Introspection

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

The founders of experimental psychology used the methods of experimental introspection which involved asking subjects to focus on their personal reflections and then relate them to outside signals.
Most of the subjects were male and asked to rate their experiences on a one to ten-point scale. Psychologists at the time believed that introspection could be used to study mental elements such as sensations and feelings.

🟩There were limitations of introspection

🟩Introspection was not appropriate for studying complex psychological processes.

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Mary Calkins' self-psychology

Calkins was a psychologist who understood the limitations of introspection. Her new approach to psychology focused on the self which had three founding concepts (Shiraev, 2016) :

The self
The object
The self's relation or attitude toward that object.

Two levels of the self (Shiraev, 2016):

contents of consciousness
environment in which the content unfolds.

Calkins's self-psychology was influenced by the work of William James, another early psychologist who was critical of introspection.
Introspection in psychology declined by the early 20th century
Calkins's self-psychology was also influenced by the work of the philosopher Josiah Royce, who argued that the self is not a fixed entity, but rather a process of becoming.
James proposed a theory of the self that emphasized its dynamic and ever-changing nature.