Internalizing and Externalizing
Psychological Concepts
Internalizing and Externalizing
Internalizing
Internalizing is making a character judgment about oneself in a distorted manner. It deprives the person of situational occurrences and compassion and instead seeks to label the person's character instead.
Examples of Internalizing
1. "I made a mistake, I must be an idiot."
2. "I slept in until 1pm, I am lazy."
3. "I thought something rude which makes me a bad person."
In each circumstance the person chose to judge their character instead of the circumstances.
Alternatives to Internalizing
1. "I made a mistake, everyone makes mistakes sometimes."
2. "I slept in until 1pm, I must've really needed to catch up on some sleep."
3. "I thought something rude which means something they did must've really bothered me."
Internalizing is distorted and unhealthy thinking. When this is applied outside of yourself it's called being judgmental or critical, internalizing is just doing it to yourself.
Externalizing
Externalizing in psychology is a technique that attempts to separate the person from the problem by taking an internal issue and making it external by making the issue a distinct and separate entity from the person. This allows the person to see the problem as something to be solved rather than a problem that they judge themselves for or feels impossible to change.
The movie Inside Out is a great example of externalization where each character represents an emotion. Technically they are all just emotions of Riley but they are externalized by making them their own unique characters apart from Riley. An example of Riley externalizing would be viewing her anger issues as the character Anger and describing it as if it were something other than herself. Compare the differences between these two statements:
1. I really need to control my anger.
2. My anger is really throwing a fit right now.
Related Theory
[Internal Family Systems (IFS)](/ifs-in-depth-detail) is a very effective theory that uses the concept of externalization to great effect.
How To Apply This
People who struggle with internalizing typically can benefit from learning to externalize instead. Practice separating yourself from the problem when you find yourself judging your character instead of the circumstance.