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Introspection
 
 
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Introspection is the self-observation and reporting of conscious inner thought
Thought

Thought and thinking are mind Theory of forms and processes, respectively Thinking allows beings to model the world and to deal with it according to their goal, plans, ends and desires....
s, desires
Motivation

Motivation is the set of reasons that determines one to engage in a particular behavior. The term is generally used for human motivation but, theoretically, it can be used to describe the causes for animal behavior as well....
 and sensation
Sensation

Sensation is the Fiction-writing modes for portraying a character's perception of the senses. According to Ron Rozelle, ?. . .the success of your story or novel will depend on many things, but the most crucial is your ability to bring your reader into it....
s. It is a conscious mental and usually purposive process relying on thinking, reasoning
Reasoning

Reasoning is the Cognition process of looking for reasons for beliefs, conclusions, actions or feelings. Although reasoning was once thought to be a uniquely human capability, other animals also engage in Animal_cognition#Reasoning_and_problem_solving....
, and examining one's own thoughts, feeling
Feeling

Feeling is the nominalization of to feel. The word was first used in the English language to describe the physical sensation of touch either through experience or perception....
s, and, in more spiritual cases, one's soul
Soul

In many religions and parts of philosophy, the soul is the immaterial part of a person. It is usually thought to consist of one's thoughts and Personality psychology, and can be synonymous with the spirit, mind or self....
. It can also be called contemplation
Contemplation

The word Contemplation comes from the Latin root templum , and means to separate something from its environment, and to enclose it in a sector. Contemplation is the Latin translation of Greek 'theory' ....
 of one's self
Self (psychology)

The self is a key construct in several schools of psychology, broadly referring to the cognitive representation of one's identity. The earliest formulation of the self in modern psychology stems from the distinction between the self as I, the subjective knower, and the self as Me, the object that is known....
, 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.






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Introspection is the self-observation and reporting of conscious inner thought
Thought

Thought and thinking are mind Theory of forms and processes, respectively Thinking allows beings to model the world and to deal with it according to their goal, plans, ends and desires....
s, desires
Motivation

Motivation is the set of reasons that determines one to engage in a particular behavior. The term is generally used for human motivation but, theoretically, it can be used to describe the causes for animal behavior as well....
 and sensation
Sensation

Sensation is the Fiction-writing modes for portraying a character's perception of the senses. According to Ron Rozelle, ?. . .the success of your story or novel will depend on many things, but the most crucial is your ability to bring your reader into it....
s. It is a conscious mental and usually purposive process relying on thinking, reasoning
Reasoning

Reasoning is the Cognition process of looking for reasons for beliefs, conclusions, actions or feelings. Although reasoning was once thought to be a uniquely human capability, other animals also engage in Animal_cognition#Reasoning_and_problem_solving....
, and examining one's own thoughts, feeling
Feeling

Feeling is the nominalization of to feel. The word was first used in the English language to describe the physical sensation of touch either through experience or perception....
s, and, in more spiritual cases, one's soul
Soul

In many religions and parts of philosophy, the soul is the immaterial part of a person. It is usually thought to consist of one's thoughts and Personality psychology, and can be synonymous with the spirit, mind or self....
. It can also be called contemplation
Contemplation

The word Contemplation comes from the Latin root templum , and means to separate something from its environment, and to enclose it in a sector. Contemplation is the Latin translation of Greek 'theory' ....
 of one's self
Self (psychology)

The self is a key construct in several schools of psychology, broadly referring to the cognitive representation of one's identity. The earliest formulation of the self in modern psychology stems from the distinction between the self as I, the subjective knower, and the self as Me, the object that is known....
, 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. Cognitive psychology
Cognitive psychology

Cognitive psychology is a branch of psychology that investigates internal mental processes such as problem solving, memory, and language.The school of thought arising from this approach is known as cognitivism which is interested in how people mentally represent information processing....
 accepts the use of the scientific method, but rejects introspection as a valid method of investigation for this reason. Herbert Simon
Herbert Simon

Herbert Alexander Simon was an United States psychologist whose research ranged across the fields of cognitive psychology, computer science, public administration, economics, management, philosophy of science and sociology and was a professor, most notably, at Carnegie Mellon University....
 and Allen Newell
Allen Newell

Allen Newell was a researcher in computer science and cognitive psychology at the RAND corporation and at Carnegie Mellon University?s Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science, Tepper School of Business, and Department of Psychology....
 identified 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.

