Heidi B. answered • 10/26/22
AP Psychology Teacher
1) You are doing research at the Santa Clara University Psychology Department. You are working with a very special group of people called “Dreamers”. These people have the ability to not only remember every detail of every dream they have ever had, but they can also actively participate in, or modify, their dreams as they take place (a state known as “Lucid Dreaming”.) After spending 10 years observing these subjects you have been asked to give a symposium to your colleagues at the Stanford Research Center. You have limited your talk to the following two areas:
A) What part did the following play in your research of this phenomenon?
Biological Rhythms, such as circadian rhythms, impact your body's naturally occurring 24 hour clock. These would cause the Dreamers to feel more tired at certain times of the day, such as the night, and more awake at certain times, such as the day. This could play a role in this research as they may be more likely to dream at night.
Alpha Waves are the waves of a relatively relaxed but awake state. These waves are likely to occur during lucid dreaming and can be measured in this research using an EEG.
REM Rebound is the phenomenon of slipping more quickly into REM sleep when you have been sleep deprived. The Dreamers will be likely to slip into REM when very tired after sleep deprivation and could be dreaming during this REM stage.
Evolutionary Psychology and the role of dreams- Evolutionary psychology stresses the importance of natural selection and adaptations to behaviors to enable survival. This perspective may stress that the role of dreams is to provide an advantage for survival to help someone practice play out everyday scenarios. The dreamers may be using dreams to help them develop survival behaviors. Also, being well-rested will enable survival as well.
B) Part of your research involved the use of specific drug therapies to try and alleviate the lucid dreaming that many of the research participants said they disliked and would rather not experience. How might the following have an effect on your research participants?
Psychoactive Drugs are drugs that are taken to alter body chemistry and perception. An example of a psychoactive drug that could be used to help stop lucid dreaming could be a depressant, which slows central nervous system activity, such as alcohol or barbiturates.
Hallucinations are caused by hallucinogenic drugs that evoke sensation without the presence of sensory input. If the researchers give the dreamers LSD or Marijuana to try to counter the lucid dreaming, they may experience Hallucinations.
Tolerance is the idea that with prolonged/repeated exposure to a drug, it takes more of the drug to produce the same effect- ie it takes increased amounts of alcohol to feel "drunk" the more you drink alcohol on a regular basis. Researchers may be prescribing sleeping pills or barbiturates to help the dreamers to sleep and it may be necessary for them to up the dosage to get the same results over time because the dreamers develop a tolerance to them.
Withdrawal is the idea that due to physical dependence on psychoactive drugs, the body suffers when the drugs are stopped. This can produce violent physical symptoms due to detoxification, cravings for the drug and psychological dependence. If the dreamers were given a drug during the study to stop their lucid dreams and then were not given the drug when the research was ended, they may go through withdrawal.
