Psychology
States of Consciousness
States of consciousness refer to the various levels of awareness and mental activity experienced by an individual. These states can include wakefulness, sleep, dreaming, and altered states such as meditation or drug-induced states. Understanding these states is important in psychology as they can impact behavior, cognition, and overall mental health.
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12 Key excerpts on "States of Consciousness"
eBook - PDFEssentials of Psychology
Concepts and Applications
- Jeffrey Nevid(Author)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Cengage Learning EMEA(Publisher)
140 CHAPTER 4 CONSCIOUSNESS changes in the sense of time (time may seem to stand still or speed up) and in sen- sory experiences (colors may seem more vibrant or, as in some drug-induced states, the person may hear voices or see visions). In Modules 4.2 to 4.4, we explore the range of human consciousness, from states of sleep and wakefulness to altered States of Consciousness. Concept Chart 4.1 offers an overview of these different levels or States of Consciousness. Concept Chart 4.1 States of Consciousness States of Consciousness Level of Alertness/ Attention Examples or Features GILKIS - Damon Hyland/Gallo Images/ Getty Images Focused awareness High; fully awake and alert Learning a new skill; watching an engrossing movie © Yuri Arcurs/Shutterstock.com Drifting consciousness Variable or shifting Daydreaming, or letting one’s thoughts wander TENphoto/ Shutterstock.com Divided consciousness Medium; attention split between two activities Thinking of other things while exercising or driving a car Gravicapa/ Shutterstock.com Sleeping and dreaming Low During sleep, the person is generally unaware of external surroundings but may respond to certain stimuli iStock.com/nicolas hansen Waking states of altered consciousness Variable Changes in consciousness associated with hypnosis, meditation, and drug use Try This Out Putting Multitasking to the Test How distracting is multitasking during studying? Let’s put it to the test. Read a page in this text with full attention on your reading. Then jot down on a piece of paper or type into the computer everything you learned—concepts, definitions, key points, research findings—without looking back at the text. Then read the following page in the text while listening to one of your favorite musical groups while you are reading. After reading the page, jot down everything you learned.
eBook - PDFPsychology
Modules for Active Learning
- Dennis Coon, John Mitterer, Tanya Martini, , Dennis Coon, John Mitterer, Tanya Martini, (Authors)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Cengage Learning EMEA(Publisher)
189 MODULE 23 Consciousness States of Consciousness ◗ ◗ In Iceland, a hiker viewing the aurora borealis enters a fully con-scious state of mindfulness. ◗ ◗ In Brisbane, Australia, a graduate student drifts into a pleasant daydream while sitting at the back of class. ◗ ◗ In Boston, an aspiring actor is hypnotized to help reduce her stage fright. ◗ ◗ In a Paris hospital, a man lies in a deep coma after falling down a flight of stairs. ◗ ◗ In Iowa, a college student downs some Ritalin to help her stay awake while studying for an important exam. ◗ ◗ In Tucson, Arizona, one of your authors brews himself another cup of cappuccino. Each of these people is experiencing a different state of conscious-ness. Some have no choice, and others are deliberately seeking to bend their minds—to alter consciousness—in different ways, to dif-ferent degrees, and for different reasons. As these examples suggest, consciousness can take many forms, some “mind blowing” and some not so much. Let’s explore the varieties of conscious experience. Learning Outcome 23.1 Define consciousness and distinguish between disordered States of Consciousness and altered States of Consciousness To be conscious means to be aware. Consciousness consists of your awareness of external events in the environment around you, as well as your awareness of your mental pro-cesses, including thoughts, memories, and feelings about your experiences and yourself (Morin, 2006; Robinson, 2008). Take, for example, that hiker’s profound moment in Iceland.
