"The unconscious" and unconscious processes.

1987 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul L. Wachtel
Keyword(s):  
The Unconscious ◽  
Unconscious Processes

“The Unconscious” in Current Psychology

2010 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 193-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Norman
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Psychology ◽  
Verbal Report ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Operational Definition ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Apparent Lack ◽  
Unconscious Processing ◽  
Unconscious Processes ◽  
Intermediate States ◽  
Definition Of

A series of vignette examples taken from psychological research on motivation, emotion, decision making, and attitudes illustrates how the influence of unconscious processes is often measured in a range of different behaviors. However, the selected studies share an apparent lack of explicit operational definition of what is meant by consciousness, and there seems to be substantial disagreement about the properties of conscious versus unconscious processing: Consciousness is sometimes equated with attention, sometimes with verbal report ability, and sometimes operationalized in terms of behavioral dissociations between different performance measures. Moreover, the examples all seem to share a dichotomous view of conscious and unconscious processes as being qualitatively different. It is suggested that cognitive research on consciousness can help resolve the apparent disagreement about how to define and measure unconscious processing, as is illustrated by a selection of operational definitions and empirical findings from modern cognitive psychology. These empirical findings also point to the existence of intermediate states of conscious awareness, not easily classifiable as either purely conscious or purely unconscious. Recent hypotheses from cognitive psychology, supplemented with models from social, developmental, and clinical psychology, are then presented all of which are compatible with the view of consciousness as a graded rather than an all-or-none phenomenon. Such a view of consciousness would open up for explorations of intermediate states of awareness in addition to more purely conscious or purely unconscious states and thereby increase our understanding of the seemingly “unconscious” aspects of mental life.

Maybe it helps to be conscious, after all

2014 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roy F. Baumeister ◽  
Kathleen D. Vohs ◽  
E. J. Masicampo
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Unconscious Processes ◽  
Literature Reviews ◽  
Conscious Processes

AbstractPsychologists debate whether consciousness or unconsciousness is most central to human behavior. Our goal, instead, is to figure out how they work together. Conscious processes are partly produced by unconscious processes, and much information processing occurs outside of awareness. Yet, consciousness has advantages that the unconscious does not. We discuss how consciousness causes behavior, drawing conclusions from large-scale literature reviews.

The effect of the cognitive demands of the distraction task on unconscious thought

2014 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurent Waroquier ◽  
Marlène Abadie ◽  
Olivier Klein ◽  
Axel Cleeremans
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Unconscious Thought ◽  
Cognitive Demands ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Unconscious Processes ◽  
Distraction Task ◽  
Complex Decision Making ◽  
Complex Decision

AbstractThe unconscious-thought effect occurs when distraction improves complex decision making. Recent studies suggest that this effect is more likely to occur with low- than high-demanding distraction tasks. We discuss implications of these findings for Newell & Shanks' (N&S's) claim that evidence is lacking for the intervention of unconscious processes in complex decision making.

Reimaging ‘the Self’ in Criminology: Transcendence, Unconscious States and the Limits of Narrative Criminology

2020 ◽  
pp. 136248062091910
Author(s):  
Ben Laws
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Unconscious Processes ◽  
Critical Engagement ◽  
Causal Mechanisms ◽  
Future Action ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Desistance From Crime

Notions of ‘the self’ in criminology are rarely explored or defined, which is surprising given how pervasively the term is used. According to narrative criminology, the self is generated and moulded by the stories we tell; our identity emerges through narrative scripts and these stories motivate future action. But this understanding of selfhood is quite narrow. This article attempts to widen it by separating selfhood into three categories: ‘the reflexive self’ (the person we think we are); ‘the unconscious self’ (things we do not know that shape us); and ‘the experiencing self’ (the in-the-moment, living and breathing feeling of being alive). The article begins with a critical engagement with the field of narrative criminology which tends to address ‘the reflexive self’ somewhat in isolation. Then a number of findings in criminology, psychology and theology are presented which reveal alternative notions of selfhood. This includes engaging with theological accounts that can be described as transcendent or transpersonal. Second, psychoanalytic research notes how our behaviour is often motivated by unconscious processes that are hard to reconcile with traditional notions of selfhood. There is a call to bring these different ‘selves’ into dialogue and to draw cleaner distinctions between them. Increasing our understanding of selfhood helps us to think more clearly about key criminological debates, such as the causal mechanisms undergirding adaptation and desistance from crime.

