第38章
When landing
an airplane, a pilot must monitor several functions at once–such as air speed, engine settings,
altitude, glide slope, angle of attack, and heading–while also responding to air traffic controller
directions and watching for other aircraft. With all of these responsibilities, especially when
visibility is good, pilots may fail to check their altimeters and instead rely on visual cues from the
cockpit. After Dr. Kraft solved the mystery of the accidents, commercial airlines around the world
informed pilots of the conditions under which they might misjudge altitude on approach to
landing. Psychologists such as Dr. Kraft study perception in order to learn how the major sensory
systems of the body help (and sometimes trick) us in gathering information about the environments
in which we live, work, and play.
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CHAPTER 6
Mind, Consciousness, and Alternate States
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
On completion of this chapter, students should be able to:
1. Identify and provide examples of the three levels of consciousness
2. Describe the origins of the mind—body problem, and Descartes’ mechanistic approach to it
via his theory of the animal machine
Explain the philosophical and theoretical differences between dualism and monism
4. Define the concepts of the personal construction of reality, the cultural construction of
reality, and the significance of consensual validation of both
5. Define and give examples of circadian rhythms
6. Identify the five stages of sleep, as well as the functions of REM sleep
7. Explain the four major types of sleep disorders
8. Describe both the basic premises of Freudian dream analysis and the activation synthesis
hypothesis of dreaming
9. Explain extended states of consciousness, such as hypnosis, meditation, and hallucination
10. Describe the effects of psychoactive substances
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. The Contents of Consciousness
A. This chapter discusses ordinary states of consciousness and the mind–body problem, as
well as the more unusual experiences that are part of the human potential, such as
hallucinations, hypnosis, and dreams
B. Awareness and Consciousness
C. Consciousness is an ambiguous term that can refer to a general state of mind or to its
specific contents
1. The contents of consciousness refers to the information at the
intersection of these two types of consciousness
D. Consciousness has long been a topic of psychological inquiry. In the late 1800s, Wundt and
Titchener used introspection to explore the contents of the conscious mind and James made
observations of his own “stream of consciousness.”
E. Ordinary waking consciousness includes perceptions, thoughts, feelings, images, and
desires at a given moment, but consciousness can be formally defined as consisting of three
levels:
1. Basic level consciousness is an awareness of the inner and outer world–
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CHAPTER 6: MIND, CONSCIOUSNESS, AND ALTERED STATES
awareness that one is perceiving and reacting to perceptual
information
2. Second level consciousness is the reflection on that of which one is aware
and includes the manipulation of symbolic knowledge free from the
constraints of real objects and present events
3. Top level consciousness is self-awareness–awareness that one is
conscious and capable of reflection
F. Accessibility to Consciousness
1. Non-conscious processes are bodily activities that rarely impinge on
consciousness, such as digestion, regulation of blood pressure, and
breathing
2. Preconscious memories are memories that become accessible to
consciousness only after something has called attention to them
3. Unattended information refers to environmental stimuli that are not the
focus of attention, but that may be processed unconsciously. If these
stimuli become relevant, such as when you hear your name at a
cocktail party, it may become the subject of consciousness.
4. The Unconscious, most fully elaborated by Freud, refers to mental
processes that are not and cannot be conscious. Freud believed that
the unconscious was filled with forbidden, traumatic thoughts, while
contemporary researchers examine the more benign aspects of the
unconscious.
G. Studying the Contents of Consciousness
1. Two primary methods are used to study consciousness:
a) Think-aloud protocols ask individual to report their thoughts
aloud as they perform an experimental task
b) Experience-sampling methods ask individuals to report their
thoughts and feelings when signaled to do so, often by
electronic pagers
II.The Functions of Consciousness
A. The Uses of Consciousness
1. To understand the functions of consciousness, the forces that control
behavior must be understood
2. Early human ancestors believed in animistic explanations of behavior,
that spiritual forces guided all forms of life
3. Contemporary researchers have replaced the role of spirits with the
concepts of consciousness and mind
B. Aiding Survival
1. Consciousness probably evolved because it helped individuals make
sense of and navigate in the environment. Consciousness aids
adaptation to the environment in three ways:
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PSYCHOLOGY AND LIFE
a) Consciousness performs a restrictive function and tunes out
much information that is irrelevant to immediate goals
b) Consciousness performs a selective storage function for those
special stimuli that are to be analyzed, interpreted, and acted
on
c) Consciousness performs a planning or executive control
function that enables the suppression of strong desires when
they conflict with moral, ethical, or practical concerns
C. Personal and Cultural Constructions of Reality
1. A personal construction of reality is an individual’s unique
interpretation of a current situation based on knowledge, memories,
needs, values, beliefs, and goals
a) When a personal construction of reality remains stable over
time, a sense of self or consciousness of self has continuity
over time
2. Cultural constructions of reality are ways of thinking about the world
that are shared by most members of a particular group of people
3. Consensual validation is the mutual affirmation of conscious
constructions of reality
D. Studying the Functions of Consciousness
1. Researchers use the SLIP (Spoonerisms of Laboratory Induced
Predisposition) technique to study the way in which unconscious
forces affect speech errors
III. Sleep and Dreams
A. Circadian rhythms–the human time cycle–influence arousal levels, metabolism, heart
rate, body temperature, hormonal activity, and other bodily processes. Circadian rhythms
are close to 24 hours.
1. Mismatches between circadian rhythms and environmental clocks can
affect how individuals feel, as it does in jet lag
2. About a third of each circadian rhythm is devoted to sleep
B. The Sleep Cycle
1. The electroencephalogram (EEG), which records electrical brain wave
activity, provided a methodological breakthrough in sleep research.
2. As an individual prepares for bed, brain wave activity averages about
14 cycles per second (cps)
3. Stage 1 sleep is characterized by brain waves of about 3 to 7 cps
4. Stage 2 sleep is characterized by sleep spindles, minute bursts of
electrical activity of 12 to 16 cps
5. Stage 3 sleep is characterized by deep relaxation and brain wave
activity of about 1 to 2 cps
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CHAPTER 6: MIND, CONSCIOUSNESS, AND ALTERED STATES
6. Stage 4 sleep is characterized by even deeper relaxation and very slow
brain wave activity
7. REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep is characterized by a return to brain
wave activity similar to that found in stages 1 and 2, by the rapid eye
movements for which this stage is named, and by the presence of
dreams
8. The first four stages of sleep require about 90 minutes. REM sleep
about 10 minutes. During the course of a night, this 100-minute cycle
is repeated four to six times.
C. Why Sleep?