UOC FAMG 1023 Introduction to Psychology PDF

SUBJECT : INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY SUBJECT CODE : FAMG 1023 LECTURER : ATIQAH JANI (K.B.,P.A.) FACULTY : CENTRE FOR FOUNDATION, LANGUAGES & GENERAL STUDIES  CHAPTER 9 Consciousness  COURSE LEARNING OUTCOME CHAPTER LEARNING OUTCOMES: Explain w...

SUBJECT : INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY SUBJECT CODE : FAMG 1023 LECTURER : ATIQAH JANI (K.B.,P.A.) FACULTY : CENTRE FOR FOUNDATION, LANGUAGES & GENERAL STUDIES  CHAPTER 9 Consciousness  COURSE LEARNING OUTCOME CHAPTER LEARNING OUTCOMES: Explain why early psychologists abandoned the study of consciousness and why new developments now make such a study possible. List methods of presenting a stimulus while preventing conscious perception of it. Describe how a consciously perceived stimulus activates brain areas differently from the same stimulus when not consciously perceived. Cite evidence that the brain processes some information unconsciously. Discuss cases in which people in a vegetative state showed evidence of consciousness. Describe and evaluate evidence that brain activity responsible for a movement begins before the conscious decision to make that movement. Consciousness. Measuring Consciousness Psychologists long ago abandoned the study of consciousness, but today research is possible because of: ○ An operational definition “If a cooperative person reports being conscious (aware) of one stimulus and not of another, then he or she was conscious of the first and not the second.” ○ Limited research questions ○ Methods of measuring brain activity ○ Ways of controlling consciousness of a stimulus Masking – a procedure of preceding or following a stimulus with an interfering pattern that might prevent consciousness of the stimulus Flash suppression – a procedure of blocking consciousness of a stationary visual stimulus by surrounding it with rapidly flashing items Binocular rivalry – alteration between seeing the pattern in the left retina and the pattern in the right retina Brain Activity, Conscious or Unconscious When someone is conscious of a stimulus, the following occurs: 1. The stimulus activates neurons more strongly. 2. Their activity reverberates through other brain areas. 3. That activity rebounds to magnify the original response. 4. The process inhibits responses to competing stimuli. Unconscious Processing of a Suppressed Stimulus The brain processes stimuli even without consciousness, enough to evaluate their importance. Unconscious processes are an important part of cognition. Consciousness as an All-or-None Phenomenon Consciousness of a stimulus appears to be an all-or-none process. ○ Either the brain activity spreads strongly through the brain, or it does not. Consciousness as a Construction Conscious experience of a stimulus is a construction that can occur slightly after the stimulus itself, rather than simultaneously with it. Can We Use Brain Measurements to Infer Consciousness? Physicians distinguish various gradations of brain activity that relate to arousal, responsiveness, and presumed consciousness. ○ Brain death – condition in which the brain shows no activity and no response to any stimulus ○ Coma – condition in which the brain shows a steady but low level of activity and no response to any stimulus ○ Vegetative state – condition marked by limited responsiveness to stimuli, such as increased heart rate in response to pain ○ Minimally conscious state – condition in which someone has brief periods of purposeful actions and speech comprehension Brain scans provide suggestions of consciousness in certain patients who seem unresponsive to their environment. Consciousness and Action When people report the time of a conscious decision to make a movement, brain scans indicate the brain activity responsible for the movement began before the reported time of the conscious decision. How Well Can We Measure the Time of a Conscious Decision? Research promotes skepticism that people can report their decision times accurately. Voluntary decisions are gradual, not sudden. What Is the Purpose of Consciousness? A possible function of conscious thought is to prepare for future action when a similar situation arises. Sleep and Dreams. Circadian Rhythms Circadian rhythm – rhythm of activity and inactivity lasting approximately one day The rising and setting of the sun provide cues to reset our rhythm, but we generate the rhythm ourselves. Circadian rhythm controls more than sleeping and waking. ○ Hunger and thirst ○ Urine production ○ Blood pressure ○ Alertness ○ Body temperature ○ Mood Morning People and Evening People People vary in their circadian rhythms. ○ Some people arouse quickly and reach their peak alertness early. ○ Others increase alertness more slowly and reach their peak in late afternoon or early evening. Most young adults are either evening people or intermediate, whereas most people over age 65 are morning people. ◄ Figure 1 Most people suffer more serious jet lag when traveling east than when traveling west. ▲ Figure 2 The graveyard shift is aptly named: Serious industrial accidents