eBook - PDF- Catherine A. Sanderson, Karen R. Huffman(Authors)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
Then we discuss the alternate States of Consciousness (ASCs), including sleep, psychoactive drugs, meditation and hypnosis. © OSTILL/iStockphoto © Lise Gagne/iStockphoto 120 CHAPTER 5 States of Consciousness 4x6/Getty Images 5.1 Understanding Consciousness LEARNING OBJECTIVES Retrieval Practice While reading the upcoming sections, respond to each Learning Objective in your own words. Summarize how selective attention and levels of awareness affect consciousness. • Define consciousness and alternate States of Consciousness (ASCs). • Describe the key factors in selective attention. • Review how consciousness exists on various levels of awareness. What is consciousness? Most psychologists define it as a two-part awareness of both ourselves and our environment (Li, 2016; Thompson, 2015). This dual-natured awareness explains how we can be deeply engrossed in studying or a conversation with others and still hear the ping of an incoming message on our cell phones. However, if we’re deeply asleep, we probably won’t hear this same message ping because sleep is an alternate state of consciousness (ASC), which is defined as a temporary mental state other than ordinary waking consciousness. Later in this chapter, we will discuss the ASCs of sleep, dreaming, meditation, and hypnosis. But we first need to explore the general nature of consciousness. Selective Attention William James, an important, early U.S. psychologist, likened consciousness to a stream that’s constantly changing yet always the same. It meanders and flows, sometimes where the person wills and sometimes not. The process of selective attention (Chapter 4) allows us to control this stream of consciousness through deliberate concentration and full attention. For example, when listening to a classroom lecture, your attention may drift away to thoughts of a laptop computer you want to buy, or an attractive classmate.
- Lorelle J. Burton, Drew Westen, Robin M. Kowalski(Authors)
- 2022(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
These neural methods have allowed us to measure that’ (Maguire, 2021). We begin this chapter by discussing the nature and functions of consciousness, examining the way attention focuses consciousness at any given time on a narrow subset of the thoughts and feelings of which a person could be aware. We then examine multiple perspectives on consciousness and explore the neural basis of con- sciousness. The remainder of the chapter is devoted to States of Consciousness — qualitatively different patterns of subjective experience, including ways of experiencing both internal and external events. We start with the most basic distinction, between waking and sleeping, exploring the stages of sleep and the nature of dreaming. We conclude by examining several altered States of Consciousness — deviations from the normal waking state — including meditation, religious experiences, hypnosis and drug- induced states. Throughout, we focus on a central question. How do the psychodynamic, behavioural, cognitive and evolutionary perspectives in psychology contribute to our understanding of consciousness? To this end, we will examine how Freud’s model of consciousness compares with cognitive models of consciousness and examine the neuropsychology of Pdf_Folio:356 356 Psychology consciousness, identifying the neural structures that pro- duce conscious awareness and regulate our States of Consciousness. We will also examine how evolutionary psychologists argue that consciousness functions to max- imise adaptation of the self and the environment. As we will see, these seemingly incompatible vantage points may be starting to fnd some common ground. 8.1 The nature of consciousness LEARNING OUTCOME 8.1 Describe the two main functions of consciousness. Consciousness, the subjective awareness of mental events, is easier to describe than to define. William James (1890) viewed consciousness as a constantly moving stream of thoughts, feelings and perceptions.
eBook - PDF- Rose M. Spielman, William J. Jenkins, Marilyn D. Lovett(Authors)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Openstax(Publisher)
FIGURE 4.1 Sleep, which we all experience, is a quiet and mysterious pause in our daily lives. Two sleeping children are depicted in this 1895 oil painting titled Zwei schlafende Mädchen auf der Ofenbank, which translates as “two sleeping girls on the stove,” by Swiss painter Albert Anker. INTRODUCTION CHAPTER OUTLINE 4.1 What Is Consciousness? 4.2 Sleep and Why We Sleep 4.3 Stages of Sleep 4.4 Sleep Problems and Disorders 4.5 Substance Use and Abuse 4.6 Other States of Consciousness Our lives involve regular, dramatic changes in the degree to which we are aware of our surroundings and our internal states. While awake, we feel alert and aware of the many important things going on around us. Our experiences change dramatically while we are in deep sleep and once again when we are dreaming. Some people also experience altered States of Consciousness through meditation, hypnosis, or alcohol and other drugs. This chapter will discuss States of Consciousness with a particular emphasis on sleep. The different stages of sleep will be identified, and sleep disorders will be described. The chapter will close with discussions of altered States of Consciousness produced by psychoactive drugs, hypnosis, and meditation. 4 States of Consciousness 4.1 What Is Consciousness? LEARNING OBJECTIVES By the end of this section, you will be able to: • Understand what is meant by consciousness • Explain how circadian rhythms are involved in regulating the sleep-wake cycle, and how circadian cycles can be disrupted • Discuss the concept of sleep debt Consciousness describes our awareness of internal and external stimuli. Awareness of internal stimuli includes feeling pain, hunger, thirst, sleepiness, and being aware of our thoughts and emotions. Awareness of external stimuli includes experiences such as seeing the light from the sun, feeling the warmth of a room, and hearing the voice of a friend.
