| stream of consciousness | Term used by William James to describe the mind; a continuous flow of changing sensations, images, thoughts, and feelings. The content of our awareness changes from moment to moment.
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| consciousness | An individual's awareness of external events and internal sensations under a condition of arousal, including awareness of the self and thoughts about one's experiences.
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| controlled processes | The most alert states of human consciousness; individuals actively focus their efforts toward a goal.
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| automatic processes | States of consciousness that require little attention and do not interfere with other ongoing activities. Automatic processes require less conscious effort than controlled processes.
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| unconscious thought | According to Freud, a reservoir of unacceptable wishes, feelings, and thoughts that are beyond conscious awareness; Freud's interpretation viewed the unconscious as a storehouse for vile thoughts.
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| sleep | A natural state of rest for the body and mind that involves the reversible loss of consciousness.
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| biological rhythms | Periodic physiological fluctuations in the body, such as the rise and fall of hormones and accelerated and decelerated cycles of brain activity, that can influence behavior.
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| circadian rhythms | Daily behavioral or physiological cycles. Daily circadian rhythms involve the sleep/wake cycle, body temperature, blood pressure, and blood sugar level.
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| suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) | A small brain structure that uses input from the retina to synchronize its own rhythm with the daily cycle of light and dark; the body's way of monitoring the change from day to night.
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| REM sleep | An active stage of sleep during which dreaming occurs.
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| manifest content | According to Freud, the surface content of a dream, containing dream symbols that disguise the dream's true meaning.
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| latent content | According to Freud, a dream's hidden content; its unconscious and true meaning.
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| cognitive theory of dreaming | Proposes that we can understand dreaming by applying the same cognitive concepts we use in studying the waking mind; rests on the idea that dreams are essentially subconscious cognitive processing involving information and memory.
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| activation-synthesis theory | Dreaming occurs when the cerebral cortex synthesizes neural signals generated from activity in the lower part of the brain. Dreams result from the brain's attempts to find logic in random brain activity that occurs during sleep.
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| psychoactive drugs | Drugs that act on the nervous system to alter consciousness, modify perceptions, and change moods.
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| tolerance | The need to take increasing amounts of a drug to get the same effect.
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| physical dependence | The physiological need for a drug that causes unpleasant withdrawal symptoms such as physical pain and a craving for the drug when it is discontinued.
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| psychological dependence | The strong desire to repeat the use of a drug for emotional reasons, such as a feeling of well-being and reduction of stress.
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| addiction | Either a physical or psychological dependence, or both, on a drug.
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| depressants | Psychoactive drugs that slow down mental and physical activity.
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| alcoholism | A disorder that involves long-term, repeated, uncontrolled, compulsive, and excessive use of alcoholic beverages and that impairs the drinker's health and social relationships.
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| barbiturates | Depressant drugs, such as Nembutal and Seconal, that decrease central nervous system activity.
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| tranquilizers | Depressant drugs, such as Valium and Xanax, that reduce anxiety and induce relaxation.
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| opiates | Opium and its derivatives; narcotic drugs that depress activity in the central nervous system and eliminate pain.
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| stimulants | Psychoactive drugs that increase the central nervous system's activity. The most widely used stimulants are caffeine, nicotine, amphetamines, and cocaine.
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| hallucinogens | Also called psychedelics, psychoactive drugs that modify a person's perceptual experiences and produce visual images that are not real.
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| hypnosis | An altered state of consciousness or a psychological state of altered attention and expectation in which the individual is unusually receptive to suggestions.
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| divided consciousness view of hypnosis | Hilgard's view that hypnosis involves a splitting of consciousness into two separate components, one of which follows the hypnotist's commands and the other of which acts as a "hidden observer."
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| social cognitive behavior view of hypnosis | Hypnosis is a normal state in which the hypnotized person behaves the way he or she believes that a hypnotized person should behave.
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