Idiographic & Nomothetic Approaches

• Idiographic Approach:

  • Focuses on individual cases in understanding behaviour- emphasises uniqueness & treating each individual on a case-by-case basis.
  • Method of study: qualitative methods- case studies, unstructured interviews, thematic analysis.
• Example of Idiographic Approach:

  • Humanist psychologists believe that a person's subjective experience is more important to gain an understanding of humans than a universal generalisation.
  • Freud conducted very detailed investigations into the lives of his patients in an attempt to understand & help them overcome their psychological disorders.
• Nomothetic Approach:

  • Focuses on studying groups of people to understand behaviour- aims to produce general laws that can be universally applied.
  • Method of study: quantitative methods- experiments, correlational analysis, psychometric testing.
• Example of Nomothetic Approach:

  • Biological psychologists take a nomothetic approach when explaining psychological disorders such as OCD & depression.
  • They typically pinpoint biological factors such as neurotransmitters, that are responsible for such disorders & use biological therapies (eg drugs) to treat all patients.
• Evaluation for Idiographic & Nomothetic Approaches- strength:

  • The nomothetic approach is considered scientific; the use of controlled, experimental methods with large samples of PPs that allow for establishing cause & effect in human behaviours, are massive strengths of the nomothetic viewpoint- this ensures psychology can be seen as a science, because the controlled methods allow for replication & therefore examination of the reliability of the findings.
  • Being a science is good for psychology's credibility.
• Evaluation for Idiographic & Nomothetic Approaches- :/:

  • The idiographic approach can also be highly scientific in its methodology.
  • Though humanists have been criticised for a lack of evidence, other idiographic approaches have used case studies & content analysis to produce objective observations.
  • This indicates that despite criticism, the idiographic approach can produce robust, well-researched conclusions, which contribute to good science.
• Evaluation for Idiographic & Nomothetic Approaches- weakness:

  • Lack of applicability from an idiographic approach means it has limited use compared to the nomothetic approach.
  • As idiographic research only applies to the individual being investigated, it means there is no way of producing generalisations about how others may behave.
  • This is an issue because such generalisations have formed the basis of treatment for mental illnesses, eg SSRIs.
  • It would not be possible, in terms of both time & money, to produce unique therapies for each individual.
  • This indicates that the idipgraphic approach has limited usefulness in both the understanding & treatment of individuals, therefore undermining its credibility.