consciousness sleep & dreams. consciousness the awareness or perception of the environment and...
TRANSCRIPT
Consciousness Sleep
& Dreams
Consciousness
The awareness or perception of the environment and of
one's own mental processes.
William JamesConsciousness is • ... Always Changing - "No state once
gone can recur and be identical with what it was before."
• ... A Personal Experience – I cannot experience your conscious experience.
• ... Continuous - our awareness is not broken into pieces, and there are no gaps. "Consciousness then does not appear to itself chopped up in bits...It is nothing jointed; it flows. A river or stream is most naturally described. In talking of it hereafter, let us call it the stream of thought, of consciousness..."
• ... Selective - awareness is a matter of making choices, of selecting what to attend to and what to ignore.
On introspection:"The attempt at introspective analysis in these cases is in fact like seizing a spinning top to catch its motion, or trying to turn up the gas quickly enough to
see how the darkness looks."
Introspection
Exploring conscious mental processes by looking inward and
reporting on sensation and perception.
(Criticized for not being scientific)
The Continuum of Consciousness
1. Controlled Processes2. Automatic Processes
3. Daydreaming4. Altered States
5. Sleep and Dreams6. Unconscious/Preconscious
(Subconscious)
7. Unconsciousness
Controlled Processes
Activities that require full awareness, alertness,
and concentration.
Example: Talking on phone while driving.
Require little awareness/minimal
attention, and do not interfere with other activities.
Examples• Eating while watching a movie• Driving a car along a familiar road while listening to the radio
Automatic Processes
• Requires low level of awareness • Often occurs during automatic processes
• Involves fantasizing or dreaming while awake
Daydreaming
Daydreaming begins in a relatively
conscious state then drifts
into a state between sleep and
wakefulness.
Daydreams often serve to remind
us of important things in our future.
Altered States
State of awareness that differ from normal consciousness. (Meditation, Hypnosis, Psychoactive drugs and Sleep deprivation)
Sleep: Five stages of various levels of awareness, consciousness, and
responsiveness, as well as different levels of physiological arousal.
Dreaming:State of consciousness in which we are asleep but experience
visual, auditory, and tactile images, often connected in strange ways and often in color.
Total lack of sensory awareness and responsiveness.
`Unconsciousness