LECTURE OUTLINE

I. What Is Consciousness?
A. How can we attempt to understand consciousness?
1. Psychological Construct: a concept that is devised to help us understand our
observations of behavior.
B. Consciousness as Awareness
1. Consciousness: sensory awareness of the environment.
2. Consciousness as the Selective aspect of Attention.
a. Selective Attention: focusing on a particular stimulus.
i. Adapting to our environment involves learning which stimuli must be
attended to and which ones can be safely ignored.
Cocktail party effect: a phenomenon where we can pick out the speech
of a single person across a room at a cocktail party.
ii. Various stimuli capture our attention, including:
Sudden changes; a cool breeze enters a sweltering room.
Novel stimuli; a dog entering a classroom.
Intense stimuli; bright colors.
Repetitive stimuli; same TV commercial played a dozen times.
3. Consciousness as Direct Inner Awareness
a. Direct inner awareness involved being aware of thoughts, images, emotions
and memories.
C. Conscious, Preconscious, Unconscious, and Nonconscious
1. Sigmund Freud proposed three levels of consciousness:
a. Consciousness: awareness of our environment.
b. Preconscious: material that is not currently in awareness but is readily
available.
c. Unconscious: material unavailable to awareness under most circumstances.
i. Freud believed that we use repression to eject feelings, guilt, and shame
from conscious awareness. This is automatic and unconsciously done.
ii. Suppression is when we consciously eject unwanted events from
awareness.
d. Nonconscious: processes that we cannot experience through our sensory
awareness (e.g. firing neurons, growing hair).
D. Consciousness as Personal Unity
1. We differentiate ourselves from that which is not us. In this usage, consciousness
is self.
E. Consciousness as the Waking State
1. Consciousness also applies to our waking state compared to sleep.
2. Also, distorted perceptions of reality called altered states of consciousness.
a. Hypnosis, meditation, biofeedback and the effects of psychoactive drugs.
II. Sleep and Dreams
A. Facts about sleep
1. One-third of our adult lives are spent in sleep.
2. Experts recommend 8 hours of sleep a night.
a. A typical adult in the U.S. gets a little less than 7 hours a night.
B. Biological and Circadian Rhythms.
1. Circadian rhythm: a cycle that is connected with the 24-hour period of the Earths
rotation.

a. Without cues from the environment, the cycle increases to 25 hours, and we
sleep about 10 of those hours.
C. The Stages of Sleep
1. Brain waves:
a. Frequencies: number of waves per second.
b. Amplitude: height of wave; an index of strength.
i. High in frequency associated with being awake.
c. Alpha Waves 8-13 cycles per second.
d. Theta Waves 6-8 cycles per second.
e. Delta Waves 1-3 cycles per second.
2. Five Stages of Sleep:
a. When we begin to relax, our brain emits alpha waves; low amplitude, 8 to 13
cycles per second.
b. First four stages of sleep are considered non-rapid-eye-movement (NREM).
The fifth stage is called rapid-eye-movement (REM).
c. Stage 1: Brain waves slow down from alpha waves and enter a pattern of 6 to
8 cycles per second called theta waves.
i. Hypnagogic state: we may experience brief dreamlike images.
ii. Stage 1 lasts about 30-40 minutes.
d. Stage 2: Brain waves slow to 4 to 7 cycles per second. There are also sleep
spindles.
i. Sleep spindles: brief bursts of rapid brain activity; 12 to 16 cycles per
second.
e. Stage 3 and 4: Brain waves slow to 1 to 3 cycles per second called delta waves
in stage 3 and slow even more in stage 4 to 0.5 to 2 cycles per second.
i. Difficult to wake a person in stage 4 sleep and lasts about hour.
f. Then we begin a journey back upward through the stages until we enter REM
(rapid eye movement) sleep. Often called paradoxical sleep because:
i. EEG patterns look like an awake persons waves.
ii. Difficult to wake a person in REM.
iii. If you do wake a person up, 80% of the time they report having been
dreaming.
g. Each night we tend to undergo five trips through the stages of sleep.
D. The Functions of Sleep
1. We do not have all of the answers as to why we sleep.
2. But we do know:
a. Rejuvenates the body
b. Helps us recover from stress
c. Consolidates learning and memories
d. May promote development of infants brains
3. What if you dont get enough?
a. There seems to be some impairment in concentration ability and performance.
Also, attention, learning and memory deteriorate when deprived of sleep for
several nights.
b. National Sleep Foundation estimates that sleep deprivation is connected with
100,000 vehicular crashes and 1,500 deaths each year.
4. Why do you need the amount of sleep you need?
a. The amount of sleep we need may be partially determined genetically.
b. Sleep seems to help us recover from stress.
c. During episodes of depression more sleep is needed.

