Wilhelm Wundt

- First person to be referred to as a psychologist

Structuralism
- Developed by Edward Titchener
- Focuses on the mind alone
- Contents of mental processes rather than their function

Introspection
- Internal perception; a process in which someone examines their own conscious
experience as objectively as possible

Functional Psychology
- Established by William James, John Dewey, and Charles Sanders Peirce
- Based on the concept of evolution by natural selection

Functionalism
- By William James
- Mental activities help an organism fit into its environment
- Focuses on the observed behavior of the person
- Operation of the whole mind rather than of its individual parts

Sigmund Freud
- Austrian neurologist
- Studies hysteria (physical and emotional disturbances with no apparent physical cause)
- His patient’s problems arose from the unconscious mind
- Unconscious mind is the repository of feelings and urges of which we have no
awareness
- Unconscious mind could be accessed through dream analysis, by examinations of the
first words that came to people’s minds, and through seemingly innocent slips of the
tongue.

Psychoanalytic theory
- Focuses on the role of a person’s unconscious as well as early childhood experiences

Psychoanalysis
- Patient talking about their experiences and selves

Wertheimer, Koffka, and Kohler

- Three German psychologists who immigrated to theUS to escape Nazi, Germany
- Introduced Gestalt principles to the US
and Gestalt Psychology

G. Stanley Hall- first president of APA

Association for Psychological Science

- Seeks to advance the scientific orientation of psychology

Biopsychology
- Explores how our biology influences our behavior
- How the structure and function of the nervous system is related to behavior
- Combination of psychologist and physiologist’s findings

Evolutionary psychology
- Ultimate biological causes of behavior
- A behavior will demonstrate adaptation to surroundings, including physical environment,
interactions between organisms, and social environment
- Behavior must have genetic cause

Sensation and Perception

- Physiological aspects of sensory systems and psychological experience of sensory
information

Cognitive Psychology
- Studies cognition, thoughts, and their relationship to our experiences and our actions
- Research on problem solving, language, memory

Developmental psychology
- Study of development across lifespan
- Processes related to physical maturation, cognitive skills, moral reasoning, social
behavior, and other psychological attributes

Personality Psychology
- Patterns of thoughts and behaviors that make each individual unique
 - Theories of personality
- Personality airse as conflicts between the conscious and unconscious parts of the mind
were carried out over the lifespan
- Research also focuses on identifying personality traits, measuring these trausm and
determining how these traits interact in a particular context to determine how a person
will behave in any given situation
- Big Five (conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness, and extraversion)

Social Psychology
- How we interact with and relate to others
- Research on prejudice, attraction, resolving interpersonal conflicts, and how being
among other people changes our own behavior and patterns of thinking

Stanley Milgram
- Conducted research on obedience

Industrial-Organizational Psychology
- Applies psychological theories, principles, and research finding in industrial and
organization settings
- Personnel management, organization structure, workplace environment
- Human resource

Health Psychology
- How health is affected by the interaction of biological, psychological, and sociocultural
factors
- Helps individuals achieve better health through public policy, education, intervention, and
research
- Research on the relationship between genetic makeup, patterns of behavior,
relationships, psychological stress, and health

Sports and Exercise Psychology

- Psychological aspects of sports performance, including motivation and performance
anxiety, effects of sport on mental and emotional wellbeing

Clinical psychology
- Diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders and other problematic patterns of
behavior

Forensic Psychology
- Deals questions of psychology as they arise in the context of justice system
- Assess a person’s competency to stand trial, assess the state of mind of a defendant
Counseling Psychology
- Focuses in improving emotional, social, vocational and other aspects of the loves of
psychologically healthy individuals

Wilhem Wundt
- Structuralist
- Cognitive experience is best understood by breaking that experience into its component
parts, achieved through introspection

William James
- Functionalism
- Mental activities serve as adaptive responses to an organism’s environment

Sigmund Frued
- Understanding the unconscious mind is critical to understanding conscious behavior
- hysteria
- Unconscious mind can be access through dream analysis, slips of tongue, and free
association
- Psychoanalytic theory

Gestalt psychology
- Takes a holistic view of an individual and his experiences /
- Wertheimer, Koffka, and Kohler
- Sensation and perception