eBook - PDFThe Physiology of Truth
Neuroscience and Human Knowledge
- Jean-Pierre Changeux, Malcolm DeBevoise, Malcolm DeBevoise, M. B. DeBevoise(Authors)
- 2009(Publication Date)
- Belknap Press(Publisher)
Finally, and notwithstanding the unity and autonomy I have just mentioned, there exists a multiplicity of levels of consciousness corre- 76 The Physiology of Truth sponding to the states of sleeping, dreaming, and wakefulness, and of hierarchies among these levels. Pierre Buser has distinguished two main types of consciousness in the waking state: passive (or perceptual) primary consciousness, and attentive (or reflective) secondary con-sciousness, which includes organizing and planning, reasoning, and solving problems with the aid of effortful introspection. 22 This distinc-tion captures the fact that the direct experience of feeling is readily distinguished from the knowledge that one has a feeling. Levels of con-sciousness may be progressively destructured or “dissolved,” 23 causing clinical manifestations: hallucinations, oneiric states, depersonaliza-tion, emotional disturbances, epilepsy. It is important to note that con-sciousness emerged by successive stages in the course of the evolution of species, 24 as it does during the postnatal development of the human newborn. 25 No set of models based on our current understanding of the brain is capable of accounting for the whole of conscious experience. In this chapter I will be chiefly concerned with the unifying and synthesizing activity of consciousness, which stands in contrast to the diversity and multiplicity of its underlying levels. In combination these things consti-tute a “conscious workspace,” 26 as the psychologist Bernard Baars calls it, on which the heightened alertness and attention required by difficult tasks requiring effort are brought to bear. I would like first to briefly present some empirical data about this workspace and then discuss the conscious and nonconscious cognitive operations that take place within it, the multidimensional character of the conscious workspace, the genesis of intentional behavior, and the neural basis for the sense of self.
eBook - PDF- Catherine A. Sanderson, Karen R. Huffman(Authors)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
138 CHAPTER 5 States of Consciousness 5.1 Understanding Consciousness LEARNING OBJECTIVES Retrieval Practice While reading the upcoming s ections, respond to each Learning Objective in your own words. Summarize how selective attention and levels of aware- ness affect consciousness. • Define consciousness and altered states of conscious- ness (ASCs). • Describe the key factors in selective attention. • Review how consciousness exists on various levels of awareness. Real World Application Questions [AQ1] Under what conditions, would you fail to notice a clearly visible brutal assault (or a person in a gorilla suit)? [AQ2] Can being distracted and multitasking sometimes be beneficial? We begin this chapter by exploring our understanding of consciousness. What is conscious- ness? Is it simple awareness? What would it be like to be unaware? How can we study and understand the contents of our own consciousness when the only tool of discovery is con- sciousness itself? Most psychologists define consciousness as a two-part awareness of both ourselves and our environment (W. O. Li, 2016; Thompson, 2015). This dual-natured awareness explains how we can be deeply engrossed in studying or a conversation with others and still hear the ping of an incoming message on our phone. However, if we’re deeply asleep, we probably won’t hear this same message ping due to the fact that sleep is an altered state of consciousness (ASC), which is defined as a temporary mental state other than ordinary waking consciousness. Later in this chapter, we will fully discuss the ASCs of sleep, dream- ing, psychoactive drugs, meditation, and hypnosis. But we first need to explore the general nature of consciousness. Selective Attention As you may recall from Chapter 1, the “father” of American psychology, William James, likened consciousness to a stream that’s constantly changing yet always the same. It mean- ders and flows, sometimes where the person wills and sometimes not.
