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Summary Week 1-12 Notes for Intro to Psychology
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Summary of 18 pages for the course Psychology 100 at SUT (Week 1-12)
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● Brain injuries can impair consciousness and reveal ways in which mental processing can occurwithout conscious awareness.
● A person’s consciousness state is constantly changing
● When the changes are particularly noticeable, they are called altered states of consciousness
● Examples include sleep, hypnosis, meditation and some drug-induced conditions
● Cultures vary considerably in the value they place on different consciousness states
Sleeping and dreaming
● Sleep is an active and complex state
● Different stages of sleep are defined on the basis of changes in brain activity (as recorded by an
electroencephalograph, or EEG) and physiological arousal
● Sleep normally begins with stage 1 sleep and progresses gradually to stage 4 sleep
● Sleep stages 3 and 4 constitute slow-wave sleep, which is part of non-REM (NREM) sleep
● After passing back to stage 2, people enter rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, or paradoxical sleep
● The sleeper passes through these stages several times each night, gradually spending more time in
stage 2 and REM sleep later in the night
● The cycle of waking and sleeping is a natural circadian rhythm, or human biological rhythm
● Jet lag can be one result of disrupting the normal sleep–wake cycle
● Sleep disorders can disrupt the natural rhythm of sleep
● Among the most common is insomnia, in which persistent difficulty in falling asleep or staying
asleep at night results in feelings of fatigue during the day
● Dreaming is the experience of storylike sequences of images, sensations and perceptions that
occur during sleep, most commonly during REM sleep
● According to activation–synthesis theory, dreams are the meaningless by-products of brain
activity, but they may still have psychological significance
WEEK 9 - LECTURE
Altered states of consciousness: hypnosis and drugs
Definition of hypnosis
● “Altered state of awareness resulting in changes (physical and physiological) in which there may
by distortion of emotion, sensation, image and time” (adapted from
Waxman, 1981)
● A state where critical powers decrease and responsiveness to
suggestion increases
What does hypnosis involve?
● Reduction of awareness
● Narrowing and intensification of concentration
● Suspension of critical belief and reality testing
● Absorption
● Imagination
● Increased suggestibility
● Suspension of planning ability
Hypnotisability
● Subject must know they are being hypnotised, not possible to hypnotise someone against their
will
● People differ in their hypnotic susceptibility
- Ability to form vivid visual images is an indicator of susceptibility
- Becoming readily absorbed in fantasy, daydreams, and movies is another indicator
Levels of hypnotic trance
● Hypnoidal state
- Lightest trance, achieved by everyone
, ● Light trance
- Achieved by 95% of people
● Medium trance
- Achieved by 70% of people
● Deep trance
- Achieved by 25% of people
● Somnambulism
- Achieved by 2% of people
Theories to explain hypnosis (1)
● There are two main competing explanations of how hypnosis works
● The first group are known as
- Dissociation/Neo-dissociation theories
➢ Hypnosis an altered state of consciousness
➢ Ernst Hillgard (1978,1991) - multiple systems of control not necessarily
conscious at the same time
➢ Two streams of consciousness experienced at the same time, independently: one
being under hypnosis and the second a ‘hidden observer’
➢ Pain experiments
Theories to explain hypnosis (2)
● Social-cognitive/role theories of hypnosis
- Deny altered states occur as a result of hypnosis
- Expectations play primary role - involuntary readiness to respond to
suggestions
- Orne, M.T. (1959). The nature of hypnosis: Artifact and essence.
Journal of Abnormal of Social Psychology, 58 (3), pp. 277-299
Drug-induced states of altered consciousness
● Drug effects on consciousness depend on
- Biological actions of the drug
➢ Operate on the nervous system to alter mental functioning
➢ Neurotransmitter agonists; action on the synthesis release,
reuptake or breakdown
- Expectations of drug effect
Learning and drug tolerance
● Conditional drug tolerance
- Tolerance effects are only strong in familiar situation
- Overdose
- Role of exteroceptive and interoceptive stimuli
CNS depressant drugs
● Depress or slow down CNS function
● Barbiturates and benzodiazepines (antianxiolytics such as
Valium and Xanax)
● Alcohol
- Appears to enhance neurotransmitter GABA
- Most commonly used substance due to its anxiety
reduction and pleasure enhancing qualities
- Effects due to interaction with cultural expectations
- Abuse also common and associated with a range of
negative effects (physical and social)
, CNS stimulating drugs
● Increase behavioural and mental activity
● Examples
- Amphetamines: increase release and decrease removal of norepinephrine and dopamine
- Cocaine: increases norepinephrine and dopamine activity
- MDMA (‘Ecstasy’): increases the activity of dopamine-releasing neurons and stimulates
serotonin receptors
- Caffeine
- Nicotine
Hallucinogenic drugs
● Hallucinogens
- LSD, Mescaline, Magic mushrooms, Ketamine
- Alter sensory data and distort perceptions
- In some cultures used in cultural or religious rituals
- LSD, PCP, Mescaline, “Magic” mushrooms
- Effects often very powerful and often associated with long term
effects on neural function
- Chronic use a risk factor for psychosis
● Marijuana
- Acts on the dopamine system; effects vary individually
- Long term use associated with effects on attention, working memory
and motor abilities
- Can trigger psychosis in vulnerable individuals
Marijuana and psychosis
● Definite association between use of cannabis and incidence of psychosis
● Some research has demonstrated a causal effect
● Likely that cannabis interacts with other factors to ‘cause’ psychosis
Predisposing factors in addition
● Genetic inheritance
● Social factors
- Learning
- Peer pressure
- Advertising
● Personality factors
- Sensation seeking
- Neuroticism
- Rebelliousness
READING - CHAPTER 4
Hypnosis
● Hypnosis is a well-known but still poorly understood phenomenon
● Tests of hypnotic susceptibility suggest that some people cannot be hypnotised
● Hypnotised people tend to focus attention on the hypnotist and passively follow instructions
● According to state theories of hypnosis, hypnosis is a special state of consciousness
● Non-state theories of hypnosis, such as role theory, suggest that hypnosis creates a special social role that
gives people permission to act in unusual ways
● Hypnosis is useful in the control of pain and the reduction of nausea associated with cancer chemotherapy.
Its use as a memory aid is open to serious question
Psychoactive drugs
● Psychoactive drugs affect the brain, changing consciousness and other psychological processes
● Psychopharmacology is the field that studies drug effects and their mechanisms
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