5. Sleep, Learning and Memory

a. REM and deep sleep are both connected with the consolidation of learning and
memory.
b. Being REM deprived interferes with memory.
i. If REM deprived, the person will experience REM rebound where they
spend more time in REM sleep during subsequent sleep periods.
c. Fetuses have periods of waking and sleeping.
i. REM sleep may foster the development of the brain before birth.
E. Dreams
1. Dreams involve imagery in the absence of external stimulation.
2. Most likely to experience vivid imagery in dreams during REM sleep.
3. You have as many as five dreams each night.
4. Nightmares: generally products of REM sleep are bad dreams.
5. Dreams as The Residue of the Day
a. Dream content is memories of the day gone by.
b. Tend to include people and experiences from our everyday life.
c. Tend to include things that we are preoccupied with.
d. Traumatic events can spawn nightmares.
i. Frequent nightmare sufferers are more likely to have feelings of anxiety
and depression.
6. Dreams as the Expression of Unconscious Desires
a. Freud theorized that dream content is unconscious wishes and urges that we
may censor during the day.
b. The content of dreams is symbolic of unconscious fantasized objects.
c. Freud would spend time interpreting his clients dreams.
7. The Activation-Synthesis Model of Dreams
a. The pons and acetylcholine stimulate responses that lead to dreaming.
b. Activation of the reticular activating system which arouses us but does not
wake us.
i. The RAS also stimulates parts of the cortex involved in memory and the
cortex then synthesizes these memories together.
c. Dreams help us consolidate memories.
F. Sleep Disorders
1. Nightmares are not sleep disorders.
2. Insomnia: National Sleep Foundation reports that as many as half of American
adults (and two-thirds of older adults) are affected by insomnia in a given year.
3. Narcolepsy: Sudden and irresistibly falling asleep.
a. Affects 100,000 people in a given year.
b. Typically lasts 15 minutes.
c. Can be accompanied by sleep paralysis, a sudden collapse of muscle groups.
d. Thought to be a disorder of REM sleep.
e. Stimulants and antidepressant drugs have helped.
4. Apnea: a dangerous sleep disorder in which air passages are obstructed. People
stop breathing periodically, up to several hundred times per night.
a. 10 million Americans have apnea, associated obesity and chronic loud snoring.
b. Related to high blood pressure, heart attacks, and strokes.
c. Causes may include anatomical deformities that clog air passages and
problems in the breathing centers of the brain (such as a thick palate).
d. Treated by:
i. Weight loss

ii. Surgery
iii. Continuous positive airway pressure supplied by a mask.
5. Deep Sleep Disorders: Sleep Terrors, Bed Wetting, and Sleep Walking.
a. Typically occur in stage 3 or 4 sleep, more common among children and may
reflect an immaturity of the nervous system.
b. Sleep Terrors: similar to nightmares but are more severe.
i. Mild tranquilizers help.
c. Bed Wetting: stem from immaturity of the nervous system.
i. Behavior therapy methods help. Children often outgrow this.
d. Half of children talk in their sleep now and then and adults do on occasion.
e. Sleep Walking: 7-15% of children walk in their sleep. Only 2% of adults.
i. Typically dont remember their excursions, though they may respond to
questions.
ii. Mild tranquilizers and maturity typically put an end to sleepwalking.
III. Altering Consciousness Through Hypnosis, Meditation, and Biofeedback
A. Hypnosis
1. An altered state of consciousness where people are highly suggestible and appear
to be in a trance.
a. Hypnosis, a term derived from the Greek word for sleep.
2. Began with Franz Mesmer (mesmerize) in the 18th century.
a. Mesmer proposed that the universe is connected by forms of magnetism.
3. Today, hypnosis is popular in nightclubs but it is also used as an anesthetic in
dentistry, childbirth and surgery.
a. Psychologists use it to help people reduce anxiety or overcome fears.
b. Also used to help people deal with pain, stress, enhance the functioning of the
immune system, losing weight, and prompting memories of witnesses.
4. Hypnosis is not sleep, though it has been called a hypnotic trance.
5. Characteristics of people who are readily hypnotizable (hypnotic suggestibility)
are:
a. Suggestibility, prone to fantasy, they compartmentalize unwanted memories,
and cooperate with the hypnotist.
b. It is extremely unlikely that someone could be hypnotized against their will.
6. Explaining Hypnosis
a. According to Freud, hypnotized adults permit themselves to return to childish
modes of responding that emphasize fantasy and impulse rather than fact and
logic.
b. Role Theory (Sarbin): People allow themselves to enact this role under the
hypnotists direction. Behaviors seen while hypnotized can be easily replicated
when people are asked to behave as though they are hypnotized.
i. People are allowing themselves to enact the role.
c. Response Set Theory: Response expectancies play a role in the production of
personal experiences.
i. A response set is created in which the subject is more likely to follow
further suggestions.
B. Meditation
1. Definition:
a. Meditation refers to the various ways of focusing ones consciousness to alter
ones relationship to the world often within a spiritual context.

