Idiographic and Nomothetic Approaches

• Rather than seeing idiographic and nomothetic approaches as mutually exclusive, it is possible to consider the issue from both perspectives. For example, Shaffer’s stages of attachment are nomothetic suggesting that all children go through the stages in the same order. But Bowlby’s 44 thieves' study is idiographic as it was based on a series of detailed case studies showing what can happen during early development. Considering both approaches together will provide rich, detailed descriptions of human behaviour as well as the explanation of such behaviour within the framework of general laws.