Lecture 2
States of Consciousness
HP 1000
Dr. QU Li
1
Consciousness
• Consciousness – a person’s awareness of
everything that is going on around him or
her at any given moment.
• Waking consciousness – state in which
thoughts, feelings, and sensations are clear,
organized, and the person feels alert.
• Altered state of consciousness – state in
which there is a shift in the quality or
pattern of mental activity as compared to
waking consciousness.
2
“stream of consciousness”
• William James
• the conscious mind carrying a stream of ever-
changing sensations, perceptions, thoughts,
memories, feelings, motives and desires.
• includes awareness of ourselves and of stimulation
from the environment and can include physical
sensations from within.
• Consciousness has two levels:
– an area of focus that included whatever is being
attended to
– a peripheral consciousness, encompassing the feelings
and associations that give meaning and context to the
focus
Freud’s Levels of
Consciousness
• Nonconscious level
• Process that does not involve conscious processing (e.g.,
heart rate, breathing, control of internal organs)
• Conscious level
• Mental processes of which we are aware of
• Unconscious level
• Many levels of processing that occur without
awareness
• Preconscious level
• Information that is not currently in consciousness, but
can be brought into consciousness if attention is called
to it
Personality
• Id, impulsive, irrational
part of the personality
whose mission is to
satisfy the instincts
– Immediate gratification
– Newborns, an inherently
selfish creature “driven”
by instincts
Personality
• Ego
– Emerge during first 3 years
– Rational side, based on the
reality principle; Tries to find
realistic ways to gratifying the
instincts
– Psychic energy is diverted from
the id to energize cognitive
processes such as perception,
learning, and problem solving
– Understands that other people
have needs and desires and that
sometimes being impulsive or
selfish can hurt us in the long
run
Personality
• Superego
– Emerge between 3 to 6
years
– Moral side, based on the
