introspectiveadj.
/ɪntrəʊˈspɛktɪv/ Having the quality of looking within; examining into one's own thoughts, feelings, or mental condition, or expressing such examination; of, pertaining to, characterized by, or given to introspection. introspective psychology, psychology based on introspection and on the direct observation of one's own mental states.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > consciousness > contemplation of self > [adjective]
self-reflexivea1651
self-reflective1670
introverted1782
introspective1819
subjective1836
introvertive1864
introversive1884
the mind > mental capacity > psychology > psychological study of oneself > [noun]
autology1633
auto-psychology1874
introspective psychology1878
autoanalysis1893
introspectionism1922
1819 R. Southey Select. from Lett. (1856) III. 171 Whom I..well remember as a mild, melancholy, introspective man.
1878 W. James in R. B. Perry Thought & Char. W. James (1935) II. liii. 29 Those whose highest flights are articles in the Popular Science Monthly will talk of the exploded superstitions of introspective psychology.
1887 G. Saintsbury Hist. Elizabethan Lit. i. 10 With Wyatt and Surrey English poetry became at a bound the most personal..and..the most ‘introspective’ in Europe.
1891 E. Peacock Narcissa Brendon I. 118 She was very young, and not in the least introspective.
1931 R. S. Woodworth Contemp. Schools Psychol. ii. 17 What we do find..is..more precise formulation of the aim of introspective psychology.
a1942 B. Malinowski Sci. Theory of Culture (1944) vii. 71 Whether we use introspective psychology, and say that understanding means identification of the mental processes, or whether, as behaviourists, we affirm that his response to the integral stimulus of the situation follows lines familiar to us from our own experiences, does not change the argument profoundly.
1951 E. E. Evans-Pritchard Social Anthropol. iii. 44 Other anthropologists were later left in a similar way in the fashion of introspective psychology.
Derivatives
introˈspectively adv.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > consciousness > contemplation of self > [adverb]
introspectively1870
1870 H. Spencer Princ. Psychol. (ed. 2) I. ii. ii. 164 Each feeling..which when introspectively contemplated, appears to be homogeneous.
introˈspectiveness n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > consciousness > contemplation of self > [noun] > state or quality of
introspectiveness1874
introspectionism1922
1874 Contemp. Rev. 23 960 A..girl, whose self-condemning grief has something of the introspectiveness wrongly imputed to all Mr. Browning's characters.
1884 Seeley in Contemp. Rev. Nov. 667 Is it, then, true that Christianity is a system of morbid and melancholy introspectiveness?
introˈspectivism n. [see -ism suffix] Apparently an isolated use.
ΚΠ
1893 W. Morris & E. B. Bax Socialism iii. 58 The individualistic introspectivism of the Christianity of the decaying empire.
introˈspector n. one who practises introspection.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1900; most recently modified version published online June 2021).
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adj.1819