Consciousness in Psychology

Consciousness is all of the things we experience each day that make up our awareness and experience of our lives. It is the individual awareness of your unique thoughts, memories, feelings, sensations, and environments.

Essentially, consciousness is your awareness of yourself and the world around you. This awareness is subjective and unique to you. If you can describe something you are experiencing in words, it is part of your consciousness.

Psychologists and neuroscientists have long explored what consciousness means, but there is still much debate about what it entails. Some view it as a stream of your perceptions and thoughts, while others suggest that it's the result of activity in the brain that we don't yet fully understand.

Regardless of these debates, there is no doubt that your conscious experiences are constantly shifting and changing. For example, you may be focused on reading this article in one moment. Your consciousness may then shift to the memory of a conversation you had earlier with a co-worker. Next, you might notice how uncomfortable your chair is, or maybe you are mentally planning dinner.

States of Consciousness

Consciousness doesn't just have an "on" and "off" switch. Instead, it comes in different stages and levels that can vary and shift throughout the day. Think of the sharp focus you have when you are fully engaged in a task versus the dreamy, spaced-out feeling you might have when you're lost in a daydream.

The various states of consciousness include:

• Dreams
• Hallucinations
• Hypnosis
• Meditation
• Sleep
• States induced by psychoactive drugs

Consciousness vs. Unconsciouseness

The two normal states of awareness are consciousness and unconsciousness. Higher states of consciousness are often associated with spiritual or mystical experiences. It involves an elevated state of awareness where people can gain a greater sense of themselves, their role, and the world.

Altered States of Consciousness

Altered levels of consciousness also can occur, which may be caused by medical or mental conditions that impair or change awareness.  Altered types of consciousness include:

• Coma
• Confusion
• Delirium
• Disorientation
• Lethargy
• Stupor

Doctors and healthcare professionals use various assessments to measure and assess levels of consciousness. They use scores on these assessments to guide diagnosis and treatment decisions.

What Are the Functions of Consciousness?

Consciousness has several biological and social purposes. For example, it allows us to process information, choose our actions, set priorities, learn and adapt to new information, make decisions, and more.

Changes in Consciousness

Understanding different levels of consciousness can help healthcare professionals spot signs that someone might be experiencing a problem. Some of these changes occur naturally; others are the result of factors such as drugs or brain damage. Changes to consciousness also can cause changes to perception, thinking, understanding, and interpretations of the world.

For example, sudden changes in consciousness might be a sign of:

• Aneurysm
• Brain infections
• Brain tumor or injury
• Dementia or Alzheimer's disease
• Drug use
• Epilepsy
• Heart disease
• Heatstroke
• Lack of oxygen to the brain
• Low blood sugar
• Poisoning
• Shock
• Stroke
  

History of Consciousness

For thousands of years, the study of human consciousness was largely the work of philosophers. The French philosopher Rene Descartes introduced the concept of mind-body dualism, or the idea that while the mind and body are separate, they do interact.

Once psychology was established as a discipline separate from philosophy and biology, the study of the conscious experience became one of the first topics studied by early psychologists.

Structuralists used a process known as introspection to analyze and report conscious sensations, thoughts, and experiences. Trained observers would carefully inspect the contents of their own minds. This was a very subjective process, but it helped inspire further research on the scientific study of consciousness.

While the focus of much of the research in psychology shifted to purely observable behaviors during the first half of the 20th century, research on human consciousness has grown tremendously since the 1950s.

Psychological Theories of Consciousness

One of the problems with the study of consciousness is the lack of a universally accepted operational definition. Descartes proposed the idea of cogito ergo sum ("I think, therefore I am"), which suggested that the very act of thinking demonstrates the reality of one's existence and consciousness.

Research on consciousness has focused on understanding the neuroscience behind our conscious experiences. Scientists have even utilized brain-scanning technology to seek out specific neurons that might be linked to different conscious events.

Modern researchers have proposed a few major theories of consciousness, including integrated information theory, global workspace theory, and attention schema theory.

Integrated Information Theory

This approach looks at consciousness by learning more about the physical processes that underlie our conscious experiences. The theory attempts to create a measure of the integrated information that forms consciousness. The quality of an organism’s consciousness is represented by the level of integration.

Global Workspace Theory

This theory suggests that we have a memory bank from which the brain draws information to form the experience of conscious awareness. While integrated information theory focuses more on identifying whether an organism is conscious, the global workspace theory offers a much broader approach to understanding how consciousness works.

Attention Schema Theory

This neuroscientific theory of consciousness suggests that the brain create a schema, or a simplified model, of attention to help understand and control its own attentional processes. This is similar to how the brain has a schema of the body that it uses to control how the body moves and works. In this view, attention involves selectively focusing available processing resources and planning how to allocate and utilize those resources.

Takeaways

While consciousness has intrigued philosophers and scientists for thousands of years, experts clearly have a long way to go in our understanding of the concept. Researchers continue to explore the different bases of consciousness including the physical, social, cultural, and psychological influences that contribute to our conscious awareness.