Idiographic & Nomothetic

• The Idiographic approach involves obtaining lots of detailed information about individuals
• The Idiographic approach uses small numbers of participants and qualitative research e.g. interviews, case studies
• The Idiographic approach links to the humanistic and psychodynamic approaches
• The Idiographic approach is subjective which reduces its scientificity
• The Nomethetic approach involves the study of large and varied groups to make generalisations
• The Nomothetic approach used quantitative research
• The Nomethetic approach is objective so is aligned with the scientific method
• The Nomethetic approach links to the biological and behaviourist approaches
• The Idiographic approach can contribute to the nomathetic by providing more specific detail on a broad topic
• The Idiopgraphic approach is more holistic whereas the Nomathetic can be reductionist
• The Idiographic approach is time-consuming
• The Idiopgraphic approach contributes to therapies e.g. client-focused therapy derived from the humanistic approach
• The Nomothetic approach contributes to the development of drugs
• The Nomothetic approach helps in coming up with laws (classes, principles, dimensions)
• The Nomothetic approach produces more representative samples but loses understanding of the individual
• In practice many fields combine the idiographic and nomothetic approaches successfully e.g. NHS enabling general treatments to be tailored to the individual