Introspection

Psychology – science very ancient. It arose long before surgery and has very mediated relation to medicine. However in pedagogics the psychology finds practical application. The good psychologist, from the point of view of the inhabitant, can and has to read thoughts of surrounding people, having foreseen their acts. The psychologist of the top skills, really, is capable to predict behavior of any person and even society of adherents. One of methods of the psychological analysis is introspection, the word in translation from Latin, means "I look in myself". From the household point of view it found reflection in a saying: "Stay in my skin!" That is, it is such psychology at which introspection is applied as the main method of a research of the personality.

The ancestor of the direction J. Locke, the philosopher by training, in the 18th century formulated the basic concepts of introspection which make two sources of knowledge of mankind:

• Objects of the outside world;
• Activity of own mind.

From the outside world by means of analyzers of feelings of people obtains information on some objects which cause certain associations.

Own mind perceives these objects as certain incentives for thinking. The person looks at an unknown object and mentally compares it to objects known to it. The same concerns living subjects. Mental activity, according to the founder of the doctrine about introspection, includes the following processes:

• Thinking;
• Belief;
• Doubt;
• Reasoning;
• Desire;
• Motivation to action or inaction.

J. Locke designated all this in a word: a reflection – special internal feeling as the instrument of knowledge. It is a special type of the attention directed to contemplation of own soul. In other words, introspection when the person carries out inspection of own consciousness. Children do not possess a reflection as their mind to aim at perception of external objects for the purpose of acquaintance to them. Adults also not everything are inclined to a reflection, the feeling of introspection needs to be developed in themselves, directing attention in own "I".

Introspection method

According to own doctrine which says that the reason of the person is capable to internal contemplation and the analysis J. Locke outputs two fundamental statements:

• Activity of human mind is capable to proceed at two levels, that is, "to fork";
• The second level of consciousness requires a training and attention whereas the first, it only, reflection of external factors.

Proceeding from a possibility of doubling of mental processes, there was an introspection method which assumes need of studying and comprehension of internal experience. The psychology of consciousness took of the following conclusions of the founder of the doctrine about introspection J. Locke advantage:

• To learn what happens in soul at the person, the psychologist is obliged to conduct researches over by itself. The analogies only drawn by method of introspection will help to understand what happens to the examinee. In a word, the psychologist has to put himself to the place of the patient;
• As not all people are inclined to a reflection, the feeling of introspection demands a constant training, long and continuous exercises.

The psychology of a century before last accepted an introspection method as only true as it reflected a causal relationship of all manifestations of mentality. The specialist perceived external irritants only from the point of view of the examinee, that is, introspection assumed the psychological facts without distortions by own consciousness. At the end of the nineteenth century psychologists of the whole world made a grandiose experiment to check introspection method force in the strict conditions close to laboratory.

As a result there were big questions touching on enormous issues of crisis of psychology. According to the instruction, examinees avoided specific answers, but used terminological formulas. For example, the person could not tell that he saw red apple, but had to formulate the answer upon the demand of introspection, that is, explain the feelings, based on color scale and estimated flavoring feeling. Each examinee spoke in own way therefore at psychologists the doubt arose. As there can be successful a psychology which introspection has no uniform feelings. One sees red color, another thinks of taste of apple. Contradictions overturned all base of practical psychology. In practice it turned out that the specialist is not capable to think of categories of the examinee of.

Modern psychology, introspection and reflection

In present conditions introspection is perceived as a historical stage of development of psychological experiments. Now psychologists conduct researches exactly the opposite. By analogy with a classical example of early psychology in which introspection took the predominating place the same subject – red apple undertakes. But the examinee has to tell that he holds in hand, without pressing in an analytical delicacy. Only this way it is possible to analyze psychological state of the person at the time of the experiment. Analytical introspection and introspection today – concepts various. Comprehension of the facts of own consciousness is called as a monospektion, and the reflection is replaced by direct knowledge.

The psychologist the experimenter, when carrying out a test task relies upon own refinement of mind, but not upon intricate conclusions of the examinee. Only in this respect the method of introspection is used as the instrument of own knowledge, and this introspection represents no other than professional experience.

Concerning the theory of bifurcation of consciousness psychiatrists had a bit different opinion which is expressed in the accurate formulation – schizophrenia. As for self-knowledge, it has no relation to introspection.