Idiographic and Nomothetic

• Idiographic: detailed study of one individual or one group to provide in depth understanding.
• Nomothetic :study of larger groups with the aim of discovering norms, universal principles or laws of behaviour
• Idiographic

  -humanistic, psychodynamic

  • case studies, self report, unstructured interviews qualitative means of investigation private, subjective and conscious experiences

  • faces on individual & recognition of uniqueness

  • generalisations may be produced on findings eg. HM
• Nomothetic

  -behaviourist, cognitive, biological

  • experiments

  • quantitative means of investigation objective knowledge through scientific methods

  • attempts to establish laws & generalisations about people
• Idiographic

  Rogers' concept of counselling was based on his work as a therapist. His theory on the role of unconditional positive regard in self development was based on the in depth study of his clients. Freud’s explanation of phobias was based on the Little Hans case study.
• Nomothetic

  Skinner studied animals to develop general laws of learning. Sperry's split brain research included repeated testing and was the basis for understanding hemispheric lateralisation.
• The idiographic approach tends to not believe that objectivity is possible in pychological research. Its people’s individual experiences of their unique context that is important.
• The nomothetic approach seeks standardised methods of assessing people. This ensures true replication occurs across samples of behaviour and removes the influence of bias.