Alterations in The States and Contents of Consciousness: Empirical and Theoretical Aspects

The main purpose of the present doctoral thesis is to investigate subjective experiences and cognitive processes in four different types of altered states of consciousness: naturally occurring dreaming, cognitively induced hypnosis, pharmacologically induced sedation, and pathological psychosis. Both empirical and theoretical research is carried out, resulting in four empirical and four theoretical studies. The thesis begins with a review of the main concepts used in consciousness research, the most influential philosophical and neurobiological theories of subjective experience, the classification of altered states of consciousness, and the main empirical methods used to study consciousness alterations. Next, findings of the original studies are discussed, as follows. Phenomenal consciousness is found to be dissociable from responsiveness, as subjective experiences do occur in unresponsive states, including anaesthetic-induced sedation and natural sleep, as demonstrated by post-awakening subjective reports. Two new tools for the content analysis of subjective experiences and dreams are presented, focusing on the diversity, complexity and dynamics of phenomenal consciousness. In addition, a new experimental paradigm of serial awakenings from non-rapid eye movement sleep is introduced, which enables more rapid sampling of dream reports than has been available in previous studies. It is also suggested that lucid dreaming can be studied using transcranial brain stimulation techniques and systematic analysis of pre-lucid dreaming. For blind judges, dreams of psychotic patients appear to be indistinguishable from waking mentation reports collected from the same patients, which indicates a close resemblance of these states of mind. However, despite phenomenological similarities, dreaming should not be treated as a uniform research model of psychotic or intact consciousness. Contrary to this, there seems to be a multiplicity of routes of how different states of consciousness can be associated. For instance, seemingly identical time perception distortions in different alterations of consciousness may have diverse underlying causes for these distortions. It is also shown that altered states do not necessarily exhibit impaired cognitive processing compared to a baseline waking state of consciousness: a case study of time perception in a hypnotic virtuoso indicates a more consistent perceptual timing under hypnosis than in a waking state. The thesis ends with a brief discussion of the most promising new perspectives for the study of alterations of consciousness.

Cultural distance and negotiation behavior : Perception of entrepreneurs operating in Turku

This thesis investigates the influence of cultural distance on entrepreneurs’ negotiation behaviour. For this purpose, Turku was chosen as the unit of analysis due to the exponential demographic change experienced during the last two decades that has derived in a more diversified local environment. The research aim set for this study was to identify to what extent entrepreneurs face cultural distance, how cultural distance influences the entrepreneur’s negotiation behaviour and how can it be addressed in order to turn dissimilarities into opportunities. This study presented the relation and apparent dichotomy of cultural distance and global culture, including the component of diversity. The impact of cultural distance in the entrepreneurial mindset and its consequent effect in negotiation behaviour was presented too. Addressing questions about the way individuals perceive, behave and interact allowed the use of interviews for this qualitative research study. In the empirical part of this study it was found that negotiation behaviour differed in terms of how congenial entrepreneurs felt when managing cultural distance, encompassing their performance. It was also acknowledged that after time and effort, some of the personal traits were enhanced while others reduced, allowing for more flexibility and adaptation. Furthermore, depending on the level of trust and shared interests, entrepreneurs determined their attitudinal approach, being adaptive or reactive subject to situational aspects. Additionally, it was found that the acquisition of cultural savvy not necessarily conveyed to more creativity. This experiential learning capability led to the proposition of new ways of behaviour. Likewise, it was proposed that growing cultural intelligence bridge distances, reducing mistrusts and misunderstandings. The capability of building more collaborative relationships allows entrepreneurs to see cultural distance as a cultural perspective instead of as a threat. Therefore it was recommended to focus on proximity rather than distance to better identify and exploit untapped opportunities and better perform when negotiating in whichever cultural conditions.