Consciousness in Psychology
Consciousness in psychology refers to an individual’s awareness of one’s thoughts, what is in their memory, what they feel and their environment. What this means therefore is that consciousness can be perceived as the knowledge that an individual has about their surrounding both internal and external. If an individual can give a description of their experience in words then that forms part of their consciousness. There have been numerous studies and research in psychology concerning consciousness. It has become a concept of interest to many psychologists and that is why a lot of information is being researched about it. The idea that consciousness is an area of serious psychological research is agreeable.
Importance of Consciousness in Psychological Research
Psychological research makes use of insights and explanations in understanding what is happening in the world. Human behavior is a conscious process and every individual is cognizant of whatever action they engage in. Behaviorism as a theory in psychology is useful in the prediction of what will happen in terms of one’s behavior. Since consciousness entails knowledge of what is done which includes behavior, it is an important area for psychologists to research on.
The Focus of Consciousness Research
The central focus of research on consciousness is on knowing the meaning of consciousness both in psychological and biological terms. It questions the meaning of presentation of information in consciousness as well as determining the psychological and neural correlates of consciousness. Many of the experiments assess consciousness by questioning human beings for a verbal report to understand the experiences they have gone through. Nevertheless, to confirm the significance of the verbally received reports, they must be compared to the activities that are taking place in the brain. The purpose of doing this is to find out how the observable actions of the brain will mirror or predict conscious awareness. Psychology researches brain activities and how they turn out and manifest themselves in the consciousness of an individual, thus making it necessary for research to be done on consciousness as an area of psychology.
Sigmund Freud and Levels of Consciousness
According to Sigmund Freud, a father of psychoanalytic psychology, human consciousness is divided into three categories of awareness which are the unconscious, the preconscious and the conscious level. Each level or category is in correspondence with his ideas of the Id, Ego and the Superego. The conscious level according to Freud consists of all the things that an individual is aware of including the happenings around them. The preconscious level comprised of things in the unconscious that can be recalled, they are not totally forgotten. The unconscious is made up of things that one is not aware of even in their memory repository. Though such elements are stored due to ones awareness, they are believed to have an influence on an individual’s behavior. It is therefore necessary to research on consciousness so that one gets to understand the existing relationship between consciousness and behavior.
The Developmental Process of Consciousness
Consciousness is an area of serious psychological research because it is not viewed as a sole entity, instead it is thought to be a developmental process which has the ability to get high levels of moral, spiritual, and moral quality. Consciousness is thought to be changing with time, its quality and degree. What this means is that to understand the behavior of an individual as they develop from childhood to adulthood, it is critical to learn and research on consciousness as a critical issue in psychology.
Conclusion
In conclusion, consciousness is an area of serious interest in psychological research and therefore it is important in bringing out many aspects in psychology. One’s consciousness is as a result of a mental activity which can’t be divorced from psychology.
