In discussing with my intro-to-psych students how confusion can arise when we use the same term to refer to different ideas, I often use the example of the word "unconscious." There is an everyday meaning of this term--a "much-reduced awareness of external events"--and a psychological meaning of this term--the "set of mental events of which the individual is not aware." (Even the psychological meaning of the term varies among the psychodynamic and cognitive approaches, but I am not concerned with that here.) Thus, the everyday meaning of the term involves variations in how aware one is of external events (changes in the "state" of the conscious level) whereas the psychological meaning of the term involves variations in how aware one is of internal events (changes in the "level" of awareness--e.g., conscious to preconscious to unconscious levels). I like using this distinction to make the point that controversies may sometimes be due to the fact that the same term is used in different ways by different researchers: students are familiar with both meanings of the term but they probably never have thought about the fact that they use this term in different ways at different times (thus, it illustrates the problem for them in their own lives). But, I have never seen this distinction discussed anywhere. In fact, it seems to me that several intro textbooks (such as Weiten's, which I used to assign), confuse the two meanings of the term. Has anyone ever seen a discussion of this distinction between the everyday and psychological meanings of the term "unconscious"? Such a discussion might help me in making the point about different meanings of the same term; and it also might help me in making sure that the distinction I am making is a real one. Jeff Ricker Scottsdale Community College Scottsdale AZ [EMAIL PROTECTED]