usually occur at night, when workers are least alert. As in jet lag, the direction of change is critical. Moving forward—clockwise—is easier than going backward. Brain Mechanisms of Circadian Rhythms An area of the brain, called the suprachiasmatic nucleus, generates an approximately 24-hour rhythm. ○ Sunlight does not generate this rhythm, but it does reset it. The suprachiasmatic nucleus exerts its control partly by regulating the pineal gland’s secretions of the hormone melatonin, which is important for circadian rhythms. Why We Sleep Sleep serves several functions, including conservation of energy and an opportunity to strengthen learning and memory. Sleep-deprived people have difficulty maintaining attention. Stages of Sleep Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep – stage characterized by rapid eye movements, a high level of brain activity, and deep relaxation of the postural muscles; also known as paradoxical sleep ○ Dreams are common in this stage but not limited to it. ► Figure 10.14 During sleep, people progress through stages of varying brain activity. The blue line indicates brain waves, as shown by an EEG. The red line shows eye movements. REM sleep resembles stage 1 sleep, except for the addition of rapid eye movements. Insomnia Insomnia – condition of not getting enough sleep to feel rested the next day Insomnia results from causes including: ○ Noise ○ Worries ○ Indigestion ○ Uncomfortable temperatures ○ Use of alcohol or caffeine ○ Medical or psychological disorders Sleep Apnea/Narcolepsy Sleep apnea – condition in which someone fails to breathe for a minute or more during sleep and wakes up gasping for breath ○ Sleep apnea is most common in overweight middle-aged men whose breathing passages become narrower than usual. Narcolepsy – condition characterized by sudden attacks of sleepiness during the day Some Other Sleep Experiences Sleep talking Sleepwalking Lucid dreaming Periodic limb movement disorder – condition marked by unpleasant sensations in the legs and repetitive leg movements strong enough to interrupt sleep Night terror – condition that causes someone to awaken screaming and sweating with a racing heart rate, sometimes flailing with the arms Descriptive Studies of Dreaming More dreams are threatening than pleasant. Most dreams are similar to what we think about in everyday life. ○ However, we do not dream about everything we do in daily life. Whether or not blind people have dreams depends on the age they lost their eyesight. Freud’s Theory of Dreams Manifest content – according to Freud, content that appears on the surface of a dream Latent content – according to Freud, hidden ideas that the dream experience represents symbolically Modern Theories of Dreaming Activation-synthesis theory of dreams – theory that dreams occur because the cortex takes the haphazard activity that occurs during REM sleep plus whatever stimuli strike the sense organs and does its best to make sense of this activity An alternative view, known as the neurocognitive theory, is that dreaming is simply a kind of thinking, similar to daydreaming or mind wandering, that occurs under these conditions: ○ Reduced sensory stimulation, especially in the brain’s primary sensory areas ○ Reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex, important for planning and working memory ○ Loss of voluntary control of thinking ○ Enough activity in other brain areas, including those responsible for face recognition and certain aspects of motivation and emotion Hypnosis. Hypnosis Hypnosis – a condition of focused attention and increased suggestibility that occurs in the context of a special hypnotist– subject relationship Ways of Inducing Hypnosis A hypnotist induces hypnosis by repeating suggestions, relying on the hypnotized person’s cooperation and willingness to accept suggestions. The Uses and Limitations of Hypnosis What Hypnosis Can Do One well-established effect of hypnosis is to inhibit pain. Another use of hypnosis is the posthypnotic suggestion. ○ Posthypnotic suggestion – a suggestion to do or experience something after coming out of hypnosis ○ Posthypnotic suggestions help some people break unwanted habits. What Hypnosis Does Not Do Hypnosis does not give people special strength or unusual powers. It does not improve memory accuracy. ○ When asked to report their memories under hypnosis, people report a mixture of correct and incorrect information with much confidence. Is Hypnosis an Altered State of Consciousness? Hypnosis is not greatly different from normal wakefulness, but it is also not just something that people pretend. Apparently, people pretending to be hypnotized can mimic almost any effect of hypnosis that they know about. Other States of Consciousness Meditation – a systematic procedure for inducing a calm, relaxed state through the use of special techniques ○ Meditation increases relaxation, decreases anxiety, and enhances attention. Déjà vu experience – feeling that an event is uncannily familiar ○ In some cases (probably not all), it relates to abnormal activity in brain areas responsible for memory. COURSE LEARNING OUTCOME THANK YOU