States of Consciousness

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• Chapter 7
• States of Consciousness

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Psychology and Consciousness

• In the beginning, psychology was the description
  and explanation of states of consciousness
• Too hard to observe
• Later, psychology changed to study of behavior
• Advances in science brought consciousness back
  into psychology
• We can look at brain activity in various states
• Can be altered by hypnosis and dreams

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Consciousness

• Consciousness
• our awareness of ourselves and our environments
• Variations in consciousness enable us to plan and
  reflect
• Awareness

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Conscious Awareness and the Unconscious

• Enables us to exert voluntary control and to
  communicate our mental states to others
• Tip of information processing
• We process a great deal of information beyond our
  awareness
• Unconscious information processing occurs at the
  same time

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Lag Time

• Consciousness is known to lag behind the brain
  events that evoke it
• We experience a musical chord after all the notes
  are present
• Consciousness arrives late to the decision-making
  party!
• If you move your wrist you will be aware of it .2
  seconds before you do it, BUT your brain is .35
  seconds ahead of your conscious perception of the
  decision

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Conscious Processing

• Conscious processing takes place in a sequence
• Relatively slow
• Limited capacity
• Skilled at solving novel problems
• Running on auto pilot allows consciousness to
  monitor the whole system and deal with new issues
• New/novel tasks require conscious attention

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Testing! Testing! Testing!

• Move the foot of your dominant hand in a
  counter-clockwise circle in front of you
• At the same time write the number 3 over and over
• Can you do it?
• Probably not. Both tasks require conscious
  attention, which can only be one place at a time
• Natural protection to keep us from doing too much

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Hypnosis

• A social interaction in which one person suggest
  to another that certain perceptions, feelings,
  thoughts, and behaviors will occur
• Make people do, say, believe things that they
  would not otherwise
• Has been around forever
• Is it an altered state of consciousness?

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Fact or Fiction?

• Power is not in the hypnosis but the subjects
  openness to suggestion
• No magical mind control
• Everyone is suggestible, to some degree
• Everyone stand up
• Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale Test
• Some are highly hypnotizable, others are not
• Anyone who can turn attention inward and imagine
  is hypnotizable that is what hypnosis is

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Fact or Fiction Continued

• Can hypnosis be used to remember forgotten
  events?
• Suppressed memories?
• Most people believe that our experiences are all
  in there
• NOT true (chapter 9!)
• Research says no!
• Tend to combine fact with fiction
• Hypnotist can plant ideas, i.e. do you hear loud
  noises
• Courts are banning testimony hypnotic testimony

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Fact v Fiction Continued

• Can hypnosis force people to act against their
  will?
• Perform dangerous acts?
• Authoritative person has the power
• Can make people do things they would not
  otherwise do hypnotized or not
• Studies have been done that show hypnotized and
  non-hypnotized will do the same things

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Fact v Fiction Continued (yes again)

• Can hypnosis be therapeutic?
• Used as a treatment for many disorders
• Goal is to have patients harness their own
  healing powers
• Posthypnotic suggestions have been know to
  result in some amazing things but it is power
  of suggestion and how that works on an individual

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Fact v Fictionyep, more!

• Can hypnosis help alleviate pain?
• Yes! How?
• Dissociation split in consciousness, which
  allows some thoughts to occur at the same time as
  others
• Sensation of pain separate from emotional
  perception of pain
• Selective attention Focused on one things, so we
  dont notice the pain
• Athlete does not notice pain of injury until
  after game
• Bottom line it is not that pain does not happen
  it is that we dont pay attention to stimuli

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SoAbout that Altered State

• Knowing that pain stimuli can be not recognized,
  does that mean that hypnosis is an altered mental
  state?
• Attention guides perceptions
• People dont fake hypnosis they just get caught
  up in it just like an actor can get caught up
  in a role
• Social influence theory contends that it is a
  social behavior and that hypnotic subjects are
  caught up in the role playing

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Divided Consciousness?

• The other theory is divided consciousness
• There are behaviors that are unique to hypnosis
• Distinctive brain activity
• Hilgard
• Vivid form over every day mind splits (doing one
  thing our of routine while thinking about
  something else thinking while reading a book)
• We do process information without conscious
  awareness

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Explaining Hypnosis
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End Day 1

• Homework
• Research at home. Use these notes. Use your
  book. Answer the following question
• Explain apparent hypnotic states. Are they a
  social phenomena or divided consciousness?
  Defend/explain your conclusion. (2 paragraphs)