Question

In Lectures 1 and 2, we discussed that consciousness can be approached scientifically by two approaches: (A) observing when conscious experience happens vs. not and comparing between them; (B) manipulating certain factors to create conscious and unconscious conditions for further comparison. Some researchers suggest that the use of the binocular rivalry to compare conscious and unconscious conditions (as discussed in Lecture 2) is a combination of both approaches. Discuss why this could be the case.

Answer 1

The term consciousness raised by the famous psychologist Sigmund Freud, he used this term to show the behavior pattern of an individual. He believed that human behavior does not control by a single aspect, his formulation of conscious behavior came from his clinical studies and experiences.

The consciousness is related to the sensation and attentive brain functioning, when a person experiences sensations and gives attentive reactions is said to be in consciousness. Conscious behavior helps us to control reactions and attention. A conscious person controls actions, feelings and sometimes thought processes too.

1- Comparison between actions of conscious behavior and other behavior is a good method to find out the conscious behavior patterns but observation and comparison do not fulfill the scientific and experimental approach of the behavior because it includes many other factors such as diseases, environmental impacts, training, and reflexive actions. For example, a martial artist acts instantly without knowing it sometimes in sleep.

In my opinion, observation and comparison of different acts can only determine the conscious behavior because consciousness includes many other factors.

2- Manipulation of consciousness and unconscious behavior requires clear notions and characteristics between actions of conscious and unconscious behavior patterns. We should have known the difference between reflexive behaviors and unconscious. As we know, human behavior is a very complex set of different characteristics which includes cognition, and social participation it also develops innate behaviors so it is very important to develop clear symbols of unconscious behavior.

According to modern studies, the difference between conscious and unconscious behavior is very precise and overlapped so researchers work on both behavior patterns and try to find some common and different aspects.