LEARNING GOAL
Compare the normal waking state of consciousness with altered states of consciousness.
3.1 Consciousness Is Your Subjective Experience
Consciousness is your moment-by-moment awareness of your experiences, both of the world around you and of your thoughts, feelings, and actions. This awareness is the result of brain activity. Because your experiences are subjective, your awareness of them is also personal and unique. The Learning Tip on page 95 explains the difference between “subjective” and “objective,” two words that are important in psychology; please read the Learning Tip now.
Listening to music is an example of a conscious experience that is subjective. A volume that seems low to you might seem loud to a different person. Thinking about the songs you hear and what they mean to you is another conscious experience that is subjective. You know you are conscious because you are experiencing the outside world through your senses. You also know that you are conscious because you are aware of your mental activity—for example, when a song reminds you of an old romantic partner.
Early pioneers in psychology attempted to understand consciousness by having people report on their thoughts. Through this method of introspection, research participants analyzed their personal experiences and described them to the researcher. The general problem with introspection is that it is subjective and unique to each person. In other words, each person brings to introspection a unique way of perceiving things. For example, what does the color red look like to you? How does an apple taste? Researchers could not determine whether participants in a study were experiencing the world in a similar way.
Over time, psychologists largely abandoned introspection because it is subjective and because it is not a reliable method for understanding psychological processes across different people. Instead, they turned to measuring observable behavior, which they considered to be more objective. With the advent of brain imaging and other methods of assessing mental activity, the last three decades have produced dramatic increases in our understanding of consciousness (Harley, 2021).
LEARNING TIP Understanding Objectivity and Subjectivity
The words “objective” and “subjective” are important in psychology. The information in this chart will help you remember the difference between them.
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When you see |
Please think |
Meaning |
Example |
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objective |
You consider information as an object that exists apart from your opinion of it. |
You can experience information for itself by being free of bias, thoughts, or feelings about the information. Others experience this information in the same way you do. |
You and a friend both find jalapeño peppers really spicy. |
|
subjective |
You consider information as subject to your opinion of it. |
You can experience information from an individual perspective, which may be biased by your thoughts and feelings about the information. Each person has a unique experience of the information. |
You love eating spicy jalapeño peppers, but your friend finds them too hot to eat. |
More information
A woman reading a book at a table in the library. She has a number of books on the table next to her. A thought bubble from her head displays a picture of a ham sandwich.
FIGURE 3.1 Experiencing the Levels of Consciousness
Experiencing a shift in consciousness can be as simple as recalling what you ate for lunch yesterday. At first you are unconscious of the information. But as you think about lunch and become aware of what you ate, you become conscious of that information.
Your Experience of Consciousness Varies As you are reading these words, are you hearing any noises around you? For example, are people talking, or are the lights humming? Before you read those questions, were you aware of this background noise? Now take a minute and try to remember what you ate for lunch yesterday. If you were able to remember yesterday’s lunch, you went from being unaware of this information to recalling details of the experience, including your subjective experience of whether the lunch was delicious (Figure 3.1).
These examples show that one way to understand consciousness is based on the level or amount of your awareness. At any particular moment, you might be conscious—that is, aware of stimuli around you and aware of your mental activity. At any other moment, you might be less aware, or unconscious, of your surroundings or thoughts. In fact, within any particular moment you might be conscious of some things and unconscious of others. Your experience of consciousness varies because your awareness changes.
Another way to understand consciousness is in terms of the state or clarity of your awareness. Let’s say you are wide awake, reading this chapter easily and thinking about it clearly. When that is the case, then you are likely in a state of awareness called normal waking state of consciousness, in which the external world and your inner thoughts and feelings are clear to you, which is how people feel most of the time. By contrast, if you have a cold and have taken some medicine for it, then you might be struggling to focus on what you are reading. In that case, you might be in an altered state of consciousness. Any deviation from a normal waking state of consciousness can be considered an altered state. For example, meditation produces an altered state in which your conscious experiences, especially of your own mental activity, are heightened. By contrast, falling asleep leads to reduced awareness of your surroundings and changes in your mental state. At the extreme, people who have been knocked unconscious are in an altered state in which they are not aware of anything going on around them. Throughout this chapter, you will learn about many types of altered states, from being hypnotized to being under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
LEARNING GOAL CHECK: REVIEW
Glossary
- consciousness
- The combination of your subjective experience of the external world and your internal mental activity, both of which result from brain activity.
- conscious
- A level of consciousness that reflects awareness of the external world and inner mental activity.
- unconscious
- A level of consciousness that reflects a lack of awareness of the external world and inner mental activity.
- normal waking state of consciousness
- A state of consciousness that reflects a clear awareness of the external world and inner mental activity.
- altered state of consciousness
- A state that deviates from a normal waking state of consciousness. It may reflect either a more vivid awareness or a less clear awareness of the external world and inner mental activity.