idiographic & nomotethic approaches

• idiographic approach


  • puts and emphasis on the uniqueness of all individuals via their emotions, behaviours & experiences
  • subjective
  • use of qualitative data
• nomothetic approach


  • aims to find commonalities between people & tries to generalise behaviours through laws applicable to all
  • general laws
  • objective & standardised
  • quantitative data
• Idiogrpahic approach - approaches in psychology

  • humanistic approach: person-centred
  • psychodynamic approach: little hans
• nomothetic approach - approaches in psychology

  • biological approach: genetic basis of behaviour.twin studies
  • behaviourist approach: learning through conditioning

  & others
• Radford & Kirby (1975) - nomothetic

  • classification: grouped together based on behaviour

  
  

  • establishing principles: generalised theory applied to all human behaviour

  
  

  • establishing dimensions: place people on a continuum to compare with others
• examples of nomothetic approaches

  • SSRIs - treatments for OCD/depression, are applied as general law to all people

  
  

  • DSM - symptoms are applied to all, clusters can sometimes differ per person but, the over-arching symptoms are the same for all, they are generalised

  
  

  • learning theory of attachment: the way that infants become attached has been applied as general law to all
• examples of idiographic approaches

  • Maslow's hierarchy of needs: focuses on the individual and their progress to self-actualisation

  
  

  • Koluchova: twins from Czechoslovakia, case study looking at their individual development

  
  

  • Gardner & Gardner: tried to teach a chimp sign language, 32 months of records, learnt 30 signs, looks at the unique development of this chimp
• AO3:

  • idiographic: qualitative methods help understand behaviours & gives a complete account of behaviours so has use
  • idiographic: narrow & restrictive - case studies lack generalisability & representation
  • nomothetic: use highly scientific methods
  • allows for unifying laws & general principles to be reliably established - leads to certain norms