b. Can also refer to a process in which people seem to suspend problem solving,
planning, worries, and awareness of the day.
c. Transcendental meditation (TM) is a simplified form of Far Eastern
meditation.
i. Characterized by repeating and concentrating on mantras words or
sounds that aid the person in achieving an altered state of consciousness.
ii. TM has some goals that can be assessed scientifically.
Expanding consciousness
Reducing anxiety and normalizing blood pressure.
iii. TM was shown to reduce heart rate and respiration rates as well as blood
pressure and slowing the hardening of arteries.
d. Mindfulness Meditation (MM) makes no pretense of achieving spiritual goals
but instead provides clients with techniques they can use to focus on the
present moment rather than ruminate about problems.
i. Helps clients cope with depression and reducing stress.
ii. Brain imaging shows meditation activates neural structures involved in
attention and in control of the autonomic nervous system helping produce
feelings of relaxation.
C. Biofeedback
1. Definition and Usage:
a. Biofeedback training (BFT) is a system that provides information about a
bodily functions including heart rate.
b. Used to help people combat stress, tension, and anxiety.
2. Electromyograph (EMG) are often used to monitor muscle tension.
3. Each of these help people relax, to control anxiety and tension.
IV. Altering Consciousness Through Drugs
A. Definitions:
1. Psychoactive drugs: drugs that can distort perceptions and change mood.
B. Substance Abuse and Dependence
1. Substance Abuse: repeated use of a substance despite the fact that it is causing or
compounding social, occupational, psychological, physical problems.
2. Substance dependence: more severe than abuse is often characterized by loss of
control with use, tolerance, withdrawal symptoms (or both).
a. Tolerance: The bodys habituation to a substance so that higher doses are
required to achieve similar effects.
b. Withdrawal is the effects that are seen when the level of usage suddenly drops
off. Symptoms may include anxiety, tremors, restlessness, weakness, rapid
pulse, and high blood pressure.
i. Psychological dependence signs include anxiety including shakiness, rapid
pulse and sweating which can be mistaken for physiological dependence.
ii. Delirium Tremens (DTs) experienced by chronic alcoholics when they
suddenly lower their intake of alcohol. Symptoms include: heavy
sweating, restlessness, general disorientation and terrifying hallucinations.
DTs are physiological.
C. Causal Factors in Substance Abuse and Dependence.
1. Some common answers as to why people experiment with drugs include:
curiosity, conformity to peer pressure, parental use, rebelliousness, escape from
boredom or pressure, and seeking of excitement or pleasure.
2. Psychological views:

a. Expectations about the effects of a drug are powerful predictors of its use.
b. Many people use drugs to self-medicate for anxiety and depression.
c. Social cognitive theory suggests that people may use drugs at the suggestion
from others
d. Learning theory - reinforcing
e. Biological views:
i. Genetic predispositions towards physiological dependence.
D. Depressants.
1. Generally act by slowing the activity of the central nervous system.
2. Alcohol-The Swiss Army Knife of Psychoactive Substances
a. Is considered to be a depressant.
b. The Swiss Army knife of drugs, it seems to do it all.
i. Provides relief from anxiety, depression or loneliness, and lowers
inhibitions
ii. Used in celebrations, to applaud accomplishments, express joyous wishes.
iii. 10-20 million Americans are alcoholics. Alcohol is the most abused drug.
iv. Binge drinking (males having 5 or more drinks in a row; 4 for females) is
connected with aggressive behavior, poor grades, sexual promiscuity, and
serious accidents.
Four college students die each day from alcohol-related causes.
44% of college students binge at least twice a month.
c. What are the effects of alcohol?
i. Low doses of alcohol may feel stimulating, but large doses have a clear
sedative effect.
Impairs cognitive functioning, slurs speech, and reduces motor
coordination.
Lowers inhibitions
Linked to poor grades in adolescence.
Induces feelings of elation and euphoria that may wash away doubts.
ii. Regular drinking leads to physiological dependence.
iii. More men than women will become alcoholics
Culture: tighter constraints on women
Biology: alcohol hits women harder, discouraging them from
overindulging.
3. Opiates: a narcotic derived from the opium poppy.
a. Opioids are similar in structure but are synthetically derived.
b. Include: morphine, heroin, codeine, and Demerol. Major application is relief
from pain.
i. Heroin: can cause strong euphoric rushes. Can cause drowsiness and
stupor, alter perceptions of time and impair judgment.
c. Withdrawal can be distressing and include flu-like symptoms, tremors,
cramps, chills, alternating with sweating, rapid pulse, high blood pressure,
insomnia, vomiting and diarrhea.
d. Heroin was once used as a cure for addiction to morphine.
i. Now there is methadone, a human made opioid.
ii. Methadone is slower acting.
4. Barbiturates
a. Barbiturates are depressants, which provide relief of anxiety and tension, relief
from pain, treatment of epilepsy, high blood pressure and insomnia.

