Chapter 6 Consciousness Notes Consciousness is Our Awareness Your thoughts occupy your awareness It s what s going on inside of our heads There are 4 different elements It is ever changing you can never experience a moment more than once It is a very personal experience It is continuous flowing from one thing to the next It is selective we can only focus on a few things at a time How much of our behavior is really under our conscious control Levels of Waking Consciousness Conscious controlled processing Involves conscious attention and effort Often involved in learning new things Non conscious automatic processing occurs outside of our conscious awareness takes over well learned tasks environments can non consciously influence our behavior Limits of Conscious Self Control There is too many things going on at any given moment Conscious control things we need to focus on Non Conscious control easy things habits Conscious self control is a limited resource Non Consciously Controlled Behaviors Most of our perceptions judgements and actions are under non conscious control Subconscious factors can affect our behavior The affects of the subconscious are not long lasting Sleep and Dreams Why do we Sleep Sleep helps us function on a daily basis Sleeping has obvious benefits Better moods Think more creatively pay better attention Stronger immune system Lack of sleep can lead to death Stages of Sleep Non REM Rapid Eye Movement Stage 1 5 minutes Senses shut down Brain emits slow alpha and theta waves Non REM Stage 2 20 minutes Occasional bursts of rapid brain activity sleep spindles Breathing and pulse slow down Muscles relax Non REM Stage 3 and 4 30 60 minutes Brain emits slower delta waves Often where sleep walking occurs Hard to arouse Most release of human growth hormone occurs here REM Sleep Rapid brain waves Genitals become aroused Motor cortex is active but the messages are blocked before they hit the body Eyes dart around Dreaming occurs As sleep progresses we spend more time in REM sleep Why do we Dream Freud s View We are consciously aware of only a very small proportion of our true motivations feelings and psychological issues In waking life defense mechanisms keep us unaware of motivations that are socially inappropriate Dreams fulfill our unconscious wishes and desires Freud thought dreams are royal road to the unconscious To interpret dreams Freud would distinguish between o Manifest Content the storyline of a dream o Latent Content the underlying meaning of a dream Dreams reflect our current conscious concerns Dreams are interpretations of random activity originating in the brainstem Dreams help us integrate complex information
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