PSYC 215 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: John Lydon, Preconscious, Automaticity

• School: McGill University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 215
• Professor: John Lydon

Document Summary

Civilization advances by extending the number of operations which we can perform without thinking about them. Operations of thought are like cavalry charges in a battle - they are strictly limited in number, they require fresh horses and must only be made at decisive moments. Everyday behaviour is determined less by conscious intention and deliberative choices and more by features of the environment that operate outside of conscious awareness. These aspects of the environment are influencing us in unconscious ways and we can"t be aware of it happening or have a memory of it happening. Freud believed biological impulses and unconscious intrapsychic conflict. He believed intrapsychic was the idea that inside a person, their impulses conflict. Our causal self controls how we respond to our environment. Sure, there are things in our environment but there is something in our self that mediates what"s out there and what i think, feel and do.