内化在不同的领域有不同的含义，与外化相对。

一般上，当涉及道德行为时，内化是巩固和植入某人信念、态度和价值的长期过程，而这一过程的实现牵扯到精神分析或行为方法的慎重使用。

当改变道德行为时，一组新的信念、态度和价值代替或适应于所希望的行为，这时某人就会是“被内化的”。例如，这样的内化可能会发生在下述的改教中。

内化常与学习（例如学习思想或技能）联系在一起，并且会利用学习来完成内化，因而在教育、学习、训练以及商业和管理思维中也能找到内化这一概念的共通应用。

Internalization (or internalisation) has different definitions depending on the field that the term is used in. Internalization is the opposite of externalization. Generally, internalization describes the psychological outcome of a concious mind reasoning about a specific subject; the subject is internalized, and the consideration of the subject is internal. Internalization of ideals might take place following religious conversion, or in the process of, more generally, moral conversion. Internalization is directly associated with learning within an organism (or business) and recalling what has been learned.