7-1 What is the place of consciousness in psychology’s history?

At its beginning, psychology was “the description and explanation of states of consciousness” (Ladd, 1887). But during the first half of the twentieth century, the difficulty of scientifically studying consciousness led many psychologists—including those in the emerging school of behaviorism—to turn to direct observations of behavior. By the 1960s, psychology had nearly lost consciousness and was defining itself as “the science of behavior.” Consciousness was likened to a car’s speedometer: “It doesn’t make the car go, it just reflects what’s happening” (Seligman, 1991, p. 24).

After 1960, psychology began regaining consciousness. Neuroscience advances linked brain activity to sleeping, dreaming, and other mental states. Researchers began studying consciousness altered by drugs, hypnosis, and meditation. (More on hypnosis in Module 18 and meditation in Module 34.) Psychologists of all persuasions were affirming the importance of cognition, or mental processes.

Most psychologists now define consciousness as our awareness of ourselves and our environment (Paller & Suzuki, 2014). This awareness allows us to assemble information from many sources as we reflect on our past, adapt to our present, and plan for our future. And it focuses our attention when we learn a complex concept or behavior. When learning to drive, we focus on the car and the traffic. With practice, driving becomes semi-automatic, freeing us to focus our attention elsewhere. Over time, we flit between different states of consciousness, including normal waking awareness and various altered states (FIGURE 7.1).