What's The Difference Between Conscience and Conscious?

What’s the Difference Between Conscience and
Conscious?
By
Kendra Cherry
Updated on November 29, 2019
Medically reviewed by
Amy Morin, LCSW
Print
Gary Waters / Getty Images

Table of Contents
• Conscience Definition
• Conscious Definition
• Consciousness Definition
• Telling the Difference
How does the conscious differ from the conscience? These two terms are
sometimes confused in common everyday usage due to the fact that they sound
quite similar. They also both derive from the same Latin origins (conscire,
which means "to be aware of guilt").1
However, they actually mean very different things within the field of
psychology. Let's take a closer look at what each term means and how you can
distinguish between the two concepts.
What Does Conscience Mean?

Your conscience is the part of your personality that helps you determine
between right and wrong and keeps you from acting upon your most basic
urges and desires. It is what makes you feel guilty when you do something bad
and good when you do something kind. Your conscience is the moral basis that
helps guide prosocial behavior and leads you to behave in socially acceptable
and even altruistic ways.
In Freudian theory, the conscience is part of the superego that contains

information about what is viewed as bad or negative by your parents and by
society—all the values you learned and absorbed during your upbringing. The
conscience emerges over time as you absorb information about what is
considered right and wrong by your caregivers, your peers, and the culture in
which you live.
What Does Conscious Mean?
Your conscious is your awareness of yourself and the world around you. In the
most general terms, it means being awake and aware. Some experts suggest
that you are considered conscious of something if you are able to put it into
words.
The Conscious Mind

According to Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality, which likens the
mind to an iceberg. The part of the iceberg that can be seen above the surface of
the water represents conscious awareness. It is what we are aware of and can
describe and articulate clearly. The largest part of the iceberg actually lies
below the surface of the water, which Freud compared to the unconscious
mind, or all the thoughts, memories, and urges that are outside of our
conscious awareness.
What Is Consciousness?
Your consciousness refers to your conscious experiences, your individual
awareness of your own internal thoughts, feelings, memories, and
sensations. Consciousness is often thought of as a stream, constantly shifting
according to the ebb and flow of your thoughts and experiences of the world
around you.
In psychology, the conscious mind includes everything inside of your

awareness including:
• Fantasies
• Feelings
• Memories
• Perceptions
• Thoughts
"Consciousness is generally defined as awareness of your thoughts, actions,

feelings, sensations, perceptions, and other mental processes," explain
psychologists Douglass A. Bernstein, Louis A. Penner, and Edward Roy. "This
definition suggests that consciousness is an aspect of many mental processes
rather than being a mental process on its own. For example, memories can be
conscious, but consciousness is not just memory. Perceptions can be
conscious, but consciousness is not just perception."2
How Psychology Explains Consciousness
How to Tell the Difference

The conscious and consciousness can be difficult to pin down. As psychologist
and philosopher William James once explained, "Its meaning we know so long
as no one asks us to define it."3
While the two terms are often confused, the conscious and the conscience, on
the other hand, refer to very different things. Your conscious allows you to be
aware of your place in the world, while your conscience allows you to behave in
this world in morally and socially acceptable ways.
As described above, conscious is your awareness of yourself and the world

around you. Your conscience is your ability to distinguish between what is right
and what is wrong.

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What’s the Difference Between Conscience and

Gary Waters / Getty Images

What Does Conscience Mean?

In Freudian theory, the conscience is part of the superego that contains

The Conscious Mind

In psychology, the conscious mind includes everything inside of your

"Consciousness is generally defined as awareness of your thoughts, actions,

How to Tell the Difference

As described above, conscious is your awareness of yourself and the world

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