Psychology States of Consciousness Dreams, Altered States & Quick Review
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Dreams
The function of dreams is as much a mystery as the function of sleep.
Freud’s Dream Theory
Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud believed that dreams allow people to express unconscious wishes they find unacceptable in real life. He drew a distinction between the manifest content and the latent content of dreams. The manifest content is the plot of the dream: who’s in the dream, what happens, and so on. The latent content is the dream’s hidden meaning. According to Freud, the manifest content is a symbolic representation of the latent content. In other words, the plot acts as a disguise that masks the real meaning of the dream.
Cigars and Tunnels
Freud theorized that many psychological problems stem from repressed sexual urges. In his dream theory, certain objects symbolize sex or genitals. The most famous Freudian symbol is the cigar, which, owing to its shape and association with men, usually represents a penis. Freudian psychiatrists would interpret tunnels and caves as vaginas.
Activation-Synthesis Theory
Another theory, called the activation-synthesis theory, proposes that neurons in the brain randomly activate during REM sleep. Dreams arise when the cortex of the brain tries to make meaning out of these random neural impulses. According to activation-synthesis theory, dreams are basically brain sparks.
Problem-Solving Dreams
Some researchers think that dreams express people’s most pressing concerns and might help to solve problems in day-to-day life. If someone has an important job interview coming up, for example, he may rehearse scenarios for the interview in his dreams. If someone has relationship difficulties with a significant other, his dreams may give him clues to help solve the problem.
Neural Housekeeping
Some theories argue that dreams arise during the brain’s routine housekeeping functions, such as eliminating or strengthening neural connections. Dreams, then, are a way of cleaning up brain files.
During lucid dreams, people are aware that they are dreaming and may be able to control their actions to some extent within the dream.
Altered States
Some states of consciousness don’t occur naturally and must be induced in some way. These include hypnotic states, meditative states, and drug-induced states.
Hypnosis
Hypnosis is a procedure that opens people to the power of suggestion. A hypnotist puts a subject in an altered state by encouraging relaxation and sleepiness and often describing the sorts of physical sensations a subject should be feeling. Once a subject is in the altered state, he or she may act, perceive, think, or feel according to the hypnotist’s suggestions. Not everyone can be hypnotized, and some people are more hypnotizable than others. The following chart shows what hypnosis can and can’t do.
| Hypnosis can: | Hypnosis can’t: |
| Cause people to be relaxed, have a narrowed focus of attention, and be highly engaged in fantasies | Work equally effectively for everyone |
| Produce anesthesia and treat a range of psychological and medical problems | Force people to do things against their will |
| Cause hallucinations and distortions in sensory perception | Make people act in ways that would normally be beyond their physical or mental abilities |
| Reduce inhibitions | Reliably increase the accuracy of memories |
| Cause changes in behavior after the hypnosis has ended | Allow people to actually reexperience past events or lives |
If hypnotized people are instructed to forget what happened during hypnosis, they later claim to have no memory of it. This phenomenon is called posthypnotic amnesia.
A hypnotic state isn’t sleep—brain waves, for example, do not reliably change during hypnosis as they do during sleep. Researchers don’t even agree that hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness. Researchers propose two main theories about hypnosis:
- Ernest Hilgard proposed that hypnosis causes people to dissociate or divide their consciousness into two parts. One part responds to the outside world, and the other part observes but doesn’t participate. According to this theory, hypnosis can make people not react to pain because hypnosis separates the part of consciousness that registers pain from the part of consciousness that communicates with the outside world.
- Many other researchers, such as Theodore Barber and Nicholas Spanos, think hypnosis happens when a suggestible person plays the role of a hypnotized person. According to this theory, hypnotized people simply behave as they think they are expected to.
Meditation
Meditation is the practice of focusing attention. People meditate to enhance awareness and gain more control of physical and mental processes. Techniques used in meditation vary and include activities such as repetitive chanting and breathing exercises.
Meditative states are associated with an increase in alpha and theta brain waves, and physical indicators of relaxation such as slowed pulse and breathing. Some researchers have found that meditation has long-term effects such as improving physical and mental health and reducing stress. However, researchers disagree about whether meditative states are unique states of consciousness. Some researchers believe relaxation techniques can produce the same kind of state produced by meditation.
Psychoactive Drugs
Psychoactive drugs, as opposed to medicinal drugs, have psychological effects, meaning that they change sensory experience, perception, mood, thinking, and behavior. Psychoactive drugs are sometimes called recreational drugs, though some have legitimate medical uses.
Types of Recreational Drugs
Researchers usually classify recreational drugs into four types: stimulants, sedatives, narcotics, and hallucinogens.
