Consciousness (College Board AP® Psychology): Revision Note
Levels of consciousness
Consciousness is the awareness that we have of ourselves, our internal states, and the environment around us
It enables us to attend to and make sense of our thoughts, feelings, behavior, and events in our internal and external worlds
Consciousness is not an all-or-nothing state
It exists on a continuum, with varying levels of awareness that shift constantly throughout the day and night
Sleep and wakefulness are two of the most familiar types of consciousness, but consciousness encompasses a much broader range of states
Levels of consciousness
Psychologists recognize that not all mental activity occurs at the same level of awareness
The following levels describe the spectrum of conscious experience:
Level | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
Conscious level | Full awareness of thoughts, feelings, and surroundings; what you are actively attending to right now. | Reading these notes and thinking about the content. |
Preconscious level | Information not currently in awareness but easily brought to mind when needed. | Your home address; what you had for breakfast. |
Subconscious level | Mental processing that occurs below conscious awareness and influences behavior without deliberate attention. | Skilled automatic behaviors such as driving a familiar route. |
Unconscious level | Mental activity that is generally inaccessible to conscious awareness. | Physiological processes such as regulating breathing and heart rate during sleep. |
The reticular activating system (RAS) plays a key role in regulating levels of consciousness, controlling alertness and and filtering which incoming stimuli reach conscious awareness
Alertness varies over a 24-hour cycle, rising and falling in response to biological rhythms, environmental cues, and individual differences
Disruption to the RAS through injury, toxins, or medical conditions can impair consciousness, resulting in reduced alertness, fatigue, or coma
Examiner Tips and Tricks
Ensure that you understand these key points:
Consciousness is not simply "being awake"
Even during wakefulness, levels of conscious awareness vary significantly depending on attention, arousal, and task demands
The unconscious level does not refer exclusively to Freudian repressed content
In the AP Psychology framework, the unconscious level refers more broadly to mental processes and physiological activity that occur below the level of awareness
Altered states of consciousness
An altered state of consciousness is any condition that differs significantly from normal waking awareness
Altered states can be induced by a variety of means:
Biological, e.g. sleep, fever, or neurological conditions
Pharmacological, e.g. psychoactive drugs such as alcohol, cannabis, or opioids
Psychological, e.g. meditation, hypnosis, or intense focus
Environmental, e.g. sensory deprivation or extreme stress
In altered states, a person's perception, cognition, emotion, and sense of self may be significantly changed
Some altered states, such as sleep, are universal and occur naturally
Others are deliberately induced and may vary significantly across individuals and cultures
Cultural and contextual influences on consciousness
What counts as a "normal" or "acceptable" state of consciousness is not universal
Cultural norms, expectations, and circumstances shape how consciousness and altered states are understood and experienced
In some cultures, altered states of consciousness induced through meditation, fasting, or ritual practices are considered spiritually significant and socially valued
In other cultural contexts, the same altered state might be viewed as unusual or undesirable
Cognitive biases also influence consciousness
E.g. people often fail to notice gradual changes in their own awareness or assume their current state of consciousness is more "normal" than it actually is
This illustrates that consciousness is not a purely biological phenomenon, but is shaped by cultural context, prior experience, and expectations
Examiner Tips and Tricks
For Skill 1.B, be ready to explain how cultural norms and expectations influence how altered states of consciousness are interpreted
E.g. meditation-induced states may be valued in one cultural context and misunderstood in another
For Skill 4.A, you may be asked to propose a defensible claim about consciousness
Your claim must be grounded in the psychological evidence provided in the sources, not personal opinion
E.g. "consciousness exists on a continuum rather than as a binary on/off state, as evidenced by the range of awareness levels observed across sleep, wakefulness, and altered states"
For Skill 2.C, research on consciousness often relies on self-report and non-experimental methods
Be ready to evaluate the limitations of these approaches, including the difficulty of objectively measuring subjective experience
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