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Introspection is the self-observation and reporting of conscious inner thoughts, desires and sensations. It is a conscious mental and usually purposive process relying on thinking, reasoning, and examining one's own thoughts and feelings. It can also be called contemplation of one's self, and is contrasted with extrospection, the observation of things external to one's self. Introspection may be used synonymously with self-reflection and used in a similar way.

Behaviorists claimed that introspection was unreliable and that the subject matter of scientific psychology should be strictly operationalized in an objective and measurable way. This then led psychology to focus on measurable behavior rather than consciousness or sensation.^[1] Cognitive psychology accepts the use of the scientific method, but rejects introspection as a valid method of investigation for this reason. It should be noted however that Noble prize winner Herbert Simon and his collaborator Allen Newell valued the 'thinking-aloud' protocol, in which investigators view a subject engaged in introspection, and who speaks his thoughts aloud, thus allowing study of his introspection. Herbert Simon was particularly impressed by the work of the Dutch psychologist Adriaan Degroot, who used the 'thinking aloud' method to study split second thought processes in champion chess players (see ref). Herbert Simon even learned Dutch to read the original book in Dutch long before it was translated.

On the other hand, introspection can be considered a valid tool for the development of scientific hypotheses and theoretical models, in particular, in cognitive sciences and engineering. In practice, functional (goal-oriented) computational modeling and computer simulation design of meta-reasoning and metacognition are closely connected with the introspective experiences of researchers and engineers.

Introspection was used by German physiologist Wilhelm Wundt in the experimental psychology laboratory he had founded in Leipzig in 1879. Wundt believed that by using introspection in his experiments he would gather information into how the subjects' minds were working, thus he wanted to examine the mind into its basic elements. Wundt did not invent this way of looking into an individual's mind through their experiences; rather, it can date to Socrates. Wundt's distinctive contribution was to take this method into the experimental arena and thus into the newly formed field of psychology.

Introspection is related to the term reflection and used in a similar way by some people.

Contents 1 See also 2 References & Bibliography 3 Key texts 3.1 Books 3.2 Papers 4 Additional material 4.1 Books 4.2 Papers 5 External links

[edit] See also

• Psychophysics
• Choice blindness
• Phenomenology
• Phenomenology (psychology)
• Psychophysics
• Reflection
• Self-awareness
• Self-consciousness
• Self monitoring (personality)
• Self perception

[edit] References & Bibliography

[edit] Key texts

[edit] Books

• Adam Wiegner, Izabella Nowakowa (Eds), Katarzyna Paprzycka (Trans)(2002)Observation, Hypothesis, Introspection. Editions Rodopi B.V.ISBN 9042017260

[edit] Papers

Knight Dunlap (1912) The Case Against Introspection. Psychological Review, 19, 404-413 Fulltext

Titchener, E. B. (1912)The Schema of Introspection.American Journal of Psychology, 23, 485-508 Fulltext

[edit] Additional material

[edit] Books

• Schultz, D. P. & Schultz, S. E. (2004). A history of modern psychology (8th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
• Degroot, A.D. (1978) Thought and choice in chess. New York, NY: Walter de Gruyter. (original in Dutch: 1946)

[edit] Papers

• Google Scholar

[edit] External links

• Blog Entry on the usage of the term Introspection in the news
• Blog Entry on the usage of the term Reflection in the news
• About.com Article on Introspection

This page uses content from the English-language version of Wikipedia. The original article was at Introspection. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Psychology Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.