NOMOTHETIC

• WHAT IS THE NOMOTHETIC APPROACH?

  focuses on identifying general laws allowing researchers to make predictions
• WHAT DOES THE NOMOTHETIC APPROACH USE?

  quantitative measures and statistical tests

  -> experiments, controlled observations, correlations
• APPROACHES THAT FEATURE THE NOMOTHETIC APPROACH?

  cognitive, biological, psychodynamic (theory), SLT
• EXAMPLES OF RESEARCH FEATURING THE NOMOTHETIC APPROACH?

  Bobo dolls, Baddeley
• STRENGTHS OF THE NOMOTHETIC APPROACH?

  • can generalise to wider population
  • methods are objective, measurable and can be verified
  • replication, prediction and control of behaviour is easy
  • can provide hypotheses for future scientific study
• WEAKNESSES OF NOMOTHETIC APPROACH?

  • cannot find out rich, in-depth information about single cases
  • understanding is superficial due to quantitative measures (e.g. group may all get same scores on personality test using different answers)