Use and misuse of neuroscience in the philosophy of religion

Methodus ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-108
Author(s):  
Dieter Birnbacher
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Mind ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Anthropology Of Religion ◽  
Imaging Studies ◽  
Category Mistake ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Unconscious Processes ◽  
Intentional Consciousness ◽  
Initial Hypothesis ◽  
Andrew Newberg

The article elucidates in what way neuroscience and in particular neuroimaging can contribute to the clarification and empirical underpinning of theories in the philosophy of mind and the anthropology of religion. Its initial hypothesis is that there are two principal ways in which neuroscientific data are relevant to philosophy, exhibiting the unconscious processes in the generation of phenomenal and intentional consciousness, and complementing semantic and phenomenological approaches in the analysis of complex mental phenomena. Whereas the first kind of relevance is widely recognised, contributions of neuroscientific data to the analysis of complex mental phenomena are often rejected as involving a kind of "category mistake." The article argues that imaging studies can in fact contribute to a better understanding of the nature of certain complex mental states and processes and exemplifies this by recent brain imaging studies on religious experience. Finally, theories like those of Andrew Newberg are taken to task for misrepresenting "neurotheology" as a new form of theology.

EMPOWERING CREATIVE EMPLOYEES: PHASE-SPECIFIC SUPPORT IN THE FRONT-END OF INNOVATION

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (08) ◽  
pp. 1940007
Author(s):  
CHRIS C. GERNREICH ◽  
SEBASTIAN KNOP
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Social Interaction ◽  
Development Process ◽  
Access To Information ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Loss Of Face ◽  
Unconscious Processes ◽  
Automotive Company ◽  
Front End ◽  
Specific Support

Employees often do not speak about raw ideas, to avoid a loss of face. Therefore, they struggle to develop their ideas further and share them in the workplace. Since research on the unconscious processes of idea development in the front-end of innovation is scarce, we explore this phenomenon by identifying the most prevalent needs for ideation in literature. We evaluate these needs by surveying 122 employees of a German automotive company. Our results show an overall hierarchy of needs and four clusters of employees based on the indicated needs in different phases of their idea development process. Employees with many ideas have the most demands. Employees with fewer ideas demand more social interaction and access to information technology to gather information and evaluate ideas. We find that the demand for resources varies significantly throughout the idea development process. Therefore, organizations must address employees’ needs differently, depending on what phase of the idea development process their ideas are in, and the number of ideas submitted.

Unconscious processes in Aaron Beck’s cognitive theory: Reconstruction and discussion

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-242
Author(s):  
Monika Romanowska ◽  
Bartłomiej Dobroczyński
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Therapy ◽  
Therapeutic Relationship ◽  
Cognitive Theory ◽  
Basic Needs ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Unconscious Processes ◽  
Founding Myth ◽  
Theory Reconstruction

The concept of the unconscious has always provoked controversy. While some psychologists treated it as a relic of metaphysics or a manifestation of psychoanalytic mysticism, others saw it as an important explanatory construct. At the heart of this conflict, there is the theory proposed by Aaron Beck, the originator of cognitive therapy. According to the founding myth, he rejected the concept of the dynamic unconscious to develop an evidence-based approach. The aim of this article is to reconstruct and analyze Beck’s understanding of the unconscious based on his published works and archival materials and to identify the values that guided his theoretical choices. We argue that Beck’s conceptualization of the unconscious ignores contradictory conscious and unconscious representations and attitudes and offers no systematic model of basic needs and the conflicts between them. We conclude that this stems from Beck’s attachment to the phenomenological understanding of the psyche, emphasis on humanism in the therapeutic relationship, fear of cognitive theory losing its distinctness, and caution in formulating theories.

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