Behaviorism
- Makes psychology an objective science by studying overt behavior and deemphasizing
the impotance of unobservable mental processes
- John Watson is the father of behaviorism

● Behaviorism and psychoanalytic theory became not enough to picture the psychology of
human nature. Thus, a humanistic movement within psychology begsn to take hold

Humanism
- Focuses on the potential of all people for good
- Maslow and Rogers

Hierarchy of needs
- Physiological
- Safety and security
- Love and belonging
 - Esteem
- Self-actualization

CHAPTER 2 KEY TERMS

● Archival research- uses past records or data sets to answer various research questions
● Cause-and-effect relationship- changes in one variable cause the changes in the other
variable
● Clinical or case study- observational research that focus on one or a few people
● confounding variable- unanticipated outside factor that affects both variables of interest,
often giving false impression that changes in one variable was caused by the changes in
the other variable, when in actuality, was caused by outside factors
● Control group- serves as comparison, no application of treatment
● Correlation- relationship between two or more variables
● Correlation-coefficient- indicates the strength and direction of relationship between
variables, denoted by r
● Cross-sectional research- compares multiple segments of a population at a single time
● Longitudinal research- studies in which the same group of individuals is surveyed or
measured repeatedly over time
● Debriefing- telling the participants the complete and truthful information about the
experiment at its conclusion
● Deception- purposely misleading experiments
● Double-blind study- experiment in which both researches and the participants are blind
to group assignments
● Deductive reasoning- results are predicted based on a general premise
● Inductive reasoning- conclusions are drawn from observations
● Illusory correlation- seeing relationships between things when in reality no such
relationship exists
● Placebo effect- people’s expectations or beliefs influencing or determining their
experience in a given situation
● Random sample- subset of larger population where members have equal chances of
being selected
● Reliability- consistency and reproducibility of a given result
● survey - list of questions to be answered
CHAPTER 3:
BIOPSYCHOLOGY

Why do psychological researchers study genetics?

- To better understand the biological factors that contribute to certain behavior

Sickle-cell anemia
- Genetic condition in which red blood cells, which are normally round, take on a
crescent-like shape, affecting how they function.
- These cells clog blood vessels and block blood flow, leading to high fever, severe pain,
swelling, and tissue damage.
- Patients die at an early age
- Prevents malaria infection

Genetic variation- Genetic difference between individuals that contribute to a species’

adaptation to its environment.

Chromosomes- Long strings of genetic material known as DNA

DNA- Helix-shaped molecule made up of nucleotide base pairs

Gene- Sequences of DNA that control or partially control a number of visible characteristics
known as traits

Allele- Multiple possible variations of genes; Specific version of a gene

Genotype- Genetic make-up of individual

Phenotype- Refers to individual’s inherited physical characteristics, which are a combination of

genetic and environmental influences

Homozygous- Someone has the two copies of the same allele

Heterozygous- Combination of alleles for a given trait

Polygenic- Traits controlled by more than one gene

Mutation- Sudden, permanent change in a gene

Gene-Environment Interactions:

● Range of reaction
- Asserts that our genes set the boundaries within which we can operate, and our
environment interacts with the genes to determine where in that range we will fall

Example: An individual’s genetic makeup predisposes them to high levels of intellectual

potential and they are reared in a rich, stimulating environment, the they will be more
likely to achieve full potential than if they were raised under conditions of significant
deprivation

- Genes set definite limits on potential, and environment determines how much of that
potential is achieved

● Genetic Environmental Correlation

- Our genes influence our environment, and our environment influences the expression of
our genes
- The difference between this and range of reaction is that genes and environment
influence one another bidirectionally

Example: The child of an NBA player would probably be exposed to basketball from an
early age. Such exposure might allow the child to realize their full genetic, athletic potential.
Thus, the parents’ genes, which the child shares, influences the child’s environment,and that
environment, in turn, is well suited to support the child’s genetic potential.

