PSYC 01 Introduction to Psychology 2.

Automatic Processes constructed based on memories and current

1ST Semester – 1st Year
BS Psychology
Lecture 1
3. Daydreaming
CONSCIOUSNESS & ALTERED STATES
1.1 Definition of Consciousness
Are different levels of awareness of one’s
thoughts and feelings; includes creating
4. Altered States
images in one's mind, following thought
processes, or having unique emotional
experiences.
Rene Descartes - focused on the subjective
experience of the mind (‘I think therefore I
am’) in defining consciousness.
5. Sleeps & Dreams
Wilhelm Wundt - used introspection to study
the consciousness
John Watson - used behaviorism to study
consciousness as he believed that for
psychology to become a science, it must be
objective and measurable
1.2 Continuum of Consciousness
Definition
a wide range of experiences, from being totally
unaware to being totally unresponsive
Stages of Consciousness
1. Controlled Processes
- activities that require full awareness, alertness,
and concentration to reach a goal
- activities that require little awareness, take concerns, emotions, fantasies, and images.
minimal attention, and do not interfere with
other ongoing activities 6. Unconscious
- consists of mental and emotional processes
that we are unaware of and which we cannot
- an activity that requires a low level of recall voluntarily
awareness often occurs during automatic
processes and involves fantasizing or dreaming 1.3 Stages of Sleep
while awake
Alpha Stage
- Before entering, you briefly pass through a
- Results from any number of procedures such as relaxed & and drowsy state
meditation, psychoactive drugs, hypnosis,
Stage 1
sleep deprivation to produce an awareness that
differs from normal consciousness - lightest stage of sleep
- experiences thoughts and images
- "Hypnic jerk”
Sleeps - lasts from 1 to 7 mins
- Sleep consists of 5 different stages that involve
Stage 2
different levels of awareness, consciousness,
and responsiveness, as well as physiological
- beginning of sleep
arousal. The deepest state of sleep borders on
- lasts from 10 to 25 mins
unconsciousness.
- Sleep is a state of reduced mental and physical Stage 3-4
activity, in which consciousness is altered and
sensory activity is inhibited to a certain extent. - deepest sleep stage
- heart rate, respiration, temperature, and blood
Dreams flow are reduced
- secretion of growth hormone
- Dreaming is a unique state of consciousness in
- lasts from 30 to 45 minutes
which we are asleep but we experience a
variety of astonishing visual, auditory, and REM Sleep
tactile images, often connected in strange ways
and often in color. - eyes move rapidly back and forth due to brain
- Dreams are the succession of images, activity
- voluntary muscles are paralyzed (paradoxical
thoughts, sounds, and emotions that pass
through our minds while sleeping. sleep)
- associated with dreaming
- Dreams are also an altered state of
consciousness in which picture stories are
1.4 Effects of Sleep Deprivation - Protein synthesis, cell division, and notable 1.7 Characteristics of Dreams
restorative biological processes of the body ▪ usually in color in sighted people and are
speed up during sleep. auditory or tactile in blind people
Effects on the Body
▪ unpredictable
Adaptive Theory
- minimal effects on person's heart rate, blood ▪ rarely involves sexual encounters
pressure and hormone secretion - Suggests that sleep evolved because it ▪ involves emotions of anxiety or fear rather
- The most notable physiological effect is on the prevented early humans and animals from than joy or happiness
immune system => increased vulnerability to wasting energy and exposing themselves to the ▪ recurrent
some viral/ bacterial infection (i.e., lowers dangers of nocturnal predators. ▪ may seem bizarre
immune system) - Animals active during the day get adequate ▪ filled with visual sensation
sleep, in order to have maximum energy ▪ more likely to take place indoors
Effects on the Nervous System ▪ involves motion
- utility when predators are around.
- interfere with tasks that requires vigilance and ▪ have several characters
concentration 1.6 Theories of Dreams
- interfere with performance and cause
moodiness Freud and Dreams “Freud’s Wish-Fulfillment”
- disturbance on attentiveness and
- We have a ‘censor’ that protects us
concentration
from realizing threatening and unconscious
Effect on Behavior desires or wishes especially those involving sex
and aggression.
- cause of irritability and unhappiness
(disturbance of emotions) Extensions of Waking Life
- Higher amounts of sleep deprivation mean
- Our dreams reflect the same thoughts, fears,
higher amounts of moodiness
concerns, problems,
- Higher amounts of sleep deprivation mean
and emotions present when awake.
lower amounts of positive performance.

1.5 Theories of Sleep Activation-Synthesis Theory

- Dreaming represents the random
Repair Theory and meaningless activity of nerve
cells in the brain.
- also known as Oswald’s Restoration Theory of
1966 Information Processing
- Suggests that activities during the day deplete
- Dreams primarily help with
key factors in our brain or body that are
consolidation or the moving of
replenished or repaired by sleep.
information into long-term memory.
- this theory says that sleep is primarily a
restorative process