Psychology Objectives

1. Consciousness is a somethings personal awareness of mental activities. William James, one of the early conscious psychologists, described consciousness as an ever-changing stream of awareness. Conscious and unconscious information processing is different because when we are conscious, we can usually remember more of what information we were processing while when we are unconscious our thoughts are more abstract. 2. The four types of biological rhythms include our daily rhythm- which is about a 24 hour period- the lunar rhythm- which is about a monthly period- the annual rhythm- which is a period consisting of one year- and the tidal rhythm- about a 12.4 hour period with coincident tidal flows. 3. Our circadian rhythm are our natural biological clocks that run for about a day, or 24.2 hours. Some events that may disrupt this clock can include melatonin, caffeine, and forcing ourselves to stay awake. 4. When we sleep, we go through different stages that control how rapid or how slow our brain waves are going. The two main states that we are in during sleep is REM (rapid eye movement) and NREM (non-rapid eye movement). There are 4 stages of NREM. The first stage of NREM is when our consciousness is beginning to fade out. This stage replaces drowsy Alpha waves with Theta waves. The next stage called stage 2 NREM is what is considered as true sleep. It is shown that we go through 2 things known as sleep spindles and k-complex, which show spikes in electroencephalographs. The brain in this state slows down, and our breathing becomes rhythmical. This stage brings the emergence of a new brain wave called Delta waves. Stage 3 and 4 are physiologically similar, so we will just discuss them as one stage. In these stages, we go through what is known as Slow-Waves Sleep. Here, delta waves are clearly shown. Stage 3 shows delta waves representing 20% of all brain activity, and in stage 4 delta waves exceed 50% of brain activity. We are in a state of oblivion. 5. Sleep patterns and duration vary from person to person by factors such as environment and how sleepy they are. If they are in a loud environment, chances are that person wont be able to sleep very long. And if the person is really sleepy, they will probably sleep longer than a person who is more awake. 6. Some risks associated with sleep deprivation include hallucinations and delusions, brain injuries, and natural clock complications. 7. The most common content of dreams includes things that we have done previously, usually the day that we just went through. 8. There are 4 major perspectives on why we dream. One of them, which is rarely used today, is the Freudian perspective. Freud believed in Latent Dream Meanings- hidden, symbolic dream meanings- and Manifest Dream Meanings-literal meanings-. The perspective known as a Reflection of Current Concerns states that something that happened recently is the basis of our dream. The Byproduct of Mental Housekeeping perspective says that dreams are a defragmentation of our minds computer. The last

perspective, Interpreted Brain Activity, is the most accepted one today and states that spontaneous firing of PGO waves by neurons in our pons is directed at the cerebral cortex. 9. People who are susceptible to hypnosis usually have a vivid imagination and are more open to other ideas. Hypnosis puts people into an altered state of mind, and this can make them have a very high pain threshold, have a much more strong memory, and be healthier. Hypnotists are able to implant memories into the patients minds so they believe something happened when it really didnt. This can help patients who are suffering from a traumatizing past cope much better. 10. Some believe hypnosis puts people into an altered state of mind because the person is completely suggestible to anything going on. But others believe that hypnosis doesnt put one into an altered state of mind, but rather a divided consciousness. Divided consciousness is a part of the conscious that is still awake but the person isnt physically awake. 11.