugs that increase the activity of the motivational centers and decrease action in inhibitory centers of the central nervous system, providing a sense of energy and well-being

– Inhalants : common household chemicals that are put to dangerous use when inhaled to produce feelings of intoxication

– Hallucinogens : produce dreamlike alterations in perceptual experience

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DRUGS AND ALTERED CONSCIOUSNESS• 4 major categories :

– Depressants : reduce the activity of inhibitory centers of the central nervous system, leading to a sense of relaxation and lowered inhibitions

• Sedatives : in mild doses produce a state of calm relaxation• narcotics

– Stimulants : drugs that increase the activity of the motivational centers and decrease action in inhibitory centers of the central nervous system, providing a sense of energy and well-being

• Amphetamines : produce a conscious sense of increase energy and euphoria

• Caffeine, nicotine– Inhalants : common household chemicals that are put to dangerous

use when inhaled to produce feelings of intoxication– Hallucinogens : produce dreamlike alterations in perceptual

experience• LSD, PCP

• Others :– Marijuana– Act-like and designers Drugs

• ecstacy

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• 5 sets of factors influence the individual’s response to drugs1. Dose and purity2. Personal characteristic3. Expectations4. Social Situation5. Moods

DRUGS AND ALTERED CONSCIOUSNESS

Drug use : basic considerations

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• Drug Abuse– If its use causes physical or psychological harm to the

individual

• Dependence– Use psychoactive drugs find that they come to crave

them intensely and suffer intense withdrawal symptoms when they do not take the drug

– 3 reasons :• Sensitization of pleasure and reward systems in the brain• Reduction of negative feelings• Classical conditionings

DRUGS AND ALTERED CONSCIOUSNESS

Drug Abuse and Dependence