APPsychologyCh7+Consciousness

Hello AP Psych students....#1 Happy holidays, I wish you and your's a joyous holiday season and a great winter break......but before we go we need to be reading Chapter 7 of our Myers 8th Edition textbook.....we also need to be keeping our Dream Diary....hopefully you'll be able to recall the minimum number of dreams (5) and you'll have that finished and typed up by Tuesday December 22 ....you also have the Ch 7 Vocabulary (below) due on the same day....you also need to read two articles: "Nightlife" by Jill Neimark and "[|What Dreams are Made Of]" by Barbara Kantowicz, there will be a short assignment based on this article when you return...you can find both articles online....for "Nightlife" you can get it by clicking [|the link here.] I'll miss you over break so be smart and come back in good shape after the winter break.

Now let's look at States of Consciousness

Consciousness is our awareness of ourselves and our environment. It occurs in varied states. We experience not only the normal states of seeing and hearing, reasoning and remembering, but also the altered consciousness of sleep, hypnotic states, chemically induced hallucinations, and near-death visions. Psychology began as the study of consciousness, and then turned to the study of observable behavior. Today, scientific investigation of states of mind is again one of psychology’s pursuits. Speedy parallel processing handles subconscious information; conscious processing is serial and much slower. __ Biological Rhythms __ Our age-old biological rhythms affect our daily functioning and especially our sleep and dreams. Our internal “biological clocks” regulate four cycles—annual cycles, twenty-eight day cycles, twenty-four hour cycles, and ninety-minute cycles.
 * __ Chapter 7: States of Consciousness __**
 * Consciousness and Information Processing **
 * Sleep and Dreams [[image:http://kmodak.com/images/DreamingND_lg.jpg]] **

__ The Rhythm of Sleep __ Our daily schedule of waking and sleeping is timed by a body clock known as circadian rhythm. Each night’s sleep also has a rhythm of its own, running from transitional Stage 1 sleep to deep Stage 4 sleep and back up to the more internally active REM sleep stage. This cycle repeats several times during a normal night’s sleep, with periods of Stage 4 sleep progressively shortening and of dream-laden REM sleep lengthening.

__ Why Do We Sleep? __ Each individual’s sleep needs are established based on their age, genetic makeup, and culture. Therefore, the eight-hour sleep rule does not apply to everyone. Those who do not get their necessary sleep are said to be sleep deprived and suffer many symptoms including slowed reaction time, irritability, and a suppressed immune system. The theories of why we sleep state that it is protective, recuperative, restorative for our memories, and helps us grow. There's a great article (and a very brief one) that Alice Ma (Class of 2009) submitted for extra credit and I'll put the link here so you can find it and read it. The article is titled [|Sleep and Learning] and it comes from the Society for Neuroscience. Thanks Alice. __ Sleep Disorders __ The disorders of sleep include insomnia (difficulty falling and/or staying asleep), narcolepsy (sudden uncontrollable sleepiness or lapsing into REM sleep), and sleep apnea (the stopping of breathing while asleep). Children are more prone to night terrors and sleepwalking because they experience the deepest Stage 4 sleep.

__Dreams__ Although conscious thoughts can occur during any sleep stage, awakening people during REM sleep yields predictable "dreamlike" reports; awakening during other sleep stages yields only an occasional fleeting image. Our dreams are mostly of ordinary events and everyday experiences; they tend to involve some anxiety or misfortune more than an achievement. Freud believed that a dream’s manifest content, or story line, is a censored version of its latent content, some underlying meaning that gratifies our unconscious wishes. More recent explanations of why we dream suggest that dreams (1) help process information from the day and fix it in memory, (2) serve a physiological function, and/or (3) are the brain’s efforts to synthesize periodic hallucinations (from activity bursts in the visual cortex) into a story line. Some researchers dispute both the Freudian and activation-synthesis theories and feel that dreams help the brain mature and contribute to cognitive development. Despite their differences, most theorists agree that REM sleep and its associated dreams serve an important function, as shown by the REM rebound that occurs following REM deprivation. ** Hypnosis ** __ Facts and Falsehoods __ Although hypnosis was historically linked with quackery, it has more recently become the subject of serious research. Psychologists now agree that hypnosis is a state of heightened suggestibility to which people are subject in varying degrees, and that, although hypnotic procedures may help someone to recall past events, the hypnotist’s beliefs frequently work their way into the subject’s recollections. They also agree that hypnotized people can no more be made to act against their will than can unhypnotized people. Hypnosis can be at least temporarily therapeutic, and hypnotizable people can enjoy significant pain relief.

