Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Variations in Consciousness
- The Nature of Consciousness
- Consciousness: The
awareness of
internal and
external stimuli
- "Stream of Consciousness" - William James
- Consciousness does not come from any
distinct structure but rather from activity
in distributed networks of neural
pathways
- Mind Wandering: Refers to people's experience
of task-unrelated thoughts
- Peoples spend 15-50% of their time mind wandering
- Controlled processes:
Judgments or thoughts
that we exert some
control over (intention)
- Automatic Processes: It's
effects happen without our
intentional control or effort
- EEG (Electroencephalograph): Monitors electrical activity of
the brain over time. Measures brain waves (vary in
amplitude and frequency)
- Divided into four principle bands:
- Beta (13-24cps): Normal waking thought, alert problem solving.
- Alpha (8-12cps): Deep relaxation, blank mind, meditation.
- Theta (4-7cps): Light sleep.
- Delta (under 4cps): Deep sleep.
- Biological Rhythms and Sleep
- Biological Rhythms:
Periodical
fluctuations in
physiological
functioning
(biological clock)
- Circadian Rhythms: the 24hr biological cycles found in
humans and many other species
- Persist even when
external time cues
are eliminated
(cycles tend to be
longer 24.2hrs)
- Daily exposure
to light
readjusts
peoples
biological clocks
- Melatonin can help realign circadian rhythm
- Sleep debt accumulates
and for everything to
return to normal it must
be paid back by getting
extra sleep
- Jet Lag: Getting out of sync with circadian Rhythms
- Rule of thumb - Readjustment
process takes about a day for each
time zone crossed going eastward
and 2/3 of a day per time zone
crossed going westward
- The Sleep and Waking Cycle
- Devices used for sleep analysis
- Electromyograph
(EMG): Records
muscular activity and
tension
- Electrooculograph
(EOG): Records eye
movement
- During sleep people
cycle through a series
of five stages
- Stage 1: Brief transition stage of light
sleep (1-7min) breathing and heartrate
slow as muscle tension and body temp
decline. Theta waves are prominent
- Hypnic Jerks: Brief muscular contractions that occur as people fall asleep
- Stage 2: (10-25 min) brief bursts of higher-frequency brain waves
called Sleep Spindles. Brain waves become higher amplitude and
slower frequency as body moves into a deeper form of sleep called
slower wave sleep
- Non REM (NREM): Consists of sleep stages 1-4 marked
by absence of rapid eye movement. Relatively little
dreaming and varied EEG activity
- Stages 3 & 4: Consists of Slow-wave Sleep
(SWS): high-amplitude, low frequency
delta waves. Typically reach SWS in 1/2
hr and stay there for another 30 minutes
then cycle reverses.
- Stage 5: REM deep sleep. People are hard to awaken. Irregular breathing and
pulse rate, muscle tone extremely relaxed, almost to the point of paralysation.
EEG dominated by high frequency beta waves that resemble those of an awake
and alert person. Vivid dreaming.
- Sleep cycle is repeated about four times a night
- Ascending Reticular Activating System
(ARAS): Consists of the afferent fibres
running through the reticular formation
that influence physiological arousal
- Health issues associated to sleep loss
include: hormonal changes, obesity,
impaired immune system and
increase in inflammatory responses,
increased risk for diabetes,
hypertension, cardiovascular disease.
Less than 7hrs of sleep and more than
8hrs leads to higher mortality rate.
