Page 144 - Expanded Media & the MediaPlex

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William James: Principles of Psychology + ‘Stream of Consciousness’ 1890-1892
In the 1880s, Psychology - the scientific study of behaviour and mental processes - was only a couple of decades old, and James’ Principles of Psychology summarised the recent advances in psychological research, and clarified James’ own position on, and the theories of, consciousness, emotion, habit, and will. His theory of the ‘stream of consciousness’ - the ever-flowing sense of continuity in our perception of the world, was later used to describe some modernist writing and compositional techniques, and in his study of emotions, he proposes the primacy of physiological response to stimuli - the somatic response triggering the psychological reaction. The ‘Stream of Consciousness’ theory was applied to the writing of iconic literary figures such as James Joyce and Virginia Woolf - their styles of attempting to record the multitudinous flow of thoughts (Joyce’s Finnigan’s Wake is the supreme example, and this theory also engendered the exploration of ‘automatic writing’ by the Surrealists.
Chris Stonecipher in his article: William James' Functionalism: Theory of Attention and Consciousness: "Functionalism is a study of consciousness developed by William James. He was a doctor, psychologist, and a philosopher. Williams James’ theory of consciousness is considered environmental. According to Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology (2010), “Consciousness helps people adapt to their environment.” (p. 150) For example, if you are from a small town and you travel to a city you are not familiar with, you will most likely lock your car doors and pays special attention to your surroundings. Your consciousness is on high alert as you adapt to your surroundings.
"If you come from a big city with a high crime rate to a small town, you most likely will have a difficult time adjusting to people who will go out of their way to talk to you or offer help. It is what drives your senses in adjusting to a confusing environment. According to Sternberg, R.J. (2010) “Functionalists held that the key to understanding the human mind and behavior was to study the processes of how and why the mind works as it does, rather than to study the structural contents and elements of the mind.” (p. 6) Functionalists are more interested in asking probing questions that further the process of discovering how the mind works. Functionalists ask questions that do not necessarily have immediate answers but are measured by usefulness and validity.”
https://cognition-perception-senses.knoji.com/william-james-functionalism-theory-of-attention-and-consciousness/