Week 5 · Readings & resources

Week 5 — Readings & Resources

Introduction to Psychology Free sample edition

Your primary reading is Chapter 5 (in this module). Everything below is the optional, go-deeper layer — pick what helps, skip the rest.

How to use this page

This page has 11 items (5 readings and 6 videos). Allow 65–79 minutes for everything. Each group points back to the matching chapter section and class-session segment, so use the full menu when you want more practice, or take the quick path below.

Every video here has captions: turn them on with the CC button in the player. The chapter covers the same ideas in text.

Pick-one quick path (20–22 min total)

① What keeps time, and what happens across one night? The body clock and the sleep stages

Chapter 5, Section “Walk through one night: the sleep stages” · Session 1, Segment 3, “The sleep stages” · Remember: light sets the body clock, and one night cycles through NREM-1, NREM-2, NREM-3, and then REM, again and again.

Circadian Rhythm and Your Brain's Clock — SciShow — a short look at the brain's master clock and how light keeps it on time. This builds on Week 4's work with how we sense and perceive the world. (video, 4 min) (captions: automatic)
Circadian Rhythms — National Institute of General Medical Sciences — read the first two sections, on what circadian rhythms are and how the master clock uses light and melatonin; the research sections at the end are optional. (reading, 6–8 min)
2-Minute Neuroscience: Stages of Sleep — Neuroscientifically Challenged — a two-minute tour of what the brain's electrical activity looks like in each stage of sleep; if it counts or names the stages differently, use the chapter's NREM-1, NREM-2, NREM-3, and REM. (video, 2 min) (captions: creator)
How Sleep Works: Sleep Phases and Stages — National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute — a federal health agency's plain description of non-REM and REM sleep and of the cycle a night repeats; its non-REM stages 1, 2, and 3 are this course's NREM-1, NREM-2, and NREM-3, and the part on how sleep changes with age is optional. (reading, 4–6 min)
To Sleep, Perchance to Dream: Crash Course Psychology #9 — CrashCourse — why we sleep, the stages of a night, and sleep's role in memory; the closing part on sleep disorders goes beyond this week. Use it while working through the Week-5 module overview. (video, 11 min) (captions: creator)

② Why do we dream? Three theories on one dream

Chapter 5, Section “Compare three theories of dreams: one dream, three readings” · Session 2, Segment 6, “Three theories of dreams” · Remember: Freud reads a dream as a disguised wish, activation-synthesis as a story built from random REM activity, and information processing as the day being filed.

Dream Theories: Freud, Activation-Synthesis, and Neurocognitive Models — The Psychology Brief — a short side-by-side of the wish-fulfillment and activation-synthesis explanations, plus how dreaming relates to memory; pause after each one and say it back in your own words. (video, 5 min) (captions: automatic)
Sigmund Freud Dream Theory — Simply Psychology — read the opening sections on manifest and latent content and the critical evaluation, which sets activation-synthesis against Freud; skip the detailed dream-work terms. (reading, 8–12 min)

③ What do psychoactive drugs do to awareness? Three families and three warning words

Chapter 5, Section “Sort psychoactive drugs: three families and three warning words” · Session 2, Segment 7, “Psychoactive drugs” · Remember: sort a drug by what it does to the nervous system, slow, speed up, or distort, then name tolerance, dependence, or withdrawal.

Altered States: Crash Course Psychology #10 — CrashCourse — the three drug families with tolerance, dependence, and withdrawal; it also covers hypnosis and names specific substances, which this course does not test. (video, 11 min) (captions: creator)
2-Minute Neuroscience: Caffeine — Neuroscientifically Challenged — a two-minute look at how the most common stimulant keeps the brain alert; the receptor names are extra detail. (video, 2 min) (captions: creator)
Caffeine — MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine — a plain-language health page on caffeine as a stimulant; read the parts on how it affects the body and on caffeine withdrawal. (reading, 4–6 min)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

Brain Basics: Understanding Sleep — National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke — a federal health agency's plain-language reference on sleep, from the body clock to the stages of a night; the material on sleep disorders goes beyond this week. (reading, 8–12 min)

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell your instructor and use the reference above in the meantime.

Provenance: Built with The Course Maker · samples.thecoursemaker.com