i. Rapidly lead to both physiological and psychological dependence.

ii. Barbiturates produce relaxing and mild euphoric states. High doses result
in drowsiness, motor impairment, slurred speech, irritability and poor
judgment.
b. Withdrawal can be severe and can include convulsions and death.
E. Stimulants increase activity in the central nervous system.
1. Amphetamines and Related Stimulants.
a. Amphetamines help people remain alert through the night.
b. Often abused because of the euphoric rush they provide.
c. Ritalin (methylphenidate) is a stimulant used to treat attention-deficit disorder.
i. Has been shown to increase attention span, decrease aggressive and
disruptive behavior and can lead to academic gains.
ii. The hyperactivity may be connected with immaturity of the cerebral
cortex.
d. High doses of amphetamines may cause restlessness, insomnia, loss of
appetite, hallucinations, and paranoid delusions, and irritability.
e. Tolerance develops quickly and users can become dependent.
2. Cocaine: (side note: Coca-Cola stopped putting cocaine in its formula in 1906.)
a. Cocaine, made from coca leaves, is a stimulant that produces euphoria,
reduces hunger, deadens pain, and bolsters self-confidence.
i. Apparently works by binding to sites on sending neurons that normally
reuptake molecules of the neurotransmitters norepinephrine, dopamine,
and serotonin.
ii. Potent cocaine derivatives known as crack and bazooka are inexpensive
because they are unrefined.
iii. Stimulates sudden rises in blood pressure; overdoses can lead to
restlessness, insomnia, tremors, headaches, convulsions, nausea,
hallucinations, and delusions.
iv. Use of crack has been connected with strokes
b. Only 4% of adolescents use cocaine regularly
c. Can result in psychological as well as physical dependence.
d. Used as a local anesthetic since the early 1800s.
i. Freud used it to fight his own depression and published an article about it
titled Song of Praise.
3. Nicotine stimulates discharge of the hormone adrenaline as well as
neurotransmitters (dopamine, acetylcholine, GABA, and endorphins)
a. Appears to enhance memory and attention, improve performance on simple
repetitive tasks and enhance mood. It also seems to help people relax and
reduce stress.
i. Nicotine depresses appetite and raises the metabolic rate.
Some use it to help control weight.
b. Nicotine is addictive and is what causes the physiological dependence people
have with tobacco products.
i. Withdrawal symptoms include nervousness, drowsiness, loss of energy,
headaches, irregular bowel movements, lightheadedness, insomnia,
dizziness, cramps, palpitations, tremors, and sweating.
c. Nearly 430,000 Americans die from smoking-related illnesses each year
(American Lung Association, 2005).
d. Hydrocarbons (tars) are what lead to lung cancer.
i. Stiffens arteries, linked to death from heart disease.

e. Women who smoke show reduced bone density.

f. Pregnant women who smoke have a higher risk of miscarriage, preterm births,
low birth weight babies, and stillborn babies.
g. Secondhand smoke, smoke inhaled from other peoples tobacco products, is
also of concern.
i. This has been connected to lung cancer, respiratory illnesses, asthma, and
other health problems.
F. Hallucinogens
1. Hallucinogens produce hallucinations. They also produce relaxation, euphoria, or
in some cases, panic.
2. Marijuana is produced from the Cannabis sativa plant. It helps some people relax
and can elevate mood. It sometimes produces mild hallucinations.
a. Main ingredient is THC
b. Impairs perceptual-motor coordination, short-term memory, and slows
learning. Also seen are disturbances in anxiety, confusion, and psychotic
reactions.
c. Some report:
i. Sharpened perceptions
ii. Increased self-insight
iii. Creative thinking
iv. Increase empathy
d. Strong intoxication can produce nausea and vomiting. People can become
psychologically dependent and experience tolerance and withdrawal
symptoms.
3. LSD and Other Hallucinogens.
a. LSD is the abbreviation for lysergic acid synthetic hallucinogenic drug.
i. LSD provides vivid and colorful hallucinations.
ii. Flashbacks: distorted perceptions or hallucinations that mimic the LSD
trip. Technically termed hallucinogen persisting perception disorder
(HPPD).
b. Mescaline: derived from the peyote cactus.
c. Phencyclidine (PCP) was developed to be an anesthetic.
d. Regular use of hallucinogens may lead to tolerance and psychological
dependence.
i. High doses may impair coordination, cloud judgment, change mood, and
cause frightening hallucinations and delusions.