Idiographic approach

• The idiographic approach aims to describe the nature of the individual
• People are studied as unique entities with their own subjective experiences, motivations and values. There is no attempt to compare these to a larger group standard or norm
• The idiographic approach is associated with methods in psychology that product qualitative data (e.g. case studies, unstructured interviews and other self-report measures). This reflects one of the central aims of idiographic research- to describe the richness of human experience and gain insight into the person's unique way of viewing the world
• Example of the idiographic approach: humanistic psychology

  The best example of the idiographic approach. Rogers and Maslow were interested only in documenting the conscious experience of the individual or 'self', rather than producing general laws of behaviour
• Example of the idiographic approach: psychodynamic approach

  Often thought of as idiographic because of Freud's use of the case study method. But Freud also assumed he had identified universal laws of behaviour and personality development (the language off the nomothetic approach)