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Affect of stress on brain scientific essay
Altered state of consciousness
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Investigating Altered States of Consciousness
“The question of what consciousness is, is one that has intrigued
psychologists.” (Hayes, N & Orrell, H, 2000, page 116.)
‘The term altered states of consciousness refers to significant change
in what is considered a normal waking awareness’ (Crisp, T, 2003,
Altered states of consciousness,
http://www.homepages.tesco.net/~waves/asoc.htm)
An altered state of consciousness takes many forms such sleep, dreams,
hypnosis, coma and the effects of psychoactive drugs. Learning about
these altered states of consciousness helps us learn why we have these
different altered states and how and why we benefit from it. Altered
states of awareness can be caused by drugs and are also associated
with clinical conditions like schizophrenia.
Freud ‘viewed the unconscious mind “as the repository for repressed
memories. He suggested that the preconscious could become conscious if
we switched our awareness to it” (Malim, T & Birch, A, 1998,
Introduction to psychology, Palgrave, page 205.)
Cognitive psychologists however hold a different view they ‘draw their
conclusions from the level of mental processes during altered states
of consciousness’ (Malim, T & Birch, A, 1998, Introduction to
psychology, Palgrave, page 205.)
Hilgard (1997) noted that we may use problem solving abilities that
are not always available to our conscious minds., you may have found
that an answer sometimes pops into your head yet you have no idea how
you computed it (Malim, T & Birch, A, 1998, Introduction to
psychology, Palgrave, page 205.)
Sleep is the main altered state of consciousness as we spend a third
or our ...
... middle of paper ...
...of consciousness or unconsciousness, these are
all very important in our everyday lives.
REFERENCES:
Cardwell, M et al, 1996, Psychology for A Level, Collins Educational
Mcliveen, R & Gross, R, 1996, Biopsychology, Hodder & Stoughton.
Malim, T & Birch, A, 1998, Introduction to psychology, Palgrave, page
205.
Hayes, N & Orrell, H, 2000, Psychology an Introduction, 3rd edition.
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=cache:ee7_eDFIkP8J:www.thisdayonline.com/archive/2003/07/01/20030701fea01.html+sleep+deprivation+studies+randy+gardner&hl=en&start=5&ie=UTF-8
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=cache:yukhLgzkoOcJ:www.psychol.ucl.ac.uk/david.shanks/C530/Lect5.html+famous+sleep+deprivation+studies&hl=en&start=6&ie=UTF-8Dr.
David Shanks
http://www.thisdayonline.com/archive/2003/07/01/20030701fea01.html,
Amuchie, M, 2003.
“Too black for the white kids, too white for the black kids.” “Where do I fit in?” These are common questions one may ask themselves if he or she is struggling with double consciousness. Many people struggle with a double consciousness every day without even realizing the effects it has on them or even the people around them. Double consciousness was discovered in 1903 by W.E.B. Du Bois which he referenced the internal conflict experienced by subordinated groups in an oppressive society. He relayed his message in his writing “The Souls of Black Folk”. As stated before, double consciousness has many different effects on a person such as them trying to fit in, having to feel like they have to pick a side (black side or white side), or eventually losing themselves.
The book of Psalms is one of the most useful books all throughout the Biblical text. It is not just a book of stories or law but personal praises, laments, and the deepest cries of the soul to the one true King: Yahweh. The Psalter is “the most reliable theological, pastoral, and liturgical resource given us in the biblical tradition” (pp. 1). These psalms pave a path for practical faith in the world today. Author, theologian, and teacher, Walter Brueggemann, goes into depth on the psalms of orientation, disorientation, and new orientation to discuss that through the unexpected high and low seasons of life one can turn to the Psalms for authentic conversation with God.
Sigmund Freud believed that he “occupies a special place in the history of psychoanalysis and marks a turning point, it was with it that analysis took the step from being a psychotherapeutic procedure to being in depth-psychology” (Jones). Psychoanalysis is a theory or therapy to decode the puzzle of neurotic disorders like hysteria. During the therapy sessions, the patients would talk about their dreams. Freud would analyze not only the manifest content (what the dreamer remembers) of the dreams, but the disguise that caused the repressions of the idea. During our dreams, the decision making part of personality’s defenses are lowered allowing some of the repressed material to become more aware in a distorted form. He distinguished between
The unconscious mind can be explained in various ways and can take on various attributes. Carl Jung the author of “The Archetype and the Collective Unconscious,” defines unconsciousness as the first reactions and interactions a person endeavors. Several Physicists believe that the unconscious mind acts separately from our voluntary thinking. Scientist believes that understanding the unconscious mind is key to determining what type of archetype a person may have or develop. Experiments such as, reaction to stimuli, have lead cognitive psychiatrist to determine the strength of the unaware and involuntary mind. In addition, many social physicists have also believed that the unconscious mind is unaware of it actions and that the unconscious part of our brain can sometimes be focused on several signs that our conscious self can’t see.
