sleep Flashcards
what is the latent content of dreams?
what the dream is really about
what is the manifest content of dreams?
what the dream appears to be about
what is secondary elaboration in dreams?
the dreamers own interpretation which occurs after waking or things they add while telling the dream. this makes it harder for an analyst to recognise the latent content
condensation in dreams
this is when several ideas or symbols get merged together
regression
where an individual’s personality reverts to an earlier point of development. A person will portray behaviors from childhood when confronted with threatening or objectionable situations and relates to freuds theory of psychosexual development. examples could be sucking your thumb or throwing a childish tantrum
denial
when people distort reality typically by stating that something is less of a problem than it is. they may ignore the risks of the behaviour such as smoking or unprotected sex
displacement
Displacement is the redirection of an impulse (usually aggression) onto a powerless substitute target. The target can be a person or an object that can serve as a symbolic substitute.
reaction formation
Reaction formation is a psychological defense mechanism in which a person goes beyond denial and behaves in the opposite way to which he or she thinks or feels.
projection
Projection is a psychological defense mechanism proposed by Anna Freud in which an individual attributes unwanted thoughts, feelings and motives onto another person.
what is the psychoanalytic/psychodynamic approach?
this approach emphasises the role of the unconscious mind in human behaviour. it states that childhood interactions with our parents can shape personality. this approach states a large part of our mind is hidden from us and that it would require talking theory (psychoanalysis) for people to uncover and deal with the hidden conflict within our minds.
who came up with the psychoanalytic/psychodynamic approach?
Sigmund Freud
what did Freud believe about physical illnesses?
Freud believed that physical illnesses had psychological causes
what is a flaw with the psychoanalytic/psychodynamic approach?
they were based on case studies
the sample was biased
what is the id?
the id is the unconscious mind which is also the first to develop. it motivations are simple and it desires pleasure and gratification. like a very young child the id doesn’t understand rules or consequences. it provides energy for the other parts of the mind
what is the ego?
the ego is the conscious mind which controls all rational thought and it is the part you are aware of
what is the superego?
the superego is partly conscious and partly unconscious. it is our awareness of societies rules and therefore provides us with a moral sense of right and wrong if we do something our superego doesn’t approve of we will feel guilty
what is wish fulfilment?
wish fulfilment is when we dream about our wants and our desires especially when these desires have been thwarted in real life
according to the psychoanalytic/psychodynamic approach which part of the brain is most active during sleep?
the id is most prominent during sleep and the ids main motivation is pleasure
what is the role of repression in the theory of dreams?
repression involves putting unwanted thoughts or dark secrets often with sexual context from the unconscious id. repression is a major cause of dreams according to this theory. repressed desires are kept out of the mind while we are awake but they return during dreams ina hidden form.
what is the role of secondary elaboration in the theory of dreams?
secondary elaboration could involve hiding the more embarrassing aspects of a dream when the dreamer interprets it upon waking. this type of defence mechanism and could also involve denial or reaction formation.
what is the role of displacement in the theory of dreams?
displacement may occur within the dream, this is where something unimportant is brought to prominence, in order to shift attention away from what is really important. it plays a similar psychological role to replacing repressed feelings with symbols, and makes it harder for a therapist to uncover the latent content.
what is the cognitive process of dreams
the cognitive process approach to psychology explains behaviour in terms of beliefs and schemas and sees the mind as an information processor.
what is the biological explanation of dreams?
dreaming occurs in the stages of sleep and REM sleep. rather than looking for the meaning in dreams, instead the biological process views dreams as a side effect of brain activity during sleep. meaning that dreams are meaningless.
evaluation of the cognitive process of dreams?
- based on much lab research and therefore lacks ecological validity
- assumes humans are like computers
- ignores other factors such as biology
- lacks research conducted on humans
- conflicting evidence from reorganisational theory
- only concentrates on tbe brain
what did Rasch and Born say about the reorganisational theory?
Rasch and Born note three major pieces of evidence against Crick and Mitchison’s theory.
- people who were asked to suppress memories piror to a period of sleep actually remembered them better than a control group who stayed awake.