eBook - PDF- Karen R. Huffman, Catherine A. Sanderson(Authors)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
Next, we’ll discuss two alternate states—sleep and dreaming— followed by psychoactive drugs. Finally, we explore additional routes to altered consciousness through meditation and hypnosis. ■■ CONSCIOUSNESS, SLEEP, AND DREAMING RETRIEVAL PRACTICE While reading the upcoming sections, respond to each Learning Objective in your own words. Then compare your responses with those found at www.wiley.com/college/huffman. 1 DEFINE consciousness and alternate States of Consciousness (ASCs). 2 EXPLAIN how circadian rhythms affect our lives. 3 REVIEW the stages of sleep. 4 COMPARE and contrast the theories about why we sleep and dream. 5 SUMMARIZE the types of sleep disorders. William James, the first U.S. psychologist, likened consciousness to a stream that’s constantly changing yet always the same. It meanders and flows, sometimes where the person wills and sometimes not. However, the process of selective attention (Chapter 4) allows us to control this stream of consciousness through deliberate concentration and full attention. For example, at the present moment you are, we hope, fully awake and concentrating on the words on this page. At times, however, your control may weaken, and your attention may drift to thoughts of a laptop you want to buy, a job, or an attractive classmate. In addition to meandering and flowing, your stream of consciousness also varies in range and depth. It is not an all-or-nothing phenomenon—you are not either conscious or unconscious. Instead, consciousness exists along a continuum. Other than wakefulness, there are common altered states, such as sleep and dreaming, psychoactive drug states, meditation, and hypnosis. You may think of yourself as being unconscious while you sleep, or fully conscious while “high” on certain drugs, but that’s not true. Rather, you are in an alternate state of con- sciousness (ASC) . In this chapter, you will learn about both everyday, wakeful consciousness and ASCs.
eBook - PDF- Karen R. Huffman, Alastair Younger, Claire Vanston(Authors)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
129 ❑ p. 133 ❑ ❑ Applying Psychology, p. 131 ❑ p. 135 ❑ p. 140 ❑ ❑ Process Diagram, p. 141 ❑ What a Psychologist Sees, p. 148 ❑ Stop: Answer the Concept Checks before you go on: p. 139 ❑ p. 146 ❑ p. 150 ❑ End of chapter ❑ Review the Summary and Key Terms. ❑ Answer the Critical and Creative Thinking Questions. ❑ Complete the Self-Test and check your answers. 128 CHAPTER 5 States of Consciousness Consciousness, Sleep, and Dreaming LEARNING OBJECTIVES illiam James, the first American psycholo- gist, likened consciousness to a stream that’s constantly present, constantly mov- ing and changing, and yet always the same. Like liquid, it meanders and flows, sometimes where the person wills it and sometimes not. Through the process of selective attention (Chapter 4), we can in- fluence our consciousness by delib- erately attending to or providing focused attention on something or someone. For example, right now, you are awake and con- centrating on the words on this page. At times, however, your control may weaken, and your stream of conscious- ness may drift back to thoughts of the old hag or fat de- mons, or forward to a laptop or cellphone you want to buy, or to a hot classmate. In addition to meandering and flowing, your stream of consciousness also varies in depth. Consciousness is not an either/or phenomenon. Instead, it exists along a continu- um. As you can see in Figure 5.1, this continuum extends from high awareness and sharp, focused alertness—such as when you learned how to drive a car—at one extreme, to middle levels of awareness, which require minimal attention, to no awareness and coma at the other extreme. Other than awake, two com- mon States of Consciousness are sleep and dreaming. You may think of yourself as being uncon- scious while you sleep, but that’s not the case. Rather, you are in an altered state of consciousness (ASC). To understand sleep and dreaming, we need to first ex- plore circadian rhythms.
