IDEOGRAPHIC VS NOMOTHETIC

• What is the nomothetic approach?

  Produces general laws of behaviour which provide a benchmark against which people can be classified and measured. Future behaviour can then be predicted and controlled
• what methods are favoured for nomothetic psychologists?

  experiments, correlation, questionnaires. Quantitative methods
• what do nomothetic psychologists study?

  large numbers of people in order to find ways people are similar or different
• which approaches are nomothetic?

  behaviourism, cognitive, biological
• what is the ideographic approach?

  aims to describe the nature of the individual, studies people as unique entities with their own subjective experiences, motivations and values
• does the ideographic approach use comparison?

  no, there is no attempt to compare those studied to a larger group standard or the norm
• what methods are favoured for ideographic psychology?

  qualitative methods such as case studies, self report, unstructured observation
• why do ideographic psychologists use qualitative methods?

  to gain insight into unique ways of viewing the world
• which approaches are ideographic?

  humanistic

  psychodynamic
• what is this debate about?

  HOW psychologists should study behaviour
• Evaluation point 1

  STRENGTH ideographic

  provides rich and in depth data eg HM. a single case study can pave the way for further study, so finding unique cases and studying them individually reveals important insights which contribute to understanding
• Evaluation point 2

  STRENGTH of nomothetic

  scientific, processes involved tend to mirror those employed within natural sciences, include standardised procedures, assessing reliability and validity and using statistical analysis. Arguably gives psychology greater scientific credibility
• Evaluation point 3

  LIMITATION of ideographic

  not scientific as a result they lack usefulness. understanding unique individuals with mental health problems makes it difficult to develop therapies for general use
• Evaluation point 4

  STRENGTH of nomothetic

  useful for predicting and controlling behaviour, putting early intervention in place if a person meets the criteria to become aggressive or suffer from attachment issues