● Epigenetics
- Looks beyond the genotype itself and studies how the same genotype can be expressed
in different ways
- Researchers study how the same genotype can lead to very different phenotypes due to
variations in environment
- The genotype is not fixed and limited

Cells of the Nervous System

Glial cells- provide scaffolding on which the nervous system is built, help neurons, transport
nutrients and waste products, and mediate immune responses
Neurons- serve as interconnected information processors that are essential for all of the tasks
of the nervous system. They are the central building blocks of the nervous system

Neuron Structure:
● Outer surface- made of semipermeable membrane that allows smaller molecules and
molecules without electrical charge to pass through it, while stopping larger or highly
charged molecules
● Soma- cell body where the nucleus is located.
● Dendrites- branching extensions in the soma that serve as input sites where signals are
received from other neurons
● Axon- transmit the signals, which end at multiple terminal buttons
● Synaptic vesicles- houses neurotransmitters
● Neurotransmitters- chemical messengers of the nervous system
● Myelin sheath- fatty substance formed by glial cells that coats the axon and acts as an
insulator, increasing the speed at which the signal travels.
● Nodes of Ranvier- gaps in the myelin sheath,
● Synaptic cleft- very small space between two neurons and is an important site where
communication between neurons occurs. Once neurotransmitters are released into the
synaptic cleft, they travel across it and bind with corresponding receptors on the dendrite
of an adjacent neuron
● Receptors- proteins on the cell surface where neurotransmitters attach and they vary in
shape to match different neurotransmitters

How does a neurotransmitter know which receptor to bind to?

- They have lock-and-key relationship, in which specific neurotransmitters fit specific
receptors similar to how a key fits a lock.

Neuronal Communication
1. Neuronal Membrane- keeps the extracellular and intracellular fluid separate because
the electrical signal that passes through the neuron depends on the two fluids being
electrically different (membrane potential- difference in charge which provides energy for
the signal)
2. Resting potential- state of readiness in which the ions line up on either side of the cell
membrane ready to rush across the membrane when the neuron goes active and the
membrane opens up its gate. (ions in higher to lower concentration; from positive ions to
negative-charged areas).
3. Sodium-potassium pump- transports three sodium ions out of the cell for every two
potassium ions in which creates a net negative charge inside the cell.
4. Threshold of excitation- the point in which the neuron becomes active and the action
potential begins (electrical signal that moves from the cell body down the axon
 terminals). The internal charge of the cell is positive due to the influx of positive sodium
ions, which occur when a neuron receives signals at the dendrites.
5. Peak action potential- massive influx of sodium ions due to the opening of many
additional pores. The sodium gates close and the potassium gates open.
6. Repolarization- happens when potassium ions start to leave the cell
7. Hyperpolarization- the inside of the cell becomes more negative than the resting
potential. It then levels off to return to the resting potential.
8. Nodes of Ranvier- as the electrical signals travel down the axon, they jump in between
these structures to raise the charge past the threshold of excitation and trigger a new
influx of sodium ions at each point.

● Action potential is an all-or-none phenomenon because the incoming signal from another
neuron is either sufficient or insufficient to reach the threshold of excitation. Hence, it is
recreated or propagated at its full strength at every point along the axon. There is no
turning off an action potential.

9. As neurotransmitters travel across the synapse and bind to the receptors on dendrites of
the adjacent neuron, the process then repeats itself in the neuron.
10. Excess neurotransmitters in the synaptic cleft drift away and are broken into inactive
fragments, or reabsorbed in the process known as reuptake to clear the synapse.
Clearing off the synapse is important to provide a clear on and off state between signals
and to regulate the production of neurotransmitters.

● Neuronal communication is often referred to as an electrochemical event (action of

potential down the axon is electrical and the movement of neurotransmitters across
synaptic space is chemical).
● Although some cases are entirely electrical where two neurons physically connect one
another via gap junctions and they transmit signals faster than the chemical synapses.

Neurotransmitters and Drugs

● Psychological disorders like depression and schizophrenia are associated with
imbalances in one or more neurotransmitter systems.
● Psychotropic disorders- drugs that treat psychiatric symptoms by restoring
neurotransmitter balance

Psychoactive drugs may act as:

● Agonists- chemicals that mimic a neurotransmitter at the receptor site
● Antagonist- blocks or impedes the normal activity of a neurotransmitter at the receptor.

