Evaluation

• Complete account

  - strength to idiographic- contributes to nomothetic approach

  - qualitative methods provide a global description of one individual.

  - may shed light on general laws or challenge them.

  - single case may generate hypotheses for further study.
• Counterpoint to complete account

  - supporters of idiographic should acknowledge the restricted nature of their work.

  - meaningful generalisations cannot be made without further examples as there would be no baseline with which to compare behaviour.

  - methods tend to be less scientific as often rely on subjectives.
• Losing the person

  1. Limitation to nomothetic- loss of understanding of individual

  - preoccupied with general laws and control- accused of losing the whole person.

  - 1% risk of developing schizophrenia tells us little about what life is like for someone with the dirdoer.

  - understanding experience might be useful when devising appropriate treatment options