- Common sleep disorders (78 total):
- Insomnia: Refers to chronic problems in getting adequate sleep
- Narcolepsy: A disease marked by sudden and
irresistible onsets of sleep during normal
waking periods
- Sleep Apnea: Involves frequent,
reflexive gasping for air that
awakens a person and disrupts
sleep
- Nightmares: Anxiety-arousing dreams that lead to awakening, usually from REM sleep
- Night-Terrors: Abrupt awakenings from NREM sleep,
accompanied by intense autonomic arousal and feelings
of panic
- Somnambulism (sleepwalking): Occurs
when a person arises and wanders
about while remaining asleep
- REM Sleep Behaviour
Disorder (RBD): Marked
by potentially
troublesome dream
enactments during REM
periods
- The World of Dreams
- Day Residue (Freud): When contents of waking life often spill into dreams
- Lucid Dreams: Dreams in which people can
think clearly about the circumstances of
waking life and the fact that they are
dreaming
- Some cultures view
dreams as another
type of reality
- Theories of Dreaming:
- Wish Fulfillment (Freud): People fulfill ungratified needs
from waking hours through wishful thinking in dreams
- The manifest content: Consists of the plot of a dream at the surface level
- The latent content: Refers to the hidden or disguised meaning of the events in the plot
- The Problem Solving View
(Cartwright): We think through
major problems in our lives while
dreaming
- Activation-Synthesis Model (Hobson &
McCarthy): A story is created to make
sense of internal signals
- Hypnosis
- Hypnosis: A systematic procedure
that typically produces a
heightened state of suggestibility
- May lead to: Passive relaxation, narrowed attention, and enhanced fantasy
- Measured by: Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale (SHSS)
- Hypnotic Phenomena:
- Anesthesia: Participants are able to withstand treatments that would
normally cause considerable pain
- Sensory
Distortions and
Hallucinations:
Visual or
auditory
hallucinations
- Disinhibition: Getting people
to do things they wouldn't
otherwise do in a normal state
- Posthypnotic Suggestions
And Amnesia: Suggestions
are made that may
influence a subject's later
behaviour
- Hypnotic Trance: A special
altered state of
consciousness
- Theories of Hypnosis:
- Social-Cognitive Theory of Hypnosis:
Hypnosis as Role Playing - Hypnosis =
normal mental state. Result of
expectations and attitudes (Barber &
Spanos)
- Hypnosis as an Altered State of Consciousness - Hypnotized subjects
experience changes in brain activity. Dissociation: A splitting off of mental
processes into two separate simultaneous streams of awareness
- Stream 1: In communication with hypnotist and the external world
- Stream 2: Difficult-to-detect "hidden observer"
- Highway Hypnosis: Ability to drive
following the rules with no
recollection of it due to the /2
streams'
- Meditation
- Meditation: A family of practices that train attention
to heighten awareness and bring mental processes
under greater voluntary control
- Can be classified
into two main
styles:
- Focused Attention: Attention concentrated on a specific
object, sound or bodily function
- Open Monitoring:
Attention directed to
contents of one's
moment-to-moment
experience in
non-judging and
nonreactive ways
- Physiological Correlation:
- Alpha and theta waves become more prominent
- Heart rate, skin conductance,
respiration rate, oxygen
consumption and carbon dioxide
elimination decline
- Increased activity in prefrontal cortex
- Long Term Benefits:
- Reduce stress
- Improve immune response
- Improve mental health by reducing anxiety and drug abuse
- Increase tolerance of pain
- Altering Consciousness with Drugs
- Psychoactive Drugs: Chemical substances that
modify mental, emotional, or behavioural
functioning
- Six Categories:
- Narcotics (opiates): Drugs derived from opium that are capable of relieving pain
- Sedatives: Sleep-inducing drugs that
tend to decrease CNS activation and
behavioural activity
- Stimulants: Drugs that
tend to increase CNS
activation and
behavioural activity
- Hallucinogens: Diverse group of drugs that have powerful effects
on mental and emotional functioning, marked most prominently
by distortions in sensory and perceptual experience
- Cannabis: The hemp plant from
which marijuana, hashish, and
THC are derived
- Alcohol:
Encompasses a
variety of beverages
containing ethyl
alcohol
- Tolerance: A progressive
decrease in a person's
responsiveness to a drug
- How they work?
- Work primarily by altering neurotransmitter activity in the brain
- Drug Dependence
- Physical
Dependence: Exists
when a person
must continue to
take a drug to
avoid withdrawal
illness
- Psychological
Dependence: Exists
when a person must
continue to take a
drug to satisfy
intense mental and
emotional craving for
the drug
- Both forms of dependence
reflect altercations in synaptic
transmission
- Three Primary Ways Drugs Affect Health
- Overdose:
- CNS depressants are the greatest risk for
overdose. Respiratory system grinds to a
halt, producing coma, brain damage and
death
- Fatal
overdoses
involve heart
attacks,
stroke or
cortical
seizure
- Direct Effects:
- Direct tissue damage, liver
damage, ulcers,
hypertension, stroke, heart
disease, neurological
disorders and some types of
cancer
- Indirect Effects:
- Affects attitudes, intentions and behaviour