CONCEPTUAL CONTENT OF THE CATEGORY “CONSCIOUSNESS” IN FOREIGN PSYCHOLOGY

Abstract

Purpose. The article is devoted to the problem of defining the term “consciousness” in psychology. The aimof the study is to identify the peculiarities of interpretations of the concept of “consciousness” in psychology.Methods. The study used general scientific methods: methodological and theoretical analysis, synthesis,comparison, and generalization. The criterion for the selection of materials was the influence of scientificsources on the development of discussion among scientists.Results. Consciousness as one of the central psychological phenomena has almost a hundred differentinterpretations. In retrospect, scholars’ views ranged from a complete denial of the existence of consciousnessas a phenomenon to its metaphorical understanding (metaphor of projector light, flow, or wind). The currentstandard of development of the problem will take into account that consciousness as a psychological concept isabstract. It represents a common term, which often serves to identify a group of mental phenomena. The mostcommon terms that define consciousness are “information”, “experience” and “state”. The main problematicsof consciousness can be divided into three categories: description, explanation, and functional problems. Onecan distinguish two main approaches to study consciousness: material and immaterial.Conclusions. The process of finding a common interpretation is far from complete, given the increase ininformation on the subject of research each year. The critical analysis of the conceptual content of the category“consciousness” indicates significant contradictions in the definitions and approaches to it. There are two opposite tendencies in the constructs of the description of consciousness: eclecticism and reductionism,which respectively consider consciousness either too broadly or too narrowly. The author’s own interpretationof consciousness as a mental state, which is characterized by the experience of subjective experienceand purposeful, conscious behavior, which provides its increased flexibility and complexity.