Idiographic/Nomothetic

• Idiographic approaches


  Focus on the individual and emphasise the unique personal experience of human nature
• Nomothetic approaches

  • Concerned with establishing general laws, based on the study of large groups
• Describe the idiographic approach

  • Describes the nature of the individual
  • This involves the individuals own subjective experiences, motivations and values.
  • There may be no attempt made to compare these to a larger group, standard or norm
  • Unique to the individual
• What research methods use an idiographic approach?

  • Adopts qualitative research methods, by focusing on gaining insights into behaviour by studying in depth rather than gaining numerical data.
  • The focus is on the quality of the information rather than the quantity
  • Case studies, unstructured interviews, thematic analysis.
• Example of an idiographic case study

  • Shallice and Warrington examined the case of patient KF who experienced a motorbike accident.
  • KF’s short term forgetting of auditory information was greater than his forgetting of visual information, suggesting that short-term memory consists of multiple parts.
• Describe nomothetic approach

  • Involves the study of many people and then seeks to make generalisations or develop laws/theories about their behaviour
  • Generate explanations of behaviour that can be universal and generalised to the entire population
  • A benchmark against which people can be compared, classified and measured.
• What research methods does the nomothetic approach use?

  • Quantitative research methods
  • It is closely aligned with methods which are regarded as a science in psychology
  • Including experiments, which allow psychologists to conduct statistical analysis
• Examples of idiographic approaches in psychology

  • Psychodynamic approach
  • Freud uses case studies as a way of understanding human behaviour e.g Little Hans case study.
  • Consisted of 150 pages of quotes recorded by Han’s father and descriptions of events in Han’s life, along with Freud’s interpretations of the events,
  • Generalisations from his case studies were made, but these are also idiographic because they are drawn from unique individuals
• Examples of idiographic approaches in psychology

  • Humanistic approach
  • Concerned with studying the whole person and their perspective
  • Rogers and Maslow- Uniqueness of human experience instead of developing generalised laws.
  • Interested in conscious experience of the individual, cannot be scientifically tested and is personal to the individual
  • Client centred therapy- individualised approach considered the hierarchy of needs and conditions of worth which is absent from nomothetic treatments
• Examples of nomothetic approaches in psychology

  • Biological approach
  • Take a nomothetic approach when explaining psychological disorders such as OCD and Depression.
  • They pinpoint biological factors such as neurotransmitters, in the case of OCD, serotonin and dopamine that are responsible for such disorders and develop biological treatments e.g SSRI’s to treat all patients.
• Examples of nomothetic approaches in psychology

  • Behaviourist approach
  • Behaviourists e.g Pavlov and Skinner conducted experiments with animals to establish laws of learning (classical and operant conditioning) and that could be generalised to humans.
• Examples of nomothetic approaches in psychology

  • Cognitive approach
  • Atkinson and Shiffrin developed general laws such as the multi-store model of memory, established through a range of different cognitive experiments which have allowed us to infer what internal mental processes occur.
  • These established models are believed to be generalised to everyone
• One strength of the idiographic approaches is it contributes to the nomothetic approach. The idiographic approaches uses qualitative methods which provides a global description of one individual. This may complement the nomothetic approach by shedding further light on general laws or challenging such laws. Case studies like patient HM may generate hypothese for future study. This will then contribute to the development of new theories which would give us a more comprehensive view of human behaviour. Therefore, even thought the focus is on fewer individuals the idiographic approaches uses may still help to formulate scientific laws of behaviour.
• One strength of both approaches is they fit the aims of science. For example, the processes involved in nomothetic research are like natural sciences e.g establishing objectivity through standardisation, control and statistical testing. Researchers also use an idiographic approach to objectify their methods e.g triangulation is used as a way of increasing validity. Additionally, modern qualitative researchers reflect upon their biases as part of the research process, known as reflexivity. Therefore this suggests that both the nomothetic and idiographic approaches raise psychology’s status as a science.
• One limitation of the nomothetic approach is loss of understanding of the individual. The nomothetic approach focuses on general laws, prediction and control. For example knowing there is a 1% lifetime risk of developing schizophrenia tells us little about what life is like for someone who has been diagnosed with the disorder. By understanding the subjective experience of schizophrenia this may help to devise appropriate treatment options. Therefore the nomothetic approach failures to relate to the experience of a person.
• It is important to identify the 2 approaches because they are distinct. Each is appropriate in different situations for different research aims. For example, in attachment research, Schaffer’s stages describe general stages of development (nomothetic) whereas case studies of extreme neglect highlight the experience of never having formed an attachment (idiographic). However both approaches could be viewed as 2 ends of a continuum and it is better to use them this way. Million explains when diagnosing personality disorders clinicians begin with a nomothetic criteria and then use this to focus on the individual. Therefore this suggests that we can consider the same topic from a nomothetic and idiographic approaches.