- Stimulants: drugs that stimulate the central nervous system
- Sedatives: drugs that slow down the central nervous system
- Narcotics: also called opiates; drugs that can relieve pain
- Hallucinogens: drugs that cause sensory and perceptual distortions
Drugs derived from the cannabis plant, such as marijuana and hashish, have features of more than one of these drug types, so researchers sometimes consider cannabis to be a separate, fifth drug type.
| Drug type | Examples | Effects | Negative effects |
| Stimulants | Nicotine, caffeine, cocaine, amphetamines, crystal meth | Increased alertness and energy, excitation, euphoria, confidence | Anxiety, restlessness, irritability, sleeplessness, paranoia, increased aggressiveness, feelings of panic |
| Sedatives | Alcohol, Valium, Xanax, barbiturates, such as Seconal | Euphoria, relaxation, less anxiety | Impaired coordination, depression, lethargy, drowsiness, mood swings |
| Narcotics | Morphine, heroin, opium, codeine, hydrocodone, such as Vicodin | Euphoria, relaxation, less anxiety, less sensitivity to pain | Lethargy, drowsiness, nausea, impaired coordinated, constipation |
| Hallucinogens | LSD, mescaline, psilocybin | Euphoria, changed perception, hallucinations, insightful moments | Nausea, paranoia, anxiety, feelings of panic, mood swings, impaired judgment, jumbled thoughts |
| Cannabis | Marijuana, hashish | Euphoria, relaxation, increased awareness, changed perception | Sluggishness, anxiety, impaired memory |
How Psychoactive Drugs Work
Psychoactive drugs work by affecting neurotransmitter function. A single drug can affect the function of more than one neurotransmitter. Drugs can:
- Cause more or less of a neurotransmitter to be released at synapses
- Block reuptake of a neurotransmitter by presynaptic cells
- Stimulate or block neurotransmitter receptors on postsynaptic cells
Hallucinations
Hallucinations are sensory or perceptual experiences that happen without any external stimulus. Hallucinogenic drugs fool the brain into perceiving sights, sounds, and tastes that aren’t actually present, and they may confuse a person’s sense of space and time. For example, a man who takes a hallucinogenic drug may hear voices in his head.
Influences on Psychoactive Drug Effects
A given drug doesn’t always have the same effect. If ten people drink beer one evening, they all may have different experiences. The effect of a drug depends on many different factors:
- The amount of the drug
- The potency of the drug
- How the drug is administered
- How much previous experience a user has with the drug
- The user’s age and body weight
- The user’s mood, personality, and motivation
- The environment in which the drug is used
- The user’s expectations about the drug’s effects
Chronic Use of Psychoactive Drugs
When people regularly use a drug, they may develop a tolerance to it. As time goes on, people with a tolerance need more and more of the drug to get the same effect.
When people stop using a drug after a long period of regular use, they often experience withdrawal symptoms. Different drugs produce different kinds of withdrawal symptoms. Not all drugs are addictive.
With chronic use, people can get physically or psychologically dependent on a drug. Physical dependence happens when a person must take the drug to avoid withdrawal symptoms. Psychological dependence is when a person keeps taking the drug because of cravings. A drug can be both physically and psychologically addictive.
Drug use can be dangerous for several reasons. Heavy or frequent use of drugs can damage body tissues and organs. Overdoses of some drugs, including sedatives, stimulants, and narcotics, can be lethal. Drugs can have dangerous indirect effects by causing people to behave in risky, accident-prone, or unhealthy ways.
Quick Review
Consciousness
- Consciousness is the awareness people have of themselves and the environment around them.
- The level and state of consciousness vary. Different states of consciousness are associated with different brain wave patterns. Brain waves are tracings that show the kind of electrical activity going on in the brain. Scientists use an electroencephalograph, or EEG, to record these waves.
- The main types of brain waves are alpha, beta, theta, and delta.
Sleep
- Types of biological rhythms include circadian, infradian, and ultradian rhythms.
- Endogenous biological rhythms originate from inside the body rather than from the outside environment.
- Biological clocks in the body regulate the sense of time.
- The suprachiasmatic nucleus regulates circadian rhythms of sleep.
- Different theories suggest that people sleep to conserve energy, stay safe from predators, or restore body tissues depleted during the day.
- Researchers use EEGs, EMGs, EOGs, and EKGs to record sleep patterns.
- There are five stages of sleep. At each stage, different types of brain waves function, and heart rate, breathing, and temperature vary.
- During REM sleep, heart rate and breathing become irregular, eyes move rapidly, and muscles relax. Dreams are most vivid during REM sleep.
- Sleep patterns change as people age, with most people needing less sleep as they get older.
- Sleep disorders include insomnia, narcolepsy, and sleep apnea.
Dreams
- Sigmund Freud believed that dreams allow people to express unconscious wishes. He said the manifest content of dreams, or the dream’s plot, symbolizes the latent content, or hidden meaning.
- The activation-synthesis theory proposes that neurons in the brain randomly activate during REM sleep. Dreams arise when the cortex tries to make sense of these impulses.
- Some researchers think dreams express people’s most pressing concerns, while others think dreams arise during the brain’s routine housekeeping chores such as eliminating or strengthening neural connections.
Altered States
- Altered states are induced states of consciousness and include hypnotic states, meditative states, and drug-induced states.
- In hypnosis, a hypnotist makes suggestions to a person. One theory states that people in hypnosis divide their consciousness into two parts. Other theories say that people merely play a role when hypnotized.
- Meditation is the practice of focusing attention.
- Psychoactive drugs are usually used for recreational rather than medical purposes, though some have legitimate medical uses. These drugs change sensory experience, perception, mood, thinking, and behavior.
- Recreational drugs include stimulants, sedatives, narcotics, and hallucinogens.
- Drugs work by affecting neurotransmitter function in various ways.
- The effect of any drug depends on many factors such as the amount of the drug, how the drug is administered, and the user’s mood, personality, and motivation.
- Chronic use of drugs can result in tolerance, withdrawal symptoms, physical dependence, or psychological dependence.
- Drug use can be dangerous.