● Parkinson’s disease- low levels of dopamine (uses agonists)

● Schizophrenia- overactive dopamine neurotransmission (uses antagonists)
● Depression- reduced serotonin levels (treated by reuptake inhibitors to
 ● prevent unused neurotrnamistters from being transported back to the neuron, allowing
them to remain active in the synaptic cleft for longer durations. This gives serotonin more
time to interact with the receptors on dendrites)

Parts of the Nervous System

Subdivisions of Nervous System:

● Central Nervous System (CNS)- brain and spinal cord
● Peripheral nervous system (PNS)- connects the CNS to the rest of the body (nerves) .
It has two major subdivisions:
1. Somatic NS- activities thought of as conscious or voluntary, involved in relay of
sensory and motor information to and from CNS.
2. Autonomic NS- controls our internal organs; involuntary.
● Sympathetic NS- prepares the body for stress-related activities; activated
during stressful and high-arousal situations
● Parasympathetic NS- returns the body to routine, day-to-day operations;
normalizes body functions after stressful situations

Nerves- thick bundles of axon that carry messages back and forth between the CNS and the
muscles, organs, and senses in the periphery of the body

Motor Neurons- CNS to muscles (efferent fibers = exit)

Sensory Neurons- muscles/organs to the CNS (afferent fibers =arrive)

Homeostasis- state of equilibrium in which biological conditions are maintained at optimal

levels. Achieved because of the complementary functions of sympathetic and parasympathetic
NS.
Brain
- Complex organ composed of billions of interconnected neurons and glia
- Bilateral, two sided that is separated into distinct lobes

Spinal Cord
- Connects the brain to the outside world
- A relay station that routes messages to and from the brain, and has its own automatic
processes called reflexes.
- The top part controls the basic processes of life like and digestion
- 30 segments; each segment is connected to a specific part of the body through PNS
- Immediately act on sensory messages without any input from the brain (e.g. knee jerk)
- Protected by vertebrae and cushioned in cerebrospinal fluid

Neuroplasticity- how the NS can change and adapt; involves creation of new synapses, cutting
of not functional synapses, changes in glial cells, and birth of neurons

Cerebral cortex- surface of the brain; uneven; distinctive patterns of folds or bumps known
as gyri, and groves known as sulci. Associated with higher level processes, such as
consciousness, thought, emotion, reasoning, language, and memory.
● Gyri and grooves separate the brain into functional centers.
● Longitudinal fissure- deep groove that separates the the brain into hemispheres
Lateralization- right hemisphere controls the left side of the body and the left controls the right
half

Corpus callosum- thick band of neural fibers that connects the two hemispheres of the brain
allowing the two hemispheres to communicate

Forebrain- largest part of the brain, consisting of thalamus, hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and
limbic system.

Lobes of the Brain:

● Frontal- reasoning, motor control, emotion, language. It contains the following:
- Motor cortex- planning and coordinating movement
- Prefrontal cortex- higher-level cognitive functioning
- Broca’s area- language production

● Parietal- behind the frontal lobe; body senses. It contains:

- Somatosensory complex- processes sensory information across the body such
as touch, temperature, and pain

● Temporal- side of the brain. Associated with hearing, memory, emotion, and some
aspects of language. It contains the following:
- Auditory cortex- auditory information
- Wernicke’s area- speech comprehension

● Occipital- back of the brain. It contains:

- Primary visual cortex- interpreting incoming visual information.

Other Areas of the Forebrain:

● Thalamus- sensory relay of the brain. All senses except smell are routed through it
before directed to other parts of the brain.
● Limbic system- emotion and memory; smell is directly projected to the limbic system. It
consists of the following structures:
- Hippocampus- learning and memory
- Amygdala- experience of emotion and in tying emotional meaning to our
memories.
- Hypothalamus- regulates homeostatic processes; interface between nervous
and endocrine systems
Midbrain and Hindbrain Structures:
● Reticular formation- centered in the midbrain; regulating sleep, wake cycle, arousal,
alertness, and motor activity
● Substantia nigra & Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA)- midbrain; produce neurotransmitter
dopamine; critical for movement, mood, reward, and addiction
● Medulla- hindbrain; controls the automatic processes of ANS like breathing, blood
pressure and heart rate
● Pons- regulates brain activity during sleep
● Cerebellum- receives messages from muscles, tendons, joints, and structures in our ear
to control balance, coordination, movement, and motor skills. Also an important area dor
processing memories.

