851-0253-07L  Consciousness Studies

SemesterSpring Semester 2021
LecturersK. Stocker
Periodicityevery semester recurring course
Language of instructionEnglish
CommentNumber of participants limited to 40.


AbstractCovers research on levels and states of consciousness. Levels: conscious vs. pre-/sub-/nonconscious. States: ordinary (OSC, waking consciousness) vs. altered states of consciousness (ASCs, e.g., sleeping/dreaming, hypnosis, meditation, pharmacologically altered state). Applications in health/clinical psychology, and implications for the scientific mind (insight, flow) are also considered.
ObjectiveTo introduce students to the basics of consciousness studies, and to thus help them to gain a deeper understanding of how the mind works. Includes practical implications for the scientific mind.
ContentThe study of consciousness involves scholars from diverse fields, such as psychology, neuroscience, cognitive science, philosophy, linguistics, computer science, medicine, religious studies, anthropology, as well as literature and art studies. In this course, the study of consciousness is presented from the point of view of psychology. At the same time, the course will additionally also consider interdisciplinary viewpoints.

Psychological consciousness studies involve research on levels and states of consciousness. Psychologically researched levels of consciousness are the conscious, preconscious, unconscious/subconscious, and nonconscious levels of mental processing. Psychological research on states of consciousness takes waking consciousness as the most common state (ordinary state of consciousness, OSC), using it as a baseline against which altered states of consciousness (ASC) are compared. Some of the most prominently researched ASC in psychology will be introduced in this course and include sleeping/dreaming, hypnosis, meditation, as well as ASC that are induced through either sensory deprivation/overload or psychoactive drugs.

In this course, it will also be shown how a growing number of applied consciousness studies investigate the potential of being temporarily in an ASC for promoting/maintaining health (health psychology) or as part of clinical treatment (clinical psychology and psychiatry). Finally, in this course, two mental phenomena that are also highly relevant for the scientific mind – insight and flow – are also introduced from a consciousness-studies perspective.