Question

1. Contrast Freud's theories of dreams with the activation–synthesis model as it pertains to the meaning of dreams.

2. Compare and contrast how the five different drug categories alter consciousness. What are the similarities? What are the differences?

3. Describe how hypnosis affects human consciousness, discuss individual differences in the susceptibility to hypnosis, and contrast several unproven or disproven effects of hypnosis with proven effects.

4. Illustrate the problem of other minds by discussing the difficulties associated with distinguishing a fully conscious person from a person who says and does all of the same things but is not conscious.

5. Because you have not been doing well on your psychology exams lately, you decide to look at your approach to studying. Discuss the four basic properties of consciousness (intentionality, unity, selectivity, and transience), relating them to your study habits.

Answer 1

1. Freud's theory of dreams is that dreams represent our unconscious wishes, urges, and feelings. He believed that dreams are a way of understanding things that are typically hidden. Freud looked at what happened in the dreams (manifest content) as well as the meaning behind it (latent content). Freud believed dreams to be a form of wish fulfilment. Everything that occurred in a dream, Freud believed was symbolic of the person's unconscious desires. Activation-synthesis model proposes that our brain is just trying to discover connotations in signals that are sent from the brain stem during REM sleep. While people used to believe that sleeping and dreaming was a passive process, researchers now know that the brain is anything but quiet during sleep. This model proposes that our dreams may not have all that much connotations.