Computerized Tomography (CT) scan- taking a number of x-rays of a particular section of a

person’s body or brain.

Positron Emission tomography (PET) scan- create pictures of the living, active brain. A
person who received PET scan drinks or is injected with a mildly radioactive substance, called a
tracer. A computer monitors the movement of the tracer and creates a rough map of active and
inactive areas of the brain during a given behavior. Less efficient because shows little detail and
time consuming.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) - a person is placed inside a machine that generates
strong magnetic fields which cause hydrogen atoms in the cells to move

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)- operates like MRI, but it shows changes in
brain activity over time by tracking blood flow and oxygen levels. Provides more detailed images
of the brains’ structure and more time efficient than PET scans

Techniques involving Electrical Activity

● Electroencephalography- provides a measure of a brain’s electrical activity. An array of
electrodes is placed around a person’s head and the signals received by the electrodes
result in a printout of the electrical activity of their brain known as brainwaves. Aids in
studying sleeping patterns and sleep disorders

THE ENDOCRINE SYSTEM

- Consists of a series of glands that produce chemical substances known as hormones

Hormones- chemical messengers that must bind to a receptor in order to send their signal; thet
are secreted into the bloodstream and travel throughout the body. Their effects are widespread,
slower to effect, and tend to be longer lasting.
Major glands:
● Pituitary gland- at the base of the brain. Secretes growth hormone, endorphins, and key
hormones that regulate fluid levels in the body
● Adrenal gland- sit atop our kidneys and secret hormones in the stress response such as
epinephrine and norepinephrine.
● Pancreas- regulates blood sugar: insulin and glucagon
● Gonads- secrete sexual hormones
STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS

Consciousness- describes our awareness of internal (pain, hunger, thirst, sleepiness, thoughts,
and emotions) and external stimuli (light from the sun, warmth, hearing a voice)

Sleep- state marked by relatively low levels of physical activity and reduced sensory awareness
that is distinct from periods of rest that occur during wakefulness

Wakefulness- high levels of sensory awareness, thought, and behavior.

Other states of consciousness: daydreaming, intoxication, and unconsciousness due to

anesthesia

Biological rhythms- internal rhythms of biological activity (e.g. menstrual cycle, body
temperature fluctuation)

Circadian rhythm- a biological rhythm that takes place over a period of about 24 hours (e.g.
sleep-wake cycle)

Homeostasis- tendency to maintain a balance or optimal level within a biological system

Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN)- area in the hypothalamus where brain’s clock mechanism is
located. This internal clock is synchronized with the outside world by providing information from
the axons of light-sensitive neurons in the retina based on the amount of light present.

Melatonin- hormone that regulates sleep-wake cycles; stimulated by darkness and inhibited by
light
Pineal gland- endocrine structure that releases melatonin

Person’s Chronotype- individual differences in circadian patterns of activity (morning persons vs.
night owls)

Sleep regulation- refers to the brain’s control of switching between sleep and wakefulness as
well as coordinating this cycle with the outside world

DIsruptions of Normal Sleep:

● Jet lag- collection of symptoms that results from the mismatch between our internal
circadian rhythms and our environment, Symptoms include fatigue, sluggishness,
irritability, and insomnia
● Rotating Shift Work- work schedule that changes from early to late on a daily weekly
basis
Sleep debt- does not get sufficient sleep on a chronic basis which causes decreased levels of
alertness and mental efficiency.

Newborns require 12-18 hours of sleep a night

Adults require 7-9 hours of sleep

What is sleep?
- Interplay of the circadian and homeostatic mechanisms that regulate sleep

Sleep rebound- fact that a sleep-deprived individual will fall asleep more quickly during
subsequent opportunities for sleep

Electroencephalography (EEG)- device that visualize certain patterns of activity of the brain
during sleep and differentiate different phase of sleep
 ● Sleep-wake cycles are controlled by multiple brain areas like thalamus, hypothalamus,
and pons acting in conjunction with one another
● Hypothalamus contains the SCN
● Thalamus regulates slow-wave sleep
● Pons regulates rapid eye movement (REM) sleep
● Sleep is also associated with the secretion and regulation of hormones from several
glands including melatonin, FSH, LH, and growth hormone

