Invitation to Psychology

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5

Body Rhythms and Mental States

ChapTER 5 Body Rhythms and Mental States 185

Exploring the Dream World

Hypnosis is a procedure in which the practitioner suggests

changes in a person’s sensations, perceptions, thoughts, feelings,

or behavior.

• Hypnotic responsiveness depends more on the efforts and
  qualities of the person being hypnotized than on the skill of
  the hypnotist.


• Hypnotized people cannot be forced to do things against their
  will.


• Feats performed under hypnosis can be performed by
  motivated people without hypnosis.


• Hypnosis does not increase the accuracy of memory or
  produce a literal re-experiencing of long-ago events.


• Hypnotic suggestions have been used effectively for many
  medical and psychological purposes.

The Riddle of Hypnosis

1. The dissociation view is that hypnosis is a split
   in consciousness between a hypnotized part of
   the mind and a hidden observer or an executive
   control system.


2. The sociocognitive view regards the hypno-
   tized person as using cognitive strategies, such
   as imagination, to comply with the hypnotist’s
   suggestions.

Theories of Hypnosis

Psychoactive drugs alter perception, mood, thinking, memory, or

behavior by changing the body’s biochemistry.

Consciousness-Altering Drugs

Drug classifications, based on their effects on

the central nervous system, include:

• stimulants.


• depressants.


• opiates.


• psychedelics.

Some drugs, such as marijuana, fall outside of

these classifications.

Classifying Drugs

The physiology of drug effects:

• Psychoactive drugs affect neurotransmitters levels in the brain.


• The use of some psychoactive drugs can lead to tolerance: increased
  resistance to a drug’s effects.


• When heavy users stop taking a drug, they may suffer severe withdrawal
  symptoms.
  The effects of a drug may vary for psychological reasons, including:


• the person’s experience with the drug.


• the person’s physical condition.


• the environmental setting.


• the person’s mental set, or expectations.

The Physiology and Psychology of Drug Effects

Dreams appear to be out of our control, although some people report having

lucid dreams, in which they control the action. Freud’s psychoanalytic theory

held that dreams provide insight into unconscious motives and desires, but no

objective method exists for verifying psychoanalytic interpretations of dreams.

There are three leading modern theories of dreams:

1. The problem-solving approach holds that dreams reflect the ongoing conscious
   concerns of waking life and may help us resolve them.


2. The cognitive approach holds that dreams are a modification of normal waking
   cognitive activity.


3. The activation–synthesis theory holds that dreams occur when the cortex
   tries to make sense of spontaneous neural firing initiated in the pons during
   REM sleep.

Hypnotistinduces

hypnoticstate

DISSOCIATION THEORIES OF HYPNOSIS

Person responds to suggestions

(“I’m 4 years old”)

Split between hidden observer or executive

control system and rest of mind

SOCIOCOGNITIVE THEORIES OF HYPNOSIS

Social inuence ofhypnotist (“You’re

going back intime”)

Person’cognitions (“Is own

believe in ageregression”)

Person conformsto suggestions

(“I’m 4 yearsold”)