Psychology Chapter 15

awareness of yourself and your surroundings

you cannot share it with another person

you can be aware of some things while ignoring others

you can pay attention to two different things at once

each moment of consciousness blends into the next moment

your awareness normally shirft to other things within seconds

ranges from an alert awareness to the relative stupor of deep sleep

regular bodily rhythms that occur on a 24-hour cycle

• contains hormone melatonin which helps set sleep-wake cycle
• artificial melatonin can help treat insomnia and depression

• pushing sleep cycle back or making the day long
• easier to adjust to

shortened day less than 24 hours

• force you body to adjust immediately to time change
• this helps with jet lag

an awareness of yourself and your surroundings that is noticably different from your normal state of consciousness

• most common altered state of consciousness
• a non-waking state of consciousness which you typically remain motionless and are only slightly responsive to your surroundings

• NREM sleep, stages 1-4
• REM sleep
• about every 90-100 minutes you cycle through sleep stages
• combined 1-4 stages take 50-70 minutes

very fast, low-amplitude brain waves associated with an active alert state of mind

fast, low-amplitude brain waves associated with a relaxed, wakeful state of mind

• theta waves: irregular, small, rapid brainwaves
• lasts a few minutes
• HR, respiration slow, body temp drops and muscles relax
• you can have sensations of floating, falling, and visual and auditory hallucinations
• wake very easily

• lasts about 20 minutes
• sleep spindles appear, which are bursts of rapid, rhythmic brain-wave activity
• typically sleep talking occurs here

begin to move into the deep form of slow-wave sleep

• delta waves: slow, high amplitude brain waves
• very difficult to wake up

• rapid eye movement
• an active phase in the sleep cycle during which dreaming occurs, characterized by rapid eye movements

• sleep is essential in maintaining health
• reaction time
• microsleep
• amount of sleep needed

story-like sequences of visual images experienced during sleeps

dreams in which people are aware that they are dreaming

• psychoanalytic theory of sigmund freud, who said dreams are disguised wishes of the unconscious mind
• the dreamer remembers the surface meaning, or manifest content, of the dream
• the true meaning of the dream, or latent content, is hidden from the dreamer to avoid anxiety

• off-line dream theory: a theory that dreaming is a time for consolidating and storing information gathered during the day
• you process daily activities
• if rem sleep is interrupted less learning of information occurs
• spend more time in rem after learning difficult material

• activation-synthesis theory: a theory that dreaming is the forebrain's attempt to interpret random neural activity coming from  the midbrain during sleep
• left cerebral hemisphere is the brain's interpreter and makes sense of info and dream plots
• the right hemisphere constructs the dream's visual features

• most common sleep disorder
• chronic inability to fall or stay asleep

• a panic attack that generally occurs during early-night stage 4 NREM sleep in children between the ages of 3 and 8
• sit up in bed, scream, stare into space and talk without making sense
• seldom wake and have little memory of the event 

• a disorder in which a person wanders during early-night NREM sleep
• more common among children than adults
• more common among boys than girls

a sleep disorder characterized by uncontrollable REM sleep attacks durning normal waking hours

• a sleep disorder in which sleeping individuals briefly stop breathing several times in an hour, interrupting sleep without the person's knowledge
• common among overweight men

a state of altered attention and awareness in which a person is unusually responsive to suggenstion

person can readily imagine unusual situations that differ form normal reality

instead of planning actions, the hypnotized person waits for the hypnotists to suggest thoughts or actions

• hypnotized person focuses attention on the hypnotist's voice and ignores other stimuli
• even pain that is unbearable during normal wakking state is tolerated through this focused attention

hypnotized person tends to accept uncritically hallucinated experience suggested by the hypnotized

• when instructed the hypnotized person forgets all or most of what occurred during the hypnotic session
• these memories are restored when the hypnotist later gives a prearranged signal

• the degree to which a person can enter a deep hypnotic state
• children are the most hypnotizable
• 15% of adults are highly hypnotizable about 10% can't be hypnotized

• states that a hypnotized person has two streams of consciousness operating at the same time
• one stream actively responds while the other simply observes

hypnosis is a normal state of consciousness in which people act the way they think  hypnotized persons are supposed to act

• a mental exercise that focus attention and increase awareness
• zen, transcendental meditation, and relaxation response
• effective treatment of insomnia, anxiety, depression, and drug abuse
• known to reduce negative effects of heart disease and strengthen immune system

chemicals that change mental processes and behavior

continued drug use despite it interfering with the drug user's behavior or social relationships

an effect of drug abuse in which greater amounts of the drug are necessary to produce the same result once produced by a smaller dose

the need of a drug to function normally

a mental and emotional desire for the drug

• depressants
• stimulants
• hallucinogens
• inhalants

• pyschoactive drugs that slow down--or depress--the nervous system and decrease mental and physical activity
• alcohol, sedatives, tranquillizer, and norcotics

tolerance and physical dependence resulting form prolonged abuse of alcohol

• drugs that speed up -- or stimulate-- the nervous system and increase mental and physical activity
• caffeine, nicotine, cocaine and amphetamines, methamphetamine, ecstasy, and Ritalin

sensations and perceptions that occur without any external stimulation

psychoactive drugs that dramatically alter consciousness and produce hallucinations include LSD and marijuana

• a potent synthesized hallucinogenic drug that is structurally similar to the neurotransmitter serotonin
• last 10-12 hours can have flashbacks

psychoactive drug that is made from the cannabis plant

major psychoactive ingredient in marijuana

• chemicals whose vapors can be breathed in to produce a mind-altering effect
• four categories: volatile solvents, aerosols, gases, nitrites