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) :

1. The self
2. The object
3. The self's relation or attitude toward that object.

Two levels of the self  (Shiraev, 2016):

1. contents of consciousness
2. 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.

References

 Shiraev, E. (2016). Personality Theories: A Global View. SAGE Publications, Inc. (US). https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/books/9781506300795