10 Facts About Introspection

Introspection is the examination of one's own conscious thoughts and feelings.

Introspection is closely related to human self-reflection and self-discovery and is contrasted with external observation.

Introspection generally provides a privileged access to one's own mental states, not mediated by other sources of knowledge, so that individual experience of the mind is unique.

Introspection can determine any number of mental states including: sensory, bodily, cognitive, emotional and so forth.

Introspection has been a subject of philosophical discussion for thousands of years.

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Introspection has been critiqued by many other psychologists, including Wilhelm Wundt, and Knight Dunlap who in his article "The Case Against Introspection", presents an argument against self-observation that is not primarily rooted in behaviorist epistemology.

Introspection is still widely used in psychology, but now implicitly, as self-report surveys, interviews and some fMRI studies are based on introspection.

Introspection delivers, at best, hints about what goes on in the mind; it does not suffice to justify knowledge claims about the mind.

Introspection is encouraged in schools such as Advaita Vedanta; in order for one to know their own true nature, they need to reflect and introspect on their true nature—which is what meditation is.

Introspection is the fiction-writing mode used to convey a character's thoughts.