Idiographic & Nomothetic

• The Nomothetic approach looks at how our behaviours are similar to each other as human beings.
• Nomothetic approaches are the study of people in groups.
• Nomothetic approaches aim to establish laws or generalisations for all human behaviours.
• The nomothetic approach is seen as far more scientific than the idiographic approach.
• The nomothetic approach may not be as valid as the idiographic approach as it fails to consider individual differences.
• The Idiographic approach looks at how our behaviours are different to each other (individual differences).
• Psychologists interested in taking an idiographic approach want to discover what makes each of us unique.
• Idiographic approaches tend to be more valid as they give a true insight into that behaviour.
• Nomothetic approaches tend to be more reliable as they focus more on making objective, generalisations based on observable or measurable factors.
• Nomothetic approaches collect more quantitative data.
• Idiographic approaches collect more qualitative data.
• The idiographic approach is very time consuming when compared to the nomothetic approach.
• Experiments, correlation, psychometric testing and other quantitative methods are favoured from a nomothetic point of view.
• Case studies, informal interviews, unstructured observation and other qualitative methods are idiographic approaches.
• Millon & Davis (1996) suggest research should start with a nomothetic approach and once general ‘laws’ have been established, research can then move to a more idiographic approach.
• Humanistic Psychology is very interested in the individual and their free will, so adopts an idiographic approach.
• Behaviourist, cognitive and biological psychologists tend to focus on discovering laws or establishing generalisations, so take a nomothetic approach.
• The idiographic approach contributes to the nomothetic approach by providing information about the individuals within the groups.
• The nomothetic approach uses more scientific methods, standardisation and control, giving the approach more scientific credibility.
• The idiographic approach focuses more on the subjective experience of the individual, which can have more useful applications in real life.