idiographic vs nomothetic

• main question?

  • which is the best way to investigate behaviour?
• nomothetic summary?

  • attempts to generalise people
  • uses objective knowledge
  • based on numerical data/data that can be categorised
• idiographic summary?

  • focuses on recognition of uniqueness
  • uses subjective experiences
  • based on study of uniqueness of indivdual
• what is idiographic approach?

  • when an explanation considers individual & suggests everyone is unique
  • suggests we CANNOT generalise to other people from one study
  • theres no universal law which explains everyone behaviour as everyone is different
  • not likely to use large samples of people - doesnt have to be representative of everyone as everyone has individual characteristics
  • perfers qualitative methods - involve person being able to express their thoughts & feelings giving rich detailed data to enable greater insight into that ONE person
• research methods suitable for idiographic approach?

  1. case studies - only look at one person/small group in detail - uses multiple methods - interviews/experiments/observations
  2. unstructured interviews - uses open questions so provides rich detailed qualitative data
• idiographic appraoch in humanistic approach?

  • treats everyone unique & does not form general laws abour human behaviour other than we all strive for self-actualisation
  • humanistic counsellers uses qualitative techniques to gather info on their clients & help them achieve self-actualisation
  • everyone is unique & no general laws formed!!
• what is nomothetic approach?

  • explanation suggests that people can be regarded as groups based on characteristics/traits
  • suggests there are general laws of human behaviour which apply to everyone
  • studies & theories are generalisable to other people
  • likely to use large samples - random/stratified - representative of everyone so it has high population validity & general laws of behaviour
  • uses quantitative methods as it can analyse large samples of data to draw conclusions which apply to many
  • testable hypothesis
• research methods suitable for nomothetic approach?

  1. lab experiments - likely to be scientific - controls evs
• nomothetic approach in attachment?

  • ainsworth devised strange situation to create attachment types
  • controlled & standardised procedure was used to observe large samples of mother-infant dyads & to categorise into 3 attachment types
  • procedure was used to create huger amount of quantitative fara on attachment types & has been used to form general laws about attachment & to form testable hypotheses about attachment types in other cultures
• X lacks generalisability - idiographic?

  • eg in case of little hans freuds idiographic app to explaining his phobia helped hans but so specific to his experiences that its little use to anyone elses phobias
  • so this app tends to be less useful than more nomothetic app to explaining behaviour
  • important as goal of most research within psych is to understand behavior & be able to help ppl
  • eg those suffering from mental health disorders through developing treatment
  • due to subjective nature of RM used - inaccurate way of investigatin behaviour & less reliable for establishing causal relationships
• X lacks individual detail - nomothetic?

  • eg milgram investigated obedience to authority using nomothetic app & found 65% obeyed upto full 450v
  • doesnt explain why 35% didnt obey
  • use of large samples & quantitative methods doesnt give as much detail as sometimes may require
  • important as it means nom app does not always provide fully complete & valid explanation of all human behaviour
  • more holistic approach to studying behaviour which involves combo of both idio & nom is appropriate
• * scientific - nomothetic?

  • eg davis metanalysis looked at effectiveness of antipsychotic drugs on sz patients
  • used large random & rep sample & used standardised controls to get fair measure of whether drugs worked/not
  • means get more scientific & valid understanding of effectiveness of ap drugs than id idio app used
  • important as psychologists need to ensure therapies tested in most controlled manner & effectivness is measured using rep sample not just on few individuals
  • practical applications - accurate in suggesting theres general laws about behaviour - helped alot of ppl within society