Idiographic and nomothetic approaches

• Idiographic approach - Describe nature of the individual

  • Aim: Describe richness of human experience and gain insight into the persons unique way of viewing the world
  • Associated methods that produce qualitative data - Case studies + unstructured interviews + other self-report measures
• Nomothetic approach - Produce general laws of human behaviour

  • Aligns with methods that are scientific e.g. experiments
  • 'Benchmark' which people can be compared, measured etc. - Basis which future behaviour can be predicted / controlled
  • Large number of studies establishing which people are similar
• Examples of the idiographic approach in psychology

  Humanistic psychology:

  • Roger and Maslow - Phenomenological approach to the study of humans + Only document the conscious experience of the person
  • Anti-scientific self description - Psychologists more concerned investigating unique experience than general laws of behaviour

  Psychodynamic approach:

  • Freud - Case study method however assumed identification of universal laws of behaviour and personality development
• Examples of the nomothetic approach in psychology

  • Reductionist + Determinist approach - Scientific methods of investigation
  • Formulation of hypotheses - Controlled conditions + generated findings from large samples analysed for statical significance

  Behaviourist + Cognitive + Biological approach:

  • Skinner - Studies behaviours of thousands of animals to develop laws of learning

  Cognitive approach:

  • Infer structure and processes of human memory - Measure performance of large samples of human brains - Create generalisation of localisation of function
• Evaluation for the idiographic approach

  • Complete and global account - Qualitative methods
  • More light on general laws or challenging laws - Complete the nomothetic approach

  E.g.

  • One case generating a hypotheses for more study - HM
  • Findings revealing important insights about normal functioning - Help with overall understanding
• Evaluation against the idiographic approach

  • Narrow and restricted nature of work
  • Freud's Oedipus complex - From one case study (Little Hans) - Lack meaning with one case and cannot compare
  • Methods e.g. case studies - Least scientific - Based on subjective interpretation of researcher (May mean bias)
• Evaluation for the nomothetic approach

  • More scientific - Mirror the natural sciences - Tests in standardised conditions, data sets giving group averages, statistical analysis etc.
  • Able to establish norms of behaviour - Greater scientific credibility for psychology
• Evaluation against the nomothetic approach

  • Accused of forgetting the whole person as a whole
  • Knowing 1% risk to develop schizophrenia - Little told about people who are experiencing it
  • Lab studies e.g. of memory - Ppts treated as scores rather than individuals + Subjective experience ignored

  Limitation: Overlooks the richness of human experiences