Introspective Psychological Perspective

Abstract

Psychology is the study of human and animal mind as well as behavior. It is divided into diverse perspectives such as behavioral, developmental, socio-cultural, evolutionary and many more. All these perspectives seek out to examine why humans behave as they do, making use of many techniques to carry out the study.

Introspection is a term used for the modern philosophy of self and mind. The process of introspection in psychology is a means of self observation of one's state of mind and in a spiritual context of one's soul. It relies on rational and purposeful reflection to provide insight of our mental state, be it current or recently passed. Introspection may be used to understand a number of mental states like bodily, cognitive, sensory, emotional etc.

There are different ways of learning how your mind works, by assessing past behavior, observing brain activity and such, however, introspection of oneself can also be used to learn about your mind. It is central to epistemology, thought to be indifferent to skepticism and is considered to be more direct than sensory knowledge which may lead to a foundation on which other knowledge can be gained.

Over the ages, philosophers of mind have introduced many theories about the nature of introspection and claims on how emotion, free will, personal identity, imagery, thought, belief and other mental aspects are dependent on introspective verification. This had led to empirical psychologists analyzing the accuracy and role of introspection within the science of mind. Philosophers of old like Aristotle have emphasized that thought only occurs with imagery, a claim partly grounded in introspective psychology (Ross et al, 1995).

Table of Contents

Introduction4

Discussion4

Conditions For The Introspective Process4

Self Realization Through Introspection5

Who Am I?5

Rationalizing Mental Process Through Theory6

Conclusion7

References8

Appendices9

Introduction

Within the study of mind, introspection is the process by which we learn about our mental state or processes. However, not all such processes can be termed as introspective, if for example we learn about our current emotion through assessing past behavior. The process and exact meaning of introspection has never been unanimously agreed upon and there are various theories regarding self realization which one can personally choose to own.

Discussion

Conditions For The Introspective Process

There are three broad conditions which need to be present in one's introspective process (www.stanford.edu). The first being the mentality condition, which states that all introspective process has to come from within the mind, no external knowledge can be used as a tool of understanding oneself, however, physical and sensory process may be interrelated with introspection meaning one may feel something physically and make a perception within the mind of the incidence having a personalized meaning.

The second is the first person condition, meaning that introspection is a process of understanding your own mind and not that of any other. We cannot base our introspection process on how others are feeling. However, according to Gordon (1989), knowledge of your own mental state may be used to determine or draw parallels regarding others (www.stanford.edu).

The third such condition is called the temporal proximity ...