Adaptive Function of Sleep

- Sleep is essential to restore resources that are expended during the day. People sleep at
night to reduce their energy expenditures
- Sleep patterns evolved as an adaptive response to predatory risks, which increase in
darkness. We sleep in safe areas to reduce the chance of harm
- Maintains healthy weight, lowers stress levels, improves mood, increases motor
coordination

Cognitive Function of Sleep

- Sleep aids in cognition and memory formation
- Slow-wave sleep after learning a new task can improve resultant performance on that
task and seems essential for effective memory function
- Getting optimal amount of sleep is associated with increased capacities for creative
thinking, language learning, and inferential judgements

Stages of sleep
- Sleep is not a uniform state of being as it is composed of several different stages that
can be differentiated from one another by the patterns of brain activity that occur during
each stage
- Beta waves dominate our brain while awake with highest frequency (13-30 Hz) and
lowest amplitude (height of the brain wave)

1. Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep

- Characterized by darting movements of the eyes under closed eyelids.
- Brain waves appear very similar to brain waves during wakefulness.
- Period in which dreaming occurs
- Associated with paralysis of muscle systems in the body with the exception of
those that make circulation and respiration possible
- No movement of voluntary muscles occurs
- Paradoxical sleep because of the combination of high brain activity and lack of
muscle tone
- Implicated in various aspects of learning and memory, involved in emotional
processinf regulation

2. Non-REM sleep
 - Subdivided Into three stages
● Stage 1 Sleep
- transitional phase that occurs between wakefulness and sleep, the
period during at which we drift off to sleep
- There is a slowdown in both respiration and heartbeat rates
- Decrease in both overall muscle tension and core body
temperature
- Associated with alpha and theta waves
- Alpha waves are produced during the early portion of stage 1
sleep, in which the patterns of electrical activity resemble that of
someone who is very relaxed yet awake, but they are more
synchronized and are relatively lower in frequency (8-12 Hz) and
higher in amplitude than beta waves
- Theta waves have even lower frequency (4-7 Hz) and higher in
amplitude than the alpha wave patterns.
- Easy to wake someone from stage 1 sleep

● Stage 2 Sleep
- The body goes into a state of deep relaxation
- Dominated by theta waves, but they are interrupted by brief bursts
of activity known as sleep spindles (rapid burst of higher frequency
brain waves that may be important for learning and memory.
- K-complex is a very high amplitude pattern of brain activity that
may occur in response to environmental stimuli; thus might serve
as a bridge to higher levels of arousal

● NREM stage 3 sleep

- Referred to as deep sleep or slow-wave sleep because of low
freqeuncy (< 3 Hz) and high amplitude delta waves
- Delta waves have the lowest frequency and highest amplitude of
our sleeping brain wave patterns
- Heart rate and respiration slow dramatically
- More difficult to awaken someone

Dreams
● According to Sigmund Frued
- Dreams represent an opportunity to gain access to the unconscious
- Analyzing dreams could increase self-awareness and gain valuable insight to
help them deal with the problems they faced in their lives.

Manifest content
- Actual content, or storyline, of a dream
Latent content
- Hidden meaning of a dream

● According to Carl Jung:

- Dreams allowed us to tap into collective unconscious
- Collective unconscious is a theoretical repository of information he
believed to be shared by everyone
- Certain symbols in dreams reflected universal archetypes with meanings
that are similar for all people regardless of culture or location

● According to Rosalind Cartwright

- Dreams simply reflect life events that are important to the dreamer

● Activation-Synthesis Theory of Dreaming

- Dreams were not the meaning-filled representations of angst proposed by Freud
and others, but were rather the result of our brain attempting to make sense of
(synthesize) the neural activity (activation) that was happening during REM
sleep.
- Hobson (2009) suggests that dreaming may represent a state of
protoconsciousness, thus, dreaming involves constructing a virtual reality in our
heads that we might use to help us during wakefulness

Lucid dreams- certain aspects of wakefulness are maintained during a dream state. A person
becomes aware of the fact that they are dreaming, and they can control the dream’s content

