Biological Psychology Unit Two AH Mr. Cline Marshall High School Psychology
Meditation As you just experienced, Guided meditation is one way that you can learn to focus your attention. Another way that you can tune out the noise and concentrate your thoughts is by repeating a mantra or phrase. For example, in the Hindu religion, meditation is considered an important facet of their religion, and they chant the sacred Ohm to reach these alternate states. So, you can reach an altered state of consciousness through meditation and relaxation techniques. When you focus your attention and increase awareness of your own physical and mental processes, it's possible to ignore the distractions of the outside world. Meditation has been shown to have positive effects on its practitioners, including reduced stress levels and improved physical and mental health.
Meditation Meditation leads to increased alpha and theta brainwaves, which are linked to relaxed states of mind. Hypnosis Close your eyes. Slowly open them. Close your eyes again. Notice how good it feels to rest. Slowly open them. Close them again. Your eyelids feel heavy. Slowly open them. Close them again. Each time you open them, your eyelids feel heavier and heavier. You're getting very sleepy. If you're open to the power of suggestion, you may be more easily put in an altered state through hypnosis than someone who's less susceptible to conformity, obedience and suggestion. Under hypnosis, your perception and actions are influenced by the hypnotist's suggestions. Freud hypnotized his patients in an attempt to bring their unconscious desires to the surface.
Hypnosis Hypnotherapy is sometimes used to treat phobias, drug addiction and overeating. It can even be used as an anesthetic if a hypnotist convinces the patient that they don't feel pain. Suggestion is the key concept for hypnosis. But hypnotists differ in how they believe the suggestions are processed. American psychiatrist Milton Erickson believed that hypnotists communicate with the unconscious mind, so he made suggestions that were indirect or metaphoric. Instead of commanding patients to stop smoking, Erickson would invite them to change by encouraging them that they could become non-smokers.
Hypnosis Psychologists Theodore Barber and Nicholas Spanos promoted more direct suggestions because they believed they were communicating with the conscious mind and that someone who was hypnotized was following suggestions because they were expected to. How do psychoactive drugs alter cognitive states? We are going to learn how these chemical compounds affect neurotransmitter functions as well as explore some factors that can affect the outcomes of drug use. As their name suggests, psychoactive drugs affect psychological experiences by altering your sensory perception, moods, thinking and behavior. Psychoactive drugs have these effects because they impact neurotransmitter function.
Neurotransmitters are the chemical signals that affect how hungry, thirsty, anxious, scared, happy or tired you are. There are four main types of psychoactive drugs: Stimulants Depressants Narcotics Hallucinogens Stimulants range from nicotine and caffeine to cocaine and crystal meth. Stimulants block the reuptake or reabsorption of neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine, which can lead to increased energy, panic and anxiety.
Think about how coffee or cigarettes can make you jittery. On the other hand, depressants increase the production of the neurotransmitter GABA, which decreases reactions in the brain. Depressants, like alcohol, cause slowed reactions, impaired speech and drowsiness. Depressants affect cognition by impairing memory. Depressants like benzodiazepines help GABA neurotransmitters bind to receptors that receive the chemical signals, leading to reduced nervous system activity and inducing sleep. A third type of psychoactive drugs includes narcotics like morphine, heroin and codeine.
Narcotics may be administered as painkillers for medical reasons, or used recreationally to create a sense of euphoria. They simulate your endorphins, which are neurotransmitters that naturally reduce pain. Hallucinogens include LSD, mescaline and ecstasy. These drugs mimic the effects of the neurotransmitters serotonin and epinephrine, which lessen pain. They can also trick the brain into seeing or hearing things that aren't actually there, warping a person's sense of time and space. These altered states of consciousness can lead to paranoia and anxiety.
Some researchers put cannabis in a fifth category, since marijuana and hashish have effects similar to both narcotics and hallucinogens. Your nervous system will try to rebalance when your neurotransmitter levels are increased or decreased in the presence of psychoactive drugs. You could become drug-tolerant if your receptors are overstimulated from prolonged drug use, resulting in fewer or less sensitive receptors. Tolerance can lead to addiction, or system dependence, since more and more of a drug is needed to achieve the original effect in a less sensitive system. Long-term drug use affects the body, so some drugs produce withdrawal symptoms when you quit. Not all drugs are physically addictive, though many are psychologically addictive.
The prevailing theory on marijuana seems to be that it's more psychologically addictive than physically addictive. People become physically addicted when they're trying to avoid withdrawal symptoms. Withdrawal is no joke; you can actually die from the withdrawal symptoms of some drugs, which is why severe addicts must be monitored and sometimes given low doses of a drug or a substitute drug to counteract the negative effects. Heroin addicts may be given the synthetic drug methadone to wean them off heroin, which is a more potent narcotic. have different effects on different people, and can even have different effects on the same person under different circumstances. Some things that affect reaction are the amount and potency of the drug.
Do you drink one cup of espresso every morning or an entire pot of coffee? Your mood and motivation can also be factors. Compare the effects of a celebratory glass of champagne to toast your friend's marriage or a stiff drink after a stressful day at work. Your expectations can influence the effects, too. Are you drinking because you're trying to unwind, or are you looking to party? Is the drug being used as a medication or for recreational purposes? How a drug is administered has an influence. If you smoke a cigarette, the nicotine enters your body through your lungs, whereas if you wear a nicotine patch, the drug enters your bloodstream through your skin.
Your tolerance is also affected by your prior experience, age and weight. Even the environment in which a drug is used can affect the outcome.