C o n s c i o u s ne s s

P s y c 1 0 0 1 | s u m m e r 2 0 2 0 | D r. M a c u r a
  The Mysteries of Consciousness
 The Nature of Consciousness
 The Unconscious Mind
Outline  Sleep and Dreaming: Good Night, Mind
 Drugs and Consciousness: Artificial Inspiration
 Hypnosis: Open to Suggestion
 Consciousness

Phenomenology
Consciousness How things seem to the conscious person

Problem of other minds

Fundamental difficulty we have in perceiving the
consciousness of others
The Problem
of Other Minds
The Problem
of Other Minds
 Seat of the Soul
 Descartes imagined that the seat of the soul—
and consciousness—might reside in

The Mind-  This original drawing from Descartes (1662)

shows the pineal gland (H) nicely situated for a
Body Problem soul, right in the middle of the brain.
 Intentionality:

Unity: Resistance to division

The Nature of
Consciousness Selectivity: Include some objects but not others

Transience: Tendency to change

 Low-level kind of sensory awareness and
responsiveness that occurs when the mind
inputs sensations and may output behavior

Levels of Consciousness in which you know and are able

Consciousness to report your mental state

Distinct level of consciousness in which the

person’s attention is drawn to the self as an
object
  Our minds most often wander when we are
engaged in automated, repetitive tasks
 We may be unaware of our minds wandering.
The Mind
Wanders
  Awareness, Attention
 Paying attention on purpose, in the present
moment, and non judgmentally to things as
they are.
Mindfulness

 Achieved through meditation – formal and

informal
  Paying attention

 Non-Reactive
Mindfulness
 Openhearted
  Empirically shown to:
 Battle depression and anxiety
Mindfulness
 Reduce physical pain
 Improve
  Experience-sampling
Measuring technique
Conscious  Form of ecological
Contents momentary
assessment
 Current Concern Example Frequency of Students Who
Category Mentioned the Concern
Health Diet and exercise 85%
Household Clean room 52%
Religious Attend church more 51%
Education Go to graduate school 43%
Friends Make new friends 42%
Family Gain better relations with 40%
What’s on your immediate family
Social activities Gain acceptance into a 34%
mind? campus organization
Employment Get a summer job 33%
Roommate Change attitude or behavior of 29%
roommate
Dating Desire to date a certain person 24%
Sexual intimacy Abstaining from sex 16%
Government Change government policy 14%
Financial Pay rent or bills 8%

Data from: Goetzman, E. S., Hughes, T., & Klinger, E. (1994). Current concerns of college students in a midwestern sample. University
of Minnesota, Morris.
 The Brain is Always Active
 Daydreaming: a state of consciousness in
which a seemingly purposeless flow of
thoughts comes to mind
 The brain has no specific task at hand during
Daydreams daydreaming
 Mental control
Conscious 
Control  Ironic processes of mental control: Mental
process that can produce ironic errors because
monitoring for errors can itself produce them
  Can’t sleep?
Conscious  Feeling down?
Control  -isms and prejudice?
Conscious Thought suppression
Control  Conscious avoidance of a thought
 Rebound effect of thought suppression:
The Unconscious Mind
The
Unconscious
Mind
 Freudian Unconscious Modern View
  Cognitive unconscious
The  Repression  Subliminal
Unconscious
Mind
  Political Freudian Slips:

The
Unconscious
Mind
The
Unconscious
Mind
Dual Process
Theories
Dual-Process
Theories

Source: St B. T. Evans, Jonathan & Stanovich, Keith. (2013). Dual-Process

Theories of Higher Cognition. Perspectives on Psychological Science. 8. 223-241.
Altered States of
Consciousness
 Altered state of consciousness
Altered States Forms of experience that depart from the
of
Consciousness
 Can be accompanied by:
 Changes in thinking

Altered States  Feelings of loss of control
of 
Consciousness  Alterations in body image and sense of self

 Changes in meaning or significance
SLEEP
 Hypnagogic state

Hypnic jerk
Sleep States sudden quiver or sensation of dropping, as if
missing a step

Hypnopompic state
 REM sleep

 Electrooculograph (EOG): Instrument that

measures eye movements
Sleep Cycle  Dreaming occurs most often in this stage
 Body is
Studying Sleep
Sleep cycle
Typical Night’s
Sleep
 
