Introspection

• What is introspection ?

  • the process in which a person gains knowledge about their own mental or emotional status
• What did wundt claim ?

  With sufficient training, mental processes such as memory and perception could be observed systematically as they occurred using introspection
• Example of introspection

  e.g shown an object + asked to reflect on how they were perceiving it - used to gain insight into the nature of mental processes involved in perception or reaction time
• What was wundts experiment of perception ?

  • participants presented with a controlled stimulus( images/ sounds)
  • then they would be asked to provide a description of the inner processes they were experiencing as they looked at the image ect.
• What did wundts experiment allow ?

  • made it possible to compare different pp reports in responses to the same stimuli
  • so to establish general theories about perception and other mental processes
• Evaluation of introspection ?

  1. Unreliable method
  2. scientific approach isn’t always appropriate
  3. still useful in scientific psychology
• Unreliable method ?

  • relies on self report
  • non- observable behaviour
• Scientific approach not always appropriate ?

  • not all psychologists believe that all human behaviour can, or should be explored by the use of scientific methods
  • e.g group behaviour - conformity
  • humanistic stuff + psychodynamic
• Is reductionist

  • breaks behaviour down into basic parts, humans mind works all together with thought, feelings, emotions and sensations all at once
• what features of science does wundt use ?

  • empirical methods
  • replicability
  • objectivity
• what must happen for introspection to work ?

  pp emotionally intelligent + able to talk about internal processes