Nomothetic & Idiographic

• Nomothetic - attempts to study behaviour through development of general principles and universal laws - large groups and quantitative techniques e.g experiments, correlations
• Nomothetic approach - bio approach - bio therapies such as drugs to treat all patients
• Idiographic - focuses on the individual case to understand behaviour
• Idiographic - qualitative methods e.g case studies and unstructured interviews to gain in depth insight into individual
• Nomothetic - considered scientific - useful for predicting and controlling behaviour e.g use the approach to explain OCD by increase in dopamine and decrease in serotonin. Drugs then developed which help improve peoples lives.
• Nomothetic - drugs not successful for all so an idiographic approach (CBT) may be needed