Introspection

Introspection is looking inward: noticing and examining your own thoughts, feelings and motives, as they happen or soon after. Done with curiosity, it helps you understand what you feel and why, and many therapies build on it. Done as harsh, endless self-questioning, it can turn into rumination, which tends to make people feel worse.

Also called: self-reflection, self-examination, looking inward, soul-searching.

Examples

• Noticing that your irritation with a colleague is really worry about your own job.
• Asking yourself at night what drained you today and what helped.
• In therapy, spotting the thought that came just before a panic attack, a craving or an argument.

Why it matters

Psychology began with introspection: in the 19th century, researchers such as Wundt trained people to report their own sensations in the laboratory. It has limits. In well-known studies by Nisbett and Wilson, shoppers asked why they chose a pair of stockings didn’t realise that where the pair sat on the display had swayed them. So treat what you find inside as a good lead, not the final word, and check it against what you actually do.

Introspection vs rumination

Researchers separate two kinds of self-focus. Reflection is self-focus out of interest. Rumination goes over the same worries and hurts without getting anywhere, and it is linked to more distress. How you ask matters too. Concrete questions (“what happened, what did I feel, what can I do next?”) tend to lead somewhere; abstract ones (“why am I like this?”) tend to keep people stuck. Our overthinking guide shows how to break the loop.

In Nigeria

Here, as in much of Africa, people talk about “thinking too much”, and it usually describes distress rather than healthy reflection. A review of 138 studies of the phrase worldwide found 60 from Africa, and it mostly meant going over worries about money, marriage, children, illness or loss. In one Ibadan study, women described “thinking too much” and “deep thought” after family conflict, with headaches, feeling hot and poor sleep.

When to get help

Talk to a therapist if looking inward keeps turning into hours of going over the same things, hurts your sleep, or comes with low mood most days. A CBT therapist on Mytherapist.ng can help you reflect without getting stuck.

Read next

• Overthinking: Why It Happens and How to Stop
• How Journaling Can Clear Your Head
• Rumination
• Mindfulness

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This entry is awaiting clinical review. It’s based on published research and health guidelines, and we’ll update it once a clinician has reviewed it.