In modern psychology, it is customary to understand “consciousness” as such a way of reflecting objective reality in the human psyche, in which the experience of the socio-historical practice of mankind serves as a connecting, mediated link.
Instructions
Step 1
Consciousness is the highest form of the psyche and, according to Karl Marx, "the result of socio-historical conditions for the formation of a person in labor activity, with constant communication with other people", i.e. "Public product".
Step 2
The way of existence of consciousness, as can be seen from the meaning of the word, is knowledge, the component parts of which are such cognitive processes as:
- sensation;
- perception;
- memory;
- imagination;
- thinking.
Step 3
Another component of consciousness is self-awareness, the ability to distinguish between subject and object. Self-knowledge, inherent only in man, belongs to the same category.
Step 4
Consciousness, according to Karl Marx, is impossible without awareness of the goals of any activity, and the impossibility of carrying out goal-setting activities seems to be a violation of consciousness.
Step 5
The last component of consciousness is considered to be human emotions, manifested in the assessment of both social and interpersonal relations. Thus, a disorder of the emotional sphere (hatred of a previously loved one) can serve as an indicator of impaired consciousness.
Step 6
Other schools offer their own concepts of the category of consciousness, converging in the assessment of consciousness as a process of reflection of reality by the organs of perception and the implementation of its components (sensations, representations and feelings) at the level of apperception, but diverging further:
- structuralists - deduce the nature of consciousness from consciousness itself, trying to highlight the basic elements, but face the problem of the initial position of the carrier of consciousness already at the level of definition;
- functionalists - tried to consider consciousness as a biological function of the organism and came to the conclusion about non-existence, "fiction" of consciousness (W. James);
- Gestalt psychodology - considers consciousness to be the result of complex transformations according to the laws of Gestalt, but cannot explain the independent activity of consciousness (K. Levin);
- activity approach - does not separate consciousness and activity, because cannot separate results (skills, states, etc.) from prerequisites (goals, motives);
- psychoanalysis - considers consciousness to be a product of the unconscious, displacing conflicting elements into the field of consciousness;
- humanistic psychology - could not create a coherent concept of consciousness (“Consciousness is what it is not, and is not what it is” - J.-P. Sartre);
- cognitive psychology - considers consciousness to be a part of the logic of the cognitive process, without including this category in specific schemes of cognitive processes;
- cultural-historical psychology - defines consciousness as the main condition and means of mastering oneself, assuming thinking and affect as parts of human consciousness (L. S. Vygotsky).
