What is Consciousness?
Conscious as awareness
Is one meaning of consciousness Sensory awareness
Sense of vision allows us to see or be conscious of surroundings
Sometimes we are not aware of sensory stimulation when paying attention to it
Selective Attention
Key to self control
Maxes senses keener
Direct Inner Awareness knowledge of one’s own thought feeling and memories without the use of sensory organs
We are conscious of our thought
Thought we cannot measure is scientifically
Conscious, Preconscious, Unconscious, and Nonconscious
Preconscious material is not currently in awareness but readily available
You make preconscious material conscious by directing attention
Other mental events are unavailable to awareness or
Freud believed some things are unacceptable to us, so we regress them
Regression is the automatic unconscious ejection of anxiety-evoking ideas, impulses or images from awareness
Suppression is the deliberate or conscious placing of certain ideas, impulses, or images out of awareness
Most bodily process are Nonconscious, we cannot experience actual process
Consciousness as Personal Unity
As we develop, we differentiate ourselves from things that don’t fit us.
Develop a sense of being individuals
There is totality to our impressions, thoughts, and feelings that make our consciousness
Consciousness as the Waking State
Conscious can also refer to the waking state
Sleep, meditation, hypnotion and distorted perception that accompany consciousness-altering are considered altered states of consciousness
Sleep and Dreams
Biological and Circadian Rhythms
Alternating periods of wakefulness and sleep reflect and internal circadian rhythm
Circadian Rhythm is a cycle connected by a 24 hour period of earth rotation
When people are removed from cues for day and night the cycle extends to 25 hours
During a night of sleep we undergo a series of 90 Min cycles in which we go through stages of