Idiographic and nomothetic approach

• Describe the idiographic approach and the type of data it uses

  • Study of individuals
  • Provides unique insights about human behaviour
  • Uses qualitative methods- for example case studies, structured/unstructured interview and thematic analysis
• What approaches use the idiographic approach?

  • Psychodynamic- Freud’s use of case studies
  • The humanistic approach
• Describe the nomothetic approach and give examples of the type of data it uses

  • Involves the study of large groups of people
  • Seeks to make generalisations/develop laws /theories about behaviour
  • research is quantitative- measures of central tendency, dispersion, graphs and statistical analysis. Normative research (eg IQ) requires groups of thousands of pps
• Which approaches use the nomothetic approach?

  • Biological
  • Behavioural
  • Cognitive
  • Scientific
  • Psychometric
• Define idiographic approach

  Focus is on individuals and emphasises uniqueness, favours qualitative methods
• Define nomothetic approach

  Seeks to formulate general laws of behaviour based on the study of groups and quantitative method. Summarises differences between people through generalisations
• Describe how the psychodynamic and humanistic approach use the idiographic approach

  PSYCHODYNAMIC

  • Little Hans case study- 150 pages of verbatim quotes recorded by Hans father and describes events in Hans life

  HUMANISTIC

  • Study the whole person
  • Focuses on the individuals subjective experience 
• Describe how the biological approach works with the nomothetic approach

  • Attempts to portray basic principles of the way in which the brain works
  • But sometimes mistakenly studies processes in men and assume they also happen in women
• Describe how the behavioural approach works with the nomothetic approach

  • Produces general laws about behaviour
  • Seeks one set of rules for all animals- humans and non humans
• Describe how the cognitive approach works with the nomothetic approach

  • Aims to apply typical memory processes to all people
  • Does use case studies like HM, but these are required to understand the working mind
• one weakness and one strength of the idiographic approach?

  • 😊focus on the individual- too much emphasis on measurements and scientists had lost sight of what it means to be human, so Allport argued that only by knowing a person we can predict their behaviour
  • ☹️weak scientific basis- especially humanistic psychology- not sufficiently evidence based and therefore findings are essentially meaningless. but there are some idiographic approaches that are evidence based (case studies or qualitative research)
• Two strengths of the nomothetic approach?

  • 😊less time consuming- uses quantitative data, quick and easy to analyse, good for studying large groups of people (1000s as the approach uses) measures of central tendency/dispersion, graphs and statistical analysis
  • 😊enables general laws of behaviour. Allows psychologists to identify behavioural patterns and use them to explain behaviours- behavioural approach explains why phobias are acquired