- creative thinking can be improved by sleep. this indicates that key information is well remembered and better organised after sleeping
- patients with PTSD often suffer repetitive nightmares. far from being associated with deleting bad memories, these nightmares actually appear to make the condition worse.
Crick and Mitchison reorganisation theory quote?
“we dream in order to forget”
what does the reorganisational theory suggest about dreams?
it suggests the main function of dreams is to make the most out of our ability to store memories. Crick and Mitchison believed our rain storage capacity is limited and that some memories are therefore deleted overnight in order to use storage space more efficiently.
what is the reorganisational theory based on?
the reorganisational theory is based on the concept of reverse learning. this means that learning can be undone during REM sleep. they believed that dreams are just side effects of the decluttering process. this is because the neocortex is overloaded with information during the day and during REM sleep these unwanted memories are deleted in order to improve organisation and make space. As these unconnected memories and ideas are activated a random section of thoughts and memories form into a dream.
what are the two category of memories crick and mitchison believed in?
parasitic memories: useless or harmful memories that waste resources
adaptive memories: things that are useful to retain
what did crick and mitchison believe was the purpose of REM sleep?
they believed the brain benefited from reverse learning of parasitic memories as the purpose of REM sleep.
what are parasitic memories thought to lead to?
parasitic memories are thought to lead to obsessions and compulsive behaviour.
what was the research evidence for the reorganisational theory? (brain size)
to support their theory, crick and mitchison refer to other species that lack REM sleep- the echidna of these two species of dolphin have larger brains than what is expected for their body size. this lead crick and mitchison to say that the ‘pruning’ of memories during REM sleep is what allows our brains to be smaller and more efficient.
what was the research evidence for the reorganisational theory? (computers)
crick and mitchison also run neural network computer models of learning. these have found that memories are easily overloaded but can be reduced after reverse learning. they also have found that the computer models acted in highly repetitive ways which they compared to obsessive/compulsive behaviours in humans. the computer models also have hallucinations based on old information that had not been deleted.
what was Walker et al findings in relation to reorganisational theory?
walker et al used a finger tapping exercise to study study the role of sleep in learning new memories. they found that sleep helps the memories to be reliably encoded and that recalling an item the following day reactivates the memory, allowing a skill to be refined. this shows that sleep facilitates information processing
what was Mednick et al’s findings in relation to the reorganisational theory?
he found that for a perception task, the same benefit was found after a 90 minute nap (containing all the sleep stages) as after a full nights sleep. this shows that sleep facilitates information processing
what was Seehagn’s findings in relation to the reorganisational theory?
he found that babies when learning a new action, those who had taken a nap recalled the skill better than those who hadnt taken one. this shows that sleep facilitates information processing.
Bjork 2011 theory findings in relation to the reorganisational theory?
Bjork states that the brains capacity is unlimited and goes against the reorganisational theory because of how it states that it isn’t necessary to delete files in order to make space.
Stickgold theory findings in relation to the reorganisational theory?
according to Stickgold’s findings, sleep is beneficial to every type of memory but he suggests that people who have a medium memory trace gain the biggest benefit
what was the aim of Czeisler et al’s study?
the study aimed to find a routine including light exposure which would help nightshift workers fully adapt to daytime sleeping.
what was the motivation behind Czeisler et al’s aim?
Nightshifts are associated with poor sleep and health problems but previous research had shown that the presence of light or darkness regulates the circadian rhythms and it can ‘reset’ the supercharismatic nucleus by up to 12 hours.
what was the procedure/method of Czeisler et al?
the researchers designed a schedule of light exposure to help the nightshift workers. Each of the participants came to the lab at 23;45 for 6 days straight. during these days their tasks were to stay awake and doing cognitive tests and reporting their own alertness/mood. Men in the experimental group were exposed to very bright light during the nightshift.
what were the findings of Czeisler et al?
Biological measures such as body temperature showed that the experimental group had their circadian rhythms set forwards by over 9 hours while the control group’s remained unchanged. it appeared that among the experimental group’s circadian rhythms had changed from day to night due to the bright light exposure.
