idiographic + nomothetic approaches

• idiographic approach

  approach that focuses more on the individual case as a mean of understanding behaviour rather than aiming to formulate general laws of behaviour.
• nomothetic approach

  approach that aims to study human behaviour through the development of general principles and universal laws.

  looks for patterns + laws
• strength of idiographic approach - qualitative data

  • qualitative data produces an in-depth account of an individual
  • e.g. HM and Clive Wearing case studies
• limitation of idiographic approach - narrow perspective

  • theories developed from case studies are hard to generalise which reduces the ecological validity
  • doesn't improve scientific credibility
• strength of nomothetic - scientific

  • uses standardised conditions and has a high level of control of extraneous + confounding variables.
  • constituent parts of target behaviour can be reliably measured through use of operationalised behavioural categories.
  • increases internal validity
• strength - complete account

  • research starts with nomothetic approach to produce general laws
  • research further from an individual case study may give more depth to the approach