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Online Dictionary of Psychological Terms >> Introspection
Introspection
Introspection is the process through which one 'looks within' to observe and record the contents of one's own mental life.
Even though introspective method has been completely abandoned by behaviourism, it should still remain a subject of interest to psychology.
It is not only the stimulus that causes the response to it, but the organism's understanding of the stimulus. Such "invisible" entity as "understanding" cannot be studied from the behaviourist perspective, but it cannot be avoided in order for us to understand the organism's behaviour.
A person's introspection about his/her actions should not be considered the one true explanation for the person's action, but it should be taken into account as the explanation that the person him/herself believes to be true in this particular case, or the explanation that some or many people believe to be true in many of the cases when such an action is done.
Knowing how people themselves explain their own thoughts, conclusions and actions provides psychology with an additional type of data (not a very reliable one, but still a type of data).
Any psychological science is forced to deal with human introspections, at least to explain why some of them may not be valid (e.g., edge-enhancement).
There are definitely problems with the 'trustworthiness' of the introspective method. A claim made through introspection is neither objectively testable nor comparable to any similar claim, and is expected to be coloured by the personality, expectations, worldview, etc.
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