3. Definition States of: Varying degrees of awareness of ourselves and the external world. Includes an individual’s perceptions, thoughts, feelings and memories. Consciousness: refers to ways in which we control ourselves and our environment to enable us to initiate or terminate behaviour and cognitive activities. Can range from high mental alertness to a state close to unconsciousness.
4. A bit of history… William James (1890) believed consciousness was an ever changing ‘stream’ or flow of awareness. He believed it is personal (consciousness is unique to each individual and subjective), selective (we can choose what we wish to focus on or ignore), continuous (our consciousness is always there - there are no gaps in our thoughts) and changing (our thoughts constantly drift from one topic to another).
5. By 1913, behaviourists like John Watson believed “Psychology must discard all references to consciousness” because they could see no scientific way to study mental processes that were not observable.
6. In the 1960s, interest revived by cognitive psychologists and development of electroencephalograph (EEG).
7. STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS Normal Waking Consciousness Altered States of Consciousness: Sensory deprivation Hypnosis Meditation Psychoactive Drugs Sleep/dreams
8. Normal Waking Consciousness Normal Waking Consciousness(NWC): we are awake, alert and aware of our thoughts, feelings, sensations and environment. Normal range of emotions; the ability to perform either controlled or automatic processes and have either selective or divided attention; clear, logical cognition; accurate perceptionof things such as time and sensations; a normal level of self-control; and a relative ease in retrieving and storing memories. Attentionin NWC can shift and awarenesscan be represented on a continuum between being alert and concentrating to lacking focus. Controlled processesare serial tasks which require great cognitive effort and may be new or difficult in nature. They require selective attention. Automatic processesare tasks which can be performed parallel to other tasks and may be easy or familiar in nature, requiring little cognitive effort and divided attention.
