Analysis Of 'Consciousness' By Paul Moes

In chapter five “Who is in Control? Consciousness” of Paul Moes and Donald Tellinghuisen book Exploring Psychology and Christian Faith, the authors talked about how there are suggestions of whether or not we use most of our thinking consciously or unconsciously. Also, they discussed about if humans have the ability to control and make decisions about their life. Being conscious means being aware of our feelings and our surroundings and unconscious thinking means that we do all these actions and feel these feelings without being aware of it. It made me think when the authors brought up an example on when we wake up from an alarm, we would head to the bathroom and take a shower and I thought to myself, is that person awake or unconscious about
their actions. How do I determine whether if I was awake or asleep if I was able to hear the alarm go off? I feel that, during that time, we are using both. The reason I feel this way is because if you were not able to hear the alarm you would then not be alert in your environment. When your body react to a noise you are going to be more aware of what’s going on than you were a few seconds ago. But then when you automatically walk to the bathroom and take a shower, I feel that we also use unconscious thinking because it is a daily routine so your mind is already triggered to follow that process. Reading this text, it made me ask myself a lot of questions.
Some of the questions I have asked myself were if we use both awareness and unawareness thinking, which one comes first? How am I able to talk to my friends without being aware of what words that are coming out of my mouth and even though I am aware of the topic, what triggered my brain to know what I need to say? “If behavior is unconsciously managed at least part of the time, are people then unable to direct their behaviors, leaving them without responsibility during those times?” (Moes and Tellinghuisen, 2014, 66). My thought on this is that we are able to control our actions even when the behaviors are not aware because when we move a body part, it is with a purpose, a meaning, so we do have responsibilities with our behaviors. For example, my little brother goes to the kitchen to get a glass cup. I was unaware of the fact that he was holding a glass cup when I tried to scare him. The natural response would be that my little brother lets go of his cup. This is an example of a behavior that was unconscious at that moment because your body would provoke a fight or flight reaction. But consciously, you are aware of the feelings of being scared which triggers a signal to the amygdala that makes us involuntarily jerk. “In a moment of danger, the ANS orders the adrenal glands on top of the kidneys to release epinephrine and norepinephrine. These hormones increase heart rate, blood pressure, and blood sugar providing
a surge of energy.” (Myers and Dewall, 2015, 64). Overall, after reading all this information about conscious and unconscious processing, I have come to a conclusion that 90% of our behaviors results from unconscious processing and that the other 10% is due to conscious processing.
The reason I came to this presumption is because when I am reading a book, I allow myself to read and have that information influence my judgements without really stopping myself to see if the information is true. Another example that my behavior is caused by unconscious processing is when I do my daily routine, I would often get off my bed and get ready without actually being aware that I am getting ready. I feel that I only use 10% of my conscious processing is because the only time we are really aware of our feelings and our behaviors is when we are forced to stop and think about our day, whether you are planning or trying to remember something. Another indication that I have very little awareness is when I am in a situation with another person, so I will be more attentive in what they have to
say.