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States of Consciousness

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Chapter 7 States of Consciousness Psychology and Consciousness In the beginning, psychology was the description and explanation of states of consciousness Too hard to ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: States of Consciousness


1
  • Chapter 7
  • States of Consciousness

2
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

3
Consciousness
  • Consciousness
  • our awareness of ourselves and our environments
  • Variations in consciousness enable us to plan and
    reflect
  • Awareness

4
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

5
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

6
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

7
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

8
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?

9
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

10
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

11
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

12
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

13
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

14
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

15
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

16
Explaining Hypnosis
17
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)
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