James was the first to describe consciousness as a stream - a continuous succession of experiences. He saw the most significant function of consciousness to be the role it played in selecting what to pay attention to.
James saw the stream of consciousness as an unending parade of thoughts, feelings, images, ideas, sensations, conceptions, and emotions, etc. that appear before our conscious awareness and then pass away.
For this assignment you will experiment with your own stream of consciousness.
Write about:
1. A VERY early childhood memory.
2. Several childish words (like moocow) that were used in your family.
3. Several obsessions / preoccupations you had when you were about 4th or 5th grade.
a. What did you worry about?
b. What ideas kept recurring?
c. What things did you always do?
d. What words particularly fascinated you?
4. What subjects did you like in school? What memories are associated with those subjects?
5. What books or games were your mainstays?
6. What "sayings" of people in your family influenced you?
a. What did your mother "always say"?
b. What did your father "always say"?
c. Your aunt Mary? etc.
7. What did your teacher do one day?
8. What "painful" thing happened in school?
9. What especially happy moment can you recall?
10. Other particularly "fresh" or "cherished" or "embarrassing" memories you have from childhood.
Now: look at this list and ask yourself:
WHY do you remember these things and not other things? Do these memories REVEAL anything about yourself-tell you "who you are"? Have you discovered something about yourself by looking at them?
Write up these memories in a stream-of-consciousness essay of 400 words or more. Also, make sure to provide an introduction which introduces and summarizes James' concept of personal consciousness, changes in consciousness, and continuity of thought
Your assignment must:
- Be a minimum of 400 words.
- Be typed, double-spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
- Include a cover page containing the tile of the assignment (Unit IV Essay), the student's name, the professor's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.