Abstract

CASTRO, Thiago Gomes de  and  GOMES, William Barbosa. Self-consciousness and kinesthetic perceptual ambiguity: phenomenological experiment. Psicol. estud. [online]. 2011, vol.16, n.2, pp. 279-287. ISSN 1413-7372.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1413-73722011000200011.

Relations between kinesthesia and selfconsciousness were examined in a phenomenological experiment with 19 students who responded to three instruments: 1) Self-Consciousness Scale (private, public and social anxiety), 2) The Alien-Hand Experiment (purposely-induced distortion in perceptual motor task, repeated four times) and 3) Phenomenological interview on perceptions of the experiment. The analysis identified two patterns of response: 1) recognition of the distortion and assignment to the experiment, and 2) ambivalent recognition of distortion and attribution to himself. The second response pattern was associated with high levels of self-consciousness. Reversal between experience conscious and consciousness of experience were revealed gradually in the repetitions of the task: 1) description of estrangement, 2) imaginary variations on the causes of distortion (arguments), 3) decision making between positing distortions on experiment variables or personnel difficulty to perform the task. Differentiation of self-consciousness modalities led to argument analysis on task interferences, pointing to an original handling of pre-reflection to self-reflection.

Keywords : Experimental phenomenology; self-consciousness; perception.