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
Goal-oriented

Goal-orientation or goal-driven/goal-directed/purposive is a property of systems which are able to think/reason/inference using symbols.A system, person, or organization that tends to achieve a Objective and demonstrate it in subsequent actions....
) computational modeling and computer simulation design of meta-reasoning and metacognition
Metacognition

Metacognition is knowledge of one's cognitive processes and the efficient use of this self-awareness to self-regulate these cognitive processes ....
 are closely connected with the introspective experiences of researchers and engineers.

Introspection was used by German physiologist Wilhelm Wundt
Wilhelm Wundt

Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt was a Germany medical doctor, psychologist, physiologist, and professor, known today as one of the founding figures of modern psychology....
 in the experimental psychology
Experimental psychology

Experimental psychology approaches psychology as one of the natural sciences, investigates it using the experiment. The focus of experimental psychology is on discovering the underlying processes behind behavior and the specific nature of mental life....
 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 experience
Experience

Experience as a general concept comprises knowledge of or skill in or observation of some thing or some event gained through involvement in or exposure to that thing or event....
s; rather, it can date to Socrates
Socrates

Socrates was a Classical Greece Philosophy. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known only through the classical accounts of his students....
. Wundt's distinctive contribution was to take this method into the experimental arena and thus into the newly formed field of psychology.

Eastern spirituality

In Eastern Christianity
Eastern Christianity

Eastern Christianity refers collectively to the Christianity traditions and churches which developed in the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Asia Minor, the Middle East, Christianity in Africa and southern India over several centuries of religious antiquity....
, some of the concepts critical to addressing the needs of man such as sober introspection, called nepsis, are specific to watchfulness of the human heart and address the conflicts of the human nous, heart or mind. Also noetic understanding can not be circumvented nor satisfied by rationalizing or discursive thought (i.e. systemization).

In fiction

Introspections (also referred to as internal dialogue, interior monologue, self-talk) is the fiction-writing mode
Mode (literature)

In literature, a mode is an employed method or approach, identifiable within a written work. As descriptive terms, 'form' and/or 'genre' are often used inaccurately instead of 'mode' ....
 used to convey a character's thoughts. As explained by Renni Browne and Dave King, "One of the great gifts of literature is that it allows for the expression of unexpressed thoughts…" .

According to Nancy Kress, a character's thoughts can greatly enhance a story: deepening characterization, increasing tension, and widening the scope of a story . As outlined by Jack M. Bickham, thought plays a critical role in both scene
Scene

Scene may refer to:...
 and sequel
Sequel

A sequel is a work in literature, film, or other media that portrays events following those of a previous work.In many cases, the sequel continues elements of the original story, often with the same characters and settings....
 . Among authors and writing coaches, there appears to be little consensus regarding the importance of introspection and how it is best presented.

Bibliography

  • Schultz, D. P. & Schultz, S. E. (2004). A history of modern psychology (8th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
  • Bickham, Jack M. (1993). Scene & Structure. Writer's Digest Books. ISBN 0-89879-551-6.
  • Browne & King (2004). Self-Editing for Fiction Writers: How to Edit Yourself into Print. New York: Harper Resource. ISBN 0-06-054569-0
  • Kress, Nancy (August 2003), Writer's Digest


External links


, entry by Brie Gertler
Brie Gertler

Brie Gertler is a philosopher who works primarily on problems in the philosophy of mind. A dualism, she is presently a teaching associate professor at the University of Virginia....
 (2003)

See also

  • Choice blindness
    Choice blindness

    In psychology, choice blindness is a phenomenon in which subjects fail to detect conspicuous mismatches between their intended choice and the actual outcome....
  • Phenomenology
  • Phenomenology (psychology)
    Phenomenology (psychology)

    In psychology, phenomenology is used to refer to subjective experiences or their study. The experiencing subject can be considered to be the person or self, for purposes of convenience....
  • Psychophysics
    Psychophysics

    Psychophysics is a subdiscipline of psychology dealing with the relationship between physical stimulus and their subjectivity correlates, or percepts....
  • Reflection
    Reflection

    Reflection or reflexion may refer to:...
  • Self-awareness
    Self-awareness

    Self-awareness is the concept that one exists as an individual, separate from other people, with private thoughts and individual rights. It may also include the understanding that other people are similarly self-aware....
  • Self-consciousness
    Self-consciousness

    Self-consciousness is an Acute_ sense of self-awareness. It is a preoccupation with oneself, as opposed to the philosophical state of self-awareness, which is the awareness that one exists as an individual being; although some writers use both terms interchangeably or synonymously....
  • Style (fiction)
    Style (fiction)

    In fiction, style is the manner in which the author tells the story....
  • Mode (literature)
    Mode (literature)

    In literature, a mode is an employed method or approach, identifiable within a written work. As descriptive terms, 'form' and/or 'genre' are often used inaccurately instead of 'mode' ....