3-4 Pages Psychology Consciousness Paper

3-4 Pages Psychology Consciousness Paper
Psychology of Consciousness Spring 201 7 Dr. Whitlow Projects on Consciousness Any of the following projects can be used to satisfy the requirement for doing projects on consciousness. All projects that involve some aspect of your conscious experience should follow the Guidelines for Project Reports unless indicated otherwise. 1. Dream Diary Keep a dream diary for a period of 4 weeks. When you awaken, record every dream you remember. Record as much as you can about each dream, including the time of day, the place, the characters, the activities taking place, and the affective tone of the dream. Indicate whether the dream was in color or not, whether it included auditory, olfactory, tactile, or other sensations, how much time p assed, and other details. Farthing (1992) provides some useful guidelines about what to include in your description. At the end of each week, review the dreams you have recorded and note any themes that stand out. Note: if you find you are not rememberi ng any dreams, set your alarm to go off 15 -30 minutes earlier than usual. For one night at the end of the second week and again at the end of the fourth week, set your alarm clock to go off at about 90 minute intervals after you go to sleep, and record yo ur dreams each time you wake up. The report for this project should include a 4 -5 page summary description of your dream experiences and a copy of your dream diary (both will be returned). 2. Daydream Sampling Keep a diary that records what’s on your m ind at random times during a typical 2 -week period. This project requires that you carry a beeper or a phone which can be preprogrammed to go off at random intervals. When the beeper goes off, you will record what you are thinking about at that moment. Thus, you need to carry a notebook in which to record the contents of your daydreams. The report for this project should include a 4 -5 page summary description of your daydream experiences (use the Guidelines for Project Reports as a guide) and a copy of your notebook (both will be returned). 3. High intensity experiences ** NOTE ** Do not do one of these projects until you have reviewed your plan with me.** Participate in one or more activities that are likely to involve an intensely concentrated state of awareness in situations that are rapidly changing. For example, riding on a roller -coaster, or other amusement park ride, nightclub dancing, rollerblading, or participating in high -speed winter sports, like downhill skiing, bobsledding, or speed -skating, might each provide relevant kinds of experiences. Keep a record of your subjective experience for the activity, especially noting the sensations of which you were aware and the ways they changed (if they did) as you continued the activity. (Obvio usly, you will have to record your experience after the activity is done). The report for this project should follow the Guidelines for Project Reports. 2 4. Flotation Spend a session in a flotation tank and record your experiences. Flotation sessions c an be arranged at Float SNJ in Marlton, NJ ( https://www.floatsnj.com/ : contact information: 609 -712 -1618, 27 N Maple Avenue, #1) or The Float Spa, in Bristol, PA (http:/ /www.thefloatspa.com/ : contact information – 1-888 -SALTSPA [ 1-888 -725 -8772 ] or 215 -785 -4228 , 910 Mansion Street) . The report for this project should follow the Guidelines for Project Reports. 5. Hypnotic induction. Arrange to undergo a hypnotic induction experience. The report for this project should follow the Guidelines for Project Reports. 6. Meditation Exercises Practice a series of meditation exercises for 3 weeks, keeping a record of your experience after each session. The report for this project should follow the Guidelines for Project Reports. 7. Self -awareness in children This project involves studying the nature of consciousness in children through use of a structured interview, given to 3 children at ages of about 4, 8 and 12. The report for this project will be a 4 -5 page summary of what you did, what you found, and what your findings suggest about the level of consciousness in the children you studied. (Do not follow the Guidelines for Project Reports). 8. Galton’s Walk This project is a replication of an exercise undertaken by Francis Galton, who wanted to estimate how many thoughts he had and to determine where they came from. For you, the purpose of these walks is to explore some issues of memory and your sense of you r self. Take 2 walks, in different places. On each walk, make note of 30 objects or events, and, for each of these, record, in as much detail as possible, the first association that comes to mind when you attend to it. You will need to take a notebook o n your walk to record these associations. (You can take a voice recorder and tape your associations, but you will need to transcribe the tape later). Try to space your selection of objects or events, so you are not generating associations in rapid succes sion. When you are finished, summarize any general characteristics that you find in your associations, as well as following the Guidelines for Project Reports. 9. Sensory Alterations of Consciousness This project involves the induction of a variety of visual and auditory experiences to see what sorts of effects they have on your consciousness. A list of the activities to complete will be available by Feb ruary 1, 201 7
3-4 Pages Psychology Consciousness Paper
Psychology of Consciousness Spring 2017 Dr. Whitlow Guidelines for Project Reports for the Psychology of Consciousness The main purpose of the projects for Psychology of Consciousness is to have you examine your conscious experiences under a variety of conditions and settings. To some extent, then, it is important that you simply have the experiences that accompany your carrying out any given project. In addition, however, I would like you to practi ce inspecting your conscious experience in a critical, analytic, and systematic way. Consequently, you must prepare a report for each project that includes a description of the experience and your reflections on the characteristics of your conscious aware ness of the experience. Each report should be 3 -4 pages long, typed and double -spaced. It should describe what you did, when you did it, how you did it, and the context in which it was done. The report should also summarize your reflections on how the experience affected your consciousness. Use the following guidelines to structure your reflections: 1. How was your awareness of what was going on around you altered? Was your awareness heightened, diminished, or unchanged? 2. Were you more conscious of events and objects in the external environment (sights, sounds, smells, etc.) or were you more conscio us of internal states (feelings, bodily sensations, etc.)? What kinds of sensations were you most aware of? 3. What were any emotional components like? Were they strong or weak, positive or negative? 4. Did you feel as though your attention was more focused or less focused than usual? Was there any indication that you were more (or less) focused than usual? 5. Were you aware of any internal commentary about the events and/or your experiences of them? Did you feel as though you were aware of your a wareness? 6. Did your sense of time change? If so, did time seem to speed up or slow down? 7. Did your sense of space change? If so, did space seem to expand or to contract, or was it distorted in other ways? 8. Did your sense of self change? If so, did your sense of self become more sharply defined or more expansive? 9. Did the nature of your conscious awareness change as the experience continued? 10. After the experience was over, how long were you still aware of its aftereffects? 11. What kind s of retrieval of the experience have you had? Can you re -experience the event from memory? If so, what is the re -experience like and how does it compare to the original experience? 12. Was there any disruption in your sense of the continuity of your consciousness, either with respect to time (did you lose time?) or with respect to personal integrity (did you lose a sense of connection to part of yourself?)