Experimental Study

It was the German psychologist Wilhelm Max Wundt (1832-1920) who began
the experimental study of consciousness in 1879 when he established
his research laboratory.Wundt saw the task of psychology as the study of the
structure of consciousness, which extended well beyond sensations and included
feelings, images, memory, attention, duration, and movement. By
the 1920’s, however, behavioral psychology had become the major force in
psychology. John BroadusWatson (1878-1958) was the leader of this revolution.
He wrote in 1913, “I believe that we can write a psychology and never
use the terms consciousness, mental states, mind . . . imagery and the like.”
Between 1920 and 1950, consciousness was either neglected in psychology
or treated as a historical curiosity. Behaviorist psychology led the way in rejecting
mental states as appropriate objects for psychological study. The inconsistency
of introspection as method made this rejection inevitable. Neurophysiologists
also rejected consciousness as a mental state but allowed for
the study of the biological underpinnings of consciousness. Thus, brain
functioning became part of their study. The neural mechanisms of consciousness
that allow an understanding between states of consciousness and
the functions of the brain became an integral part of the scientific approach
to consciousness. Brain waves—patterns of electrical activity—correlate
with different levels of consciousness. These waves measure different levels of alertness. The electroencephalograph provides an objective means for
measuring these phenomena.

Beginning in the late 1950’s, however, interest in the subject of consciousness
returned, specifically in those subjects and techniques relating to altered
states of consciousness: sleep and dreams, meditation, biofeedback,
hypnosis, and drug-induced states. When a physiological indicator for the
dream state was found, a surge in sleep and dream research followed. The
discovery of rapid eye movement (REM) helped to generate a renaissance
in consciousness research. Thus, during the 1960’s there was an increased
search for “higher levels” of consciousness through meditation, resulting in
a growing interest in the practices of Zen Buddhism and yoga from Eastern
cultures.

This movement yielded such programs as transcendental meditation,
and these self-directed procedures of physical relaxation and focused attention
led to biofeedback techniques designed to bring body systems involving
factors such as blood pressure or temperature under voluntary control. Researchers
discovered that people could control their brain-wave patterns to
some extent, especially the alpha rhythms generally associated with a relaxed,
meditative state. Those people interested in consciousness and meditation
established a number of “alpha training” programs.

Hypnosis and psychoactive drugs also received great attention in the
1960’s. Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) was the most prominent of these
substances, along with mescaline. These drugs have a long association with
religious ceremonies in non-Western cultures. Fascination with the altered
states of consciousness they induce led to an increased interest in research
on consciousness. As the twentieth century progressed, the concept of consciousness
began to come back into psychology. Developmental psychology,
cognitive psychology, and the influence of cognitive philosophy each played
a role in influencing the reintroduction of the concept, more sharply
etched, into the mainstream of psychology.