- Stephen F. Davis, William Buskist, Stephen F. Davis, William F. Buskist(Authors)
- 2007(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications, Inc(Publisher)
187 21 S TATES OF C ONSCIOUSNESS J OSEPH J. P ALLADINO AND C HRISTOPHER M. B LOOM University of Southern Indiana T he term consciousness has a long history in psy-chology. One way to assess the concept is to con-sider how it has been addressed in our discipline’s gateway—introductory psychology texts. The first edition of the classic R. C. Atkinson and R. L. Atkinson text-book appeared in 1957. The tenth edition of this text was published in 1990. The topic of consciousness occupies a chapter in a section of the text titled Consciousness and Perception ; the specific chapter that deals with the topic is titled Consciousness and Its Altered States . The breadth of topics in this chapter is similar to what we find in more recently published textbooks (e.g., Davis & Palladino, 2007; D. H. Hockenbury & S. E. Hockenbury, 2006) and includes subtopics such as aspects of consciousness (con-scious, unconscious, subconscious), divided conscious-ness, dissociation and multiple personality, sleep and dreams, psychoactive drugs, meditation, and hypnosis. The authors begin their chapter with these words: As you read these words, are you awake or dreaming? Hardly anyone is confused by this question. We all know the dif-ference between an ordinary state of wakefulness and the experience of dreaming. We also recognize other States of Consciousness , including those induced by drugs such as alco-hol and marijuana. (R. L. Atkinson, R. C. Atkinson, Smith, & Benn, 1990, p. 195) Despite the apparent clarity of the opening of the Atkinson et al. (1990) chapter on consciousness, the topic is perhaps one of the more difficult ones for the discipline, as its history reveals. Wilhelm Wundt’s (1832–1920) founding of the first psychological laboratory in 1879 heralded his attempt to identify and categorize elements of conscious experience using the method known as introspection, or examination of one’s own mental state.
- Thomas Natsoulas(Author)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Cambridge University Press(Publisher)
I will be returning to this latter point soon. According to O’Shaughnessy’s description of the state, which at the start he is referring to as consciousness, it is something whereof a person under- goes inner awareness of its occurrences within him or her. O’Shaughnessy explicitly equates the state of consciousness he has in mind with the coming on for the person of a certain light in his or her head. Accordingly once again that light has just now come on in there and the person recognizes what it is from previous occasions of its inner appearance. “When a person surfaces from sleep or anaesthetic or dream” (O’Shaughnessy 2000, p. 68), the person then has inner awareness of such a state’ s coming to transpire within him or her. Thus, the theorist is here portraying a state of consciousness probably not as its simply being an experience but as its involving an experience whereby that state is apprehended firsthand by its owner to have been brought just now into existence or operation. XVI According to O’Shaughnessy (2000), state consciousness does sustain directed experiential phenomena, but it is not itself an occurrent awareness of those phenomena or of anything else Shortly thereafter, O’Shaughnessy (2000) considers the problem of how the consciousness states are individuated. How does a person tell them apart from each other the different kinds among his or her general States of Consciousness? How does one recognize each such state for the kind that it The concept of consciousness 6 427 is and distinguish it from the other general States of Consciousness in terms of their kinds? In response to such questions, O’Shaughnessy’s suggestion is the following. State consciousness or consciousness 6 is “the pre-eminent and parent sub-variety” but does not possess “an empirically hidden core, and wears its heart upon its sleeve” (p. 72). The following theory concerning the covering concept of state of conscious- ness recommends itself.
eBook - PDF- Nancy Ogden, Michael Boyes, Evelyn Field, Ronald Comer, Elizabeth Gould(Authors)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
6.2 Psychology Around Us Coma and Altered Consciousness What part of the body is responsible for who we are? The answer— for anyone speaking, walking, and interacting with other people—is their brain. The brain is the centre of who we are: our experiences, our reactions, our sense of humour. Our abilities and memories all reside within our brain. There is a common trope in movies and television where someone who has been in a coma for a long time wakes up and is entirely intact cognitively. While this has happened, it is extremely rare. Usually when a brain has been damaged to the point where the person is in a coma for an extended period, even if they do wake up, there are neurological consequences they have to deal with. One of these consequences can be an altered state of consciousness. Adrian Owen at Western University in Ontario focuses on cognitive function in disorders of consciousness. If someone is in a coma (also known as a vegetative state), they are non-responsive to stimuli and are unable to communicate; it doesn’t necessarily mean that they do not have preserved cognitive ability (Kelly, 2018). There are cases where, for example, an upper brain stem stroke can make a person appear to be vegetative when in fact their cognitive function remains entirely intact. Owen has studied disorders of consciousness such as coma using MRI and fMRI neuroimaging to peer into the mystery that these conditions create for medical professionals (Owen, 2020). Owen and his peers argue that there are better tools for assessing disorders of consciousness than are currently used in evaluating coma patients (Bayne, Hohwy, & Owen, 2017).
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