Idiographic vs Nomothetic

• key argument in idiographic vs nomothetic

  Should psychology focus on what makes us the same or what makes us unique?
• idiographic

  focuses on individuals and emphasises the uniqueness of each person - can obtain detailed information and understand behaviour better
• what kind of research methods does the idiographic approach use?

  • case studies on small groups or one person
  • self report measures
  • unstructured interviews
  • qualitative data
• evidence for the idiographic view

  • maslow’s hierarchy of needs - focuses on each individuals progress to self actualisation
  • psychodynamic - Freud’s case studies eg little hans, Dora, and wolf man
• nomothetic

  tries to formulate general laws of behaviour based on the study of groups - rules can be generalised and used to establish norms of behaviour
• what kind of research methods does the nomothetic approach use?

  • quantitative data
  • statistical analysis
  • objective
  • standardised
  • large groups
• evidence for the nomothetic view

  • behaviourism - Skinner generalised findings from operant conditioning to wider population
  • social influence - Milgram was able to establish norms of obedience and generalise to other people
• strengths of the idiographic approach

  • focus on the individual - can predict their behaviour in any situation
  • One case study can show a theory is wrong, for example KF showed that the multi store model was incorrect
  • More appropriate when it is unethical to study in other ways such as abuse or deprivation
• weaknesses of the idiographic approach

  • time consuming - takes a lot of time and money to study a person in depth
  • can’t generalise findings to other people
  • is it any practical use? - unable to produce general laws or predictions about behaviour which limits its usefulness
• strengths of the nomothetic approach

  • scientific - uses controlled methods and is objective, these can then be replicated which creates reliability
  • helped psychology to become scientific by developing laws and theories that can be empirically tested
  • can apply findings to others
• weaknesses of the nomothetic approach

  • predictions about groups may not apply to individuals
  • loses the person - preoccupied with general laws and predictions so fails to account for individual unique experiences
• combined approach

  using both helps us to have a more holistic understanding of behaviour but also allows us to identify patterns in behaviour

  e.g. memory combines evidence from both large experiments and case studies