“Too black for the white kids, too white for the black kids.” “Where do I fit in?” These are common question one may ask himself if he is struggling with double consciousness. Many people struggle with double consciousness every day without even realizing the effects it has on themselves or even the people around them. Double consciousness was discovered in 1903 by W.E.B. Du Bois which he referenced the internal conflict experienced by subordinated groups in an oppressive society. He relayed his message in his writing “The Souls of Black Folk”. Like stated before, double consciousness has many different effects on a person such as them trying to fit in, them having to feel like they have to pick a side (black side or white side), or eventually losing himself.
After doing a little research I have come across a very interesting topic which is Fear-Induced Hallucination. What this paper is going to focus on is How Sleep Paralysis Triggers Hallucination. After researching, I learned that hallucination actually starts during an episode of sleep paralysis. As stated in the textbook, sleep paralysis is often compared to being an evils work of art. It results from some errors of the neural transmission in the brain during REM sleep. Also, during a frightening state of sleep paralysis, one experiences total body immobility and cannot speak or move besides little eye movements and respiration.
Psychophysics is the study of the correspondence between physical stimulation and psychological experience. This means that psychophysics is the relationship between how loud, sweet, bright, etc; a stimulus inducing action must be before it creates a mental note that something is different. For example, how loud must an alarm clock be before it awakens a person? To better understand psychophysics and how they are measured, a look must be taken at some of the key contributors to its creation.
In controlled studies, experimenters use placebos as medium to compare the efficacy of a drug. Double-blind controlled studies provide information on whether a drug is effective or if it is not better than placebo. The results of double-blind studies usually depict the latter. Rarely are drugs found to be significantly more effective than placebo because of the placebo effect. The phenomenal effectiveness of the placebo in controlled experiments is mind boggling. Experimenters can not fully understand the etiology of the placebo effect in relation to the nervous system but they have proposed plausible suggestions to the underlying mechanisms involved. An intriguing question raised is the placebo's ability to cure numerous symptoms. I hypothesize that the level of consciousness or alertness of the I-function, within the individual, may be the deciding factor in whether the placebo effect occurs.
Approximately three percent of the population of the U.S has said they have, in fact experienced a near death experience or NDE. While being involved in a near death experience there are reports that consist of involving one or more of the following: having an awareness of being dead, having an out of body experiences, feelings of euphoria, seeing a tunnel of light, and meeting deceased people.
Consciousness is a difficult term to grasp; so much so, that many scientists will not even attempt to define the term, much less search for it’s evidence. Most however, do agree that consciousness must include certain aspects; specifically cognition, self-awareness, memory, and abstract thought.
Many studies of the role of sleep are partial or total sleep deprivation studies which support Oswold’s restoration theory. One of these supporting studies was Dement’s. He deprived participants of REM sleep and consequently found that they increased their number of attempted REM stages from 12 to 26 over 4-7 nights. During their first uninterrupted night, participants increased their REM sleep by 10% which is known as REM rebound. This suggests the importance of REM and the possibility that the purpose of sleep is to get into REM sleep. The participants reported anxiety, irritability and difficulty concentrating which shows that REM sleep is needed to avoid these affects and enable brain recovery which corresponds with Oswold’s theory. Even so, Dement’s study has low ecological validity, it has low population validity because there were only 8 participants and they were a self-selected sample. Participants would probably have shown demand characteristics because the experiment took place in a lab. It also has low mundane realism because people would not usually sleep in a lab and be interrupted repeatedly.
The rest was a blur. I felt nothing. It was just as if I was asleep. I
In this Forum on Sleep and Dreams, we will see how the diversity of academic disciplines can help to answer important questions about sleep and dreaming—questions that may touch the basis of human intellect. The Forum is fortunate in...
To fully understand what we currently know about consciousness, we need to take a look at what scientists have uncovered about the human brain and its role in it.
Wells, M., & Vaughn, B. V. (2012). Poor Sleep Challenging the Health of a Nation. Neurodiagnostic Journal,52(3), 233-249.