General Psychology – Consciousness Page 1
General Psychology
Consciousness
These are general notes designed to assist students who are regularly attending class and
reading assigned material: they are supplemental rather than exhaustive and reflect general
concepts.
I.
The Scope of Consciousness
Consciousness expands the mental abilities it embraces, helping to connect one operation with
others.
A.
States of Consciousness
1.
States of consciousness are variations in what metal processes occur, independent of how
much awareness you have of them. It is qualitative distinction of how your mind is currently
working. Examples may include sleep, wakefulness, drug-induced states, meditation and
hypnosis.
2.
In active states, you intentionally direct and manipulate metal activity. In passive states, your
mind wanders and allows various metal processes to "come to mind."
3.
People are most often in a waking state, where attention and arousal dictate the mental
processes reaching awareness at any moment.
B.
Levels of Consciousness
Levels of consciousness are variations in the quantity (i.e., how much?) of awareness one has for
whatever mental events are occurring.
1.
The metal events that you are currently aware of exist at the conscious level.
2.
At the nonconscious level are metal events that cannot be experienced consciously.
Example: We cannot directly "know" about brain modulation of blood pressure.
a.
In biofeedback, you learn which conscious sensory cues accompany a nonconscious
process. This permits you to indirectly infer when nonconscious events occur.
3.
The cognitive unconscious contains metal activities that are not conscious but can either
become conscious or influence conscious experience.
a.
Preconscious level processing is not itself consciously experienced, but can easily and
quickly be brought into conscious experience.
Example: If asked what color your socks are, you can easily bring the answer into
consciousness, even though you were not thinking about this information prior to the
question.
b.
Sigmund Freud hypothesized an unconscious level, containing impulses (mostly sexual and
aggressive), unacceptable thoughts, feelings, and memories of which one is seldom directly
aware. Non - Freudians call this the subconscious level, in which important, but normally
inaccessible, metal processes take place.
Example: As a violent crime victim, you may not recall the mugger's car license plate, but
with the help of special techniques, you may be able to later recall it.
C.
Mental Processing Without Awareness
The impact and limitations of consciousness can can be seen by studying mental processing that
occurs without consciousness.
1.
Under anesthesia, people may still sense the world and form lasting memories, but without
awareness of having done so.
2.
One can learn certain cognitive problem-solving strategies without even being aware that the
