Introspection

• Who was introspection proposed by?

  Wilhelm Wundt
• Introspection

  'Looking into' thoughts and feelings
• Give an example of an introspection experiment

  - participants presented with a visual or auditory stimulus

  - they were then asked to provide a description of the inner processes they experienced as they looked at the image or heard the tone
• Reductionism

  Breaking down consciousness into its basic elements
• Ideas that suggest introspection is scientific


  - science breaks down complex phenomena into smaller parts with is what introspection does

  - introspection uses controlled settings and stimuli
• Ideas that suggest introspection is not scientific

  - data gained through introspection is idiographic whereas science is nomothetic

  - science tries to be objective but introspection is subjective

  - introspection only described what happens rather than trying to explain why it happens