“… to rely on first and foremost and always”: Revisiting the role of introspection in William James’s early psychological work

Abstract

In order to legitimate itself as a science, psychology has faced the ongoing problem of establishing its proper method of investigation. In this context, debates on introspection have emerged that have remained intense since the 18th century. However, contemporary debates and historical investigations on this topic have not done justice to the richness and diversity of positions, leading to oversimplifications and hasty generalizations, as if the terms “introspection” and “introspectionism” referred to one and same thing. The central goal of this article is to offer an analysis of William James’s position on the introspective method within the intellectual context of his time, covering the period from his early writings until the publication, in 1890, of The Principles of Psychology. Our results indicate that James used two different types of introspection. We conclude by discussing divergences in the secondary literature and the implications of our study for historical and theoretical debates in psychology.

The Würzburg School today: The three—now four—world theory and new psychological research

“…The use of introspection is not unique to the Würzburg School. Saulo de Freitas Araujo and Rayassa Maluf de Souza have pointed to the existence of many variants of introspective methods in the history of psychology (de Freitas Araujo & de Souza, 2016). Their description does not make any reference to the introspective method of the Würzburg School.…”

Reevaluating the initial impact of John Broadus Watson on American psychology: The necessity of comparative parameters

“…We are not endorsing here a radical opposition between behaviorism and introspection, as Watson tried to establish (Watson, ). Indeed, things are much more complicated (e.g., Araujo & Souza, ; Costall, , ; Feest, ; Kroker, ; Young, ). Our goal here is just to reinforce Samelson's thesis with citation analysis data that were not available to him.…”