 REM sleep deprivation has the most
detrimental effects, followed by slow-wave
sleep (stages 3 and 4) deprivation.
 Sleep following learning is essential for
Sleep Needs memory consolidation.
 Fatigue, irresistible sleepiness, and unusual
sleep-wake cycles that result when the internal
circadian rhythm is out of phase with the
environment
Sleep Needs
Sleep deprivation has been shown to decrease
insulin sensitivity and increase propensity to
gain weight
 Insomnia
Sleep apnea
Sleep
Disorders Sleep paralysis

Somnambulism
DREAMING
 Dreams

 Images and fantasies confused with reality

REM dreams
Dreaming  Vivid and active
 Activation of brain areas associated with
motivation, emotion, & reward
Non-REM dreams
 Less intense with dull content
 Manifest vs. latent content

Why do we
dream? Activation-synthesis hypothesis
 Dreams are random neural firings that the
brain tries to make sense of
  revised version of the activation-synthesis
Activation-
explanation of dreams
Information-
 information that is accessed during waking
Mode model hours can have an influence on the synthesis of
(AIM) dreams
  Keep a notebook by the bed: Record them at
night when you wake up from a dream
 Record how you felt: Come up with 3
adjectives that describe the emotions
Setting Up a  Review Your Diary: Can help better understand
Dream Diary repetitive dreams
 Note your dream “Symbols”: the meaning of
things like the house you grew up in. They’re
different for everyone and shift in meaning
over time.
Altered States of Consciousness
 Hypnosis
 Altered state of awareness
Altered States  Hypnotic
of  Hypnotizability
Consciousness  Hypnotic
 Autohypnosis
 
the failure to retrieve memories following
hypnotic suggestions
Hypnosis:
Open to  Hypnotic analgesia:
Suggestion Reduction of pain through hypnosis in people
who are susceptible to hypnosis


 Psychoactive Drugs
 Chemicals that change conscious awareness of
reality
Artificial
Inspiration:  Continued use requires greater dosage
Mind-Altering
Physical Dependence
Drugs 
 Outcome of tolerance and dependence is addiction
  Desire to return to drug even when physical
symptoms are gone, aka craving
Artificial Drug Withdrawal Symptoms
Inspiration:  Physical dependence and psychological
Mind-Altering dependence
Drugs Drug Addiction

 What is considered “addictive” can change with the
times and across cultures.
Artificial
Inspiration:
Mind-Altering
Drugs
Drug Overdose (Can Physical Psychological
taking too much Dependence (Will Dependence (Will you
cause death or stopping use crave it when you
injury?) make you sick?) stop using it?)
Depressants
Alcohol X X X
Benzodiazepines/Barbiturates X X X
Toxic inhalants X X X
Stimulants
Amphetamines X X X
MDMA (Ecstasy) X ?
Nicotine X X X
Cocaine X X X
Narcotics (opium, heroin, X X X
morphine, methadone, codeine)
Hallucinogens (LSD, PCP, ketamine) X ?
Marijuana ? ?
  Depressants
Types of 
Psychoactive  Narcotics
Drugs  Hallucinogens

  Reduce activity of the
 Barbiturates and benzodiazepines are
Depressants prescribed to treat anxiety or sleep problems
 Alcohol: “King” of depressants
 Idea that alcohol effects can be produced by
people’s expectations of how alcohol will
Depressants: influence them in particular situations
Alcohol
Alcohol myopia
  So stay in phase 1…
 video

Alcohol
Intoxication is
Biphasic.
  Alcoholism & genes
 Also genetic: Hangover severity. As much of
Alcohol 55% of the variability in hangovers is accounted
Dependence for by genes, with environmental factors (e.g.
access to alcohol) accounting for the rest
 
 Types include caffeine, amphetamines,
nicotine, cocaine, modafinil, and Ecstasy
(MDMA)
 Stimulants elicit euphoria and
Stimulants confidence/motivation
  Opiates
 Highly addictive,
Narcotics  Heroin, morphine, methadone, and codeine
 Drug properties closely related to
  90 Americans die every day from overdose
 Overdoses from prescription opioid pain
relievers are driving factor in 15-year increase in
Opiates opioid overdose deaths
 Since 1999, amount of prescription opioid sold
in US has QUADRUPLED. So have deaths.
Opiates

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOsWnVtGU10
 

 LSD (acid), PCP,

Hallucinogens ketamine
 Dramatic, unpredictable
effects
  Leaves and buds of the hemp plant that
produce an intoxication that is mildly
hallucinogenic
Marijuana 
 Medicinal uses controversial
 Considered “gateway” along with alcohol and
tobacco – debatable