idiographic and nomothetic

• idiographic; meaning private or personal, focuses on the individual as a meaning of understanding behaviour - doesn't generalise for wider population.

  • qualitative data
  • open-questioned interviews
  • unstructured questions and observations
• nomothetic: needs to study whole groups of people to produce general laws - allows people to compare and predict behaviour

  • classify people into groups - Eyesnck, psychotic and neurotic OR attachment types, secure
  • principle of behaviour - conformity, obedience
  • conduct structured interviews
  • closed questions for large samples
  • quantitive data
• nomothetic is REDUCTIONIST: reducing it down to basic units to provide a specific and generalised law for specific behaviours

  nomothetic is DETERMINISTIC: applied to large groups with larger generalised laws, cannot change predetermined behaviour within laws
• evaluation of nomothetic approach:

  strength:

  • scientific credibility, controlled environment within a lab, valid results that can be used

  weakness:

  • loss of an individual and meaning behind them, preoccupied with the general laws with fails to relate to experiences
• evaluation of idiographic approach:

  strength:

  • good starting point for generating further research
  • detail and depth, valid and accurate information

  weakness;

  • subjective, can only be applied to those with specific conditions such as OCD
• idiographic; maslow's hierarchy of needs

  nomothetic; learning theory of attachment