Idiographic and Nomothetic approaches to psych investigation

• Idiographic approach - an approach to research that focuses more on the individual case as a way of understanding behaviour
• Nomothetic approach - studies of groups of people to produce general laws of human behaviour
• Idiographic approach

  > The idiographic approach sees individuals as unique, each with their own subjective experiences, motivations and values

  > Associated with qualitative data such as case studies, unstructured interviews and self-report methods

  > The Psychodynamic approach can also be seen as ‘idiographic’ as much of Freud’s work involved the use of the case study method.

  > However, he did assume he identified ‘universal laws’ of behaviour and personality development which is a more nomothetic approach
• Nomothetic approach

  > The main aim of the nomothetic approach is to produce general laws of human behaviour.

  > It mainly will be associated with methods that produce large amounts of quantitative data and that are scientific within psychology

  > These involve large samples of people representative of the population to establish the ways we are similar to each other

  > Biological psychologists conduct brain scans to make generalisations about localisation of function
• Idiographic AO3

  :( Lack internal validity

  > . Idiographic approaches use methods such as case studies and self-reports which tend to be subjective and open to bias

  > Unlike nomothetic approaches which use objective and empirical methods such as lab experiments and controlled observations to collect data on human behaviour

  > Can lower credibility of the idiographic approach in comparison to the nomothetic approach which may be more respected by scientists and the general public due to their factual and scientific nature.
• Idiographic AO3

  :) In-depth qualitative methods provide rich data

  > It focuses just on the individual and their unique experience.

  > For example, the case study of Clive Wearing gave valuable insight into brain damaged individuals and amnesia and giving us supporting how our memory has separate stores

  > Unlike the nomothetic approach which use large samples and therefore cannot find out in-depth/rich information about single cases

  > Suggesting that the idiographic approach is a more effective approach for helping us understand the reasons behind human behaviour
• I/N AO3

  :( Nothing is ever truly nomothetic or idiographic

  > Regardless of the method used, generalisations will be made and whilst people are unique individuals there are more similarities

  > Humanism, conducts research studies where they study the whole person from the participants own frame of reference but when PCT was developed it made generalisations that all people need to experience empathy, unconditional positive regard and congruence

  > Researchers shouldn’t compare the relative benefits of each as a whole, rather than what each can give to understanding human experience.