Sleep Problems and Disorders

● Insomnia
- Consistent difficulty in falling or staying asleep
- Individuals often experience long delays between the times that they go to bed
and actually fall asleep.
- Individuals may wake up several times during the night only to find out that they
have difficulty getting back to sleep.
- Individuals with insomnia involved experiencing these symptoms for at least 3
nights a week for at least one month’s time
- Influenced by age, drug use, exercise, mental status, and bedtime routines.
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy helps insomnia patients, which is a type of
psychotherapy that focuses on cognitive processes and problem behaviors. This
treatment include stress management techniques and changes in problematic
behaviors that could contribute to insomnia
● Chronic Insomnia
- Feeling overtired and may be associated with symptoms of depression
● Parasomnia
 - Group of sleep disorders in which unwanted, disruptive motor activity and/or
experiences during sleep play a role.
- Can occur in either REM or NREM phases of sleep
● Sleepwalking- also called somnambulism, the sleeper engages in
relatively complex behaviors ranging from wandering about to driving an
automobile. Sleepers often have their eyes open, but they are not
responsive to attempts to communicate with them. Commonly occurs
during slow-wave sleep.
● REM Sleep Behavior Disorder (RBD)- occurs when the muscle paralysis
associated with the REM sleep phase does not occur. Patients have high
levels of physical activity during REM sleep, especially during dreams,
which may include kicking, punching, scratching, yelling, and behaving
like an animal. Affected individuals have no memories that these
behaviors have occurred. This order is associated with a number of
neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease. Patients are
often treated with clonazepam.
● Restless Leg Syndrome- uncomfortable sensations in the legs during
periods of inactivity or when trying to fall asleep.
● Night terrors- sense of panic often accompanied by screams and attempts
to escape from the immediate environment. Although individuals appear
to be awake, they generally have no memories of the events that
occurred, and attempts to console them are ineffective. Occurs during the
NREM phase of sleep.

● Sleep Apnea
- episodes during which a sleeper’s breathing stops. These episodes can last
10-20 seconds or longer and often are associated with brief episodes of arousal.
- They are not aware of the repeated disruptions in sleep but they experience
increased levels of fatigue.
- Much more common in overweight people and is often associated with loud
snoring.
- There are 2 types of sleep apnea: obstructive and central sleep apnea
- Obstructive sleep apnea occurs when an individual’s airway becomes blocked
during sleep, and air is prevented from entering the lungs
- Central sleep apnea is the disruption in signals sent from the brain that regulate
breathing cause periods of interrupted breathing
- Using a special device called continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is one
of the common treatments. This device includes a mask that fits over the
sleeper’s nose and mouth, which is connected to a pump that pumps air into the
person’s airways, forcing them to remain open
● Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)- an infant stops breathing during
sleep and dies. Infants younger than 12 months have higher risk for SIDS,
especially boys.
 ● Narcolepsy
- A person cannot resist falling asleep at inopportune times.
- These sleep episodes are often associated with cataplexy, which is a lack of
muscle tone or muscle weakness, and in some cases involves complete
paralysis of the voluntary muscles.
- These sleep episodes are similar to the paralysis experienced by healthy
individuals during REM sleep, such as experiencing vivid, dream-like
hallucinations during narcoleptic attacks
- Triggered by states of heightened arousal or stress, which may last from a
minute or two to half an hour
- Treated using psychomotor stimulant drugs

Other States of Consciousness

● Hypnosis
- State of extreme self-focus and attention in which minimal attention is given to
external stimuli
- Used to draw out information believed to be buried deeply in someone’s memory
- Individuals undergoing hypnosis usually have clear memories of the hypnotic
experience and are in control of their own behaviors.
- Used for therapeutic purposes, such as in pain management, treatment of
depression and anxiety, etc.
- There are two theories trying to explain how hypnosis works:
● Dissociation view- hypnosis is effectively a dissociated state of
consciousness, much like our earlier example where you may drive to
work but you are minimally aware of the process of driving because your
attention is focused elsewhere.
● Social cognitive theory- sees people in hypnotic states as performing the
social role of a hypnotized person.

● Meditation
- Act of focusing on a single target to increase the awareness of the moment.
- Unlike in hypnosis, an individual can perform meditation alone
- The central feature of all meditation is clearing the mind in order to achieve a
state of relaxed awareness and focus.
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