__ Is Hypnosis an Altered State of Consciousness? __ Hypnosis is at least partly a by-product of normal social and cognitive processes. Many researchers believe it also is an altered state of consciousness, perhaps involving dissociation between levels of consciousness. Psychoactive drugs, including depressants, stimulants, and hallucinogens, also alter consciousness. They change perceptions and moods. __Dependence and Addiction__ Drugs often trigger withdrawal symptoms—negative aftereffects that oppose and offset their temporary pleasure. Such symptoms can lead to physical or psychological dependence. Medical use of drugs rarely creates addictions, however, and many who do suffer drug addictions overcome them when their social context changes.
 * Drugs and Consciousness **

__ Psychoactive Drugs __ Alcohol, barbiturates, and the opiates act by depressing neural functioning. Each offers pleasures, but at the cost of impaired memory and self-awareness or other physical consequences. Caffeine, nicotine, the amphetamines, cocaine, and Ecstasy (considered a stimulant and a hallucinogen) act by stimulating neural functioning. As with nearly all psychoactive drugs, they act at the synapses by influencing the brain’s neurotransmitters, and their effects depend on dosage and the user’s personality and expectations. LSD, marijuana, and Ecstasy are hallucinogens that can distort the user’s judgments of time and, depending on the setting, can alter sensations and perceptions. __ Influences on Drug Use __ Drug use among teenagers and young adults declined during the 1980s, as attitudes changed, and began a rebound during the mid-1990s. Psychological factors (such as stress, depression, and hopelessness) and social factors (such as peer pressure) combine to lead many people to experiment with—and become dependent on—drugs. Some people also appear to have a greater biological susceptibility to dependence on drugs such as alcohol.

If you want a quick and easy way to understand or explain how (and why) drugs are addictive, check out this great site from the University of Utah. It comes to us courtesy of Amanda Lomax (Class of 2008) who is currently studying at Wake Forest University. Here are [|drugs, genetics, and addiction].

About one-third of those who have survived a brush with death, such as through cardiac arrest, later recall visionary near-death experiences. Dualists interpret these experiences as evidence of human immortality. Monists point out that reports of such experiences closely parallel reports of hallucinations and may be products of a brain under stress.
 * Near-Death Experiences [[image:http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/near-death-experience-4.jpg]] **

Vocabulary (in case you forget) Define the following terms using the textbook.  LSD Latent content insomnia hypnosis hallucinogens hallucinations_ Ecstasy (MDMA) _ dualism dream dissociation depressants delta waves consciousness circadian rhythm biological rhythms barbiturates amphetamines __ alpha waves __ __addiction__

Define the following terms using the textbook.   Manifest content _ Methamphetimine Monism Psychoactive drug Post hypnotic suggestion_ __Opiates___ __Night terrors__ __Near-death experience___ __Narcolepsy__ Psychological Dependence __REM rebound__ __REM Sleep__ Sleep Apnea_ Sleep_ __Stimulants___ THC _ __Tolerance__ _ Withdrawal

Here's a good article from Theresa Byrket (of 2nd Period) regarding sleep (it mentions both Stickgold and Hobson [from Harvard] whom we were introduced to in "__//**What Dreams Are Made Of**//__" by Barbara Kantrowitz. the article is entitled "[|Just Sleep On It]"

And here is the link to Alice Ma's [|Sleeping and Learning] article if you missed it above in the "Why We Sleep" section. I will try to embed a video here that is kind of appropriate for the subject matter...it's from The Beatles and I hope you enjoy it......

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