METHOD OF PSYCHOLOGY
The primary method of investigation in empirical or phenomenal
psychology is introspection or reflective observation of our own
mental states. This is the ultimate source of all knowledge of mental
facts; even the information gathered immediately from other quarters
has finally to be interpreted in terms of our own subjective
experience. Introspection is, however, liable to error; consequently, it
has to be employed with care and helped and corrected by all the
supplementary sources of psychological knowledge available. Among
the chief of these are: the internal experience of other observers
communicated through language; the study of the human mind as
exhibited in different periods of life from infancy to old age, and in
different races and grades of civilization; as embodied in various
languages and literatures; and as revealed in the absence of
particular senses, and in abnormal or pathological conditions such as
dreams, hypnotism, and forms of insanity. Moreover, the anatomy,
physiology, and pathology of the brain and nervous system supply
valuable data as to the organic conditions of conscious states.
Experimental psychology, psychophysics, and psychometry help
towards accuracy and precision in the description of certain forms of
mental activity. And the comparative study of the lower animals may
also afford useful assistance in regard to some questions of human
psychology. By the utilization of these several sources of information
the data furnished to the psychologist by the introspective
observation of his own individual mind may be enlarged, tested and
corrected, and may thus acquire in a certain degree the objective and
universal character of the observations on which the physical
sciences are built. Introspection is frequently spoken of as the
subjective method, these other sources of information as
supplementary objective methods of psychological study.
-DR.NAVRAJ SINGH SANDHUI
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