Idiographic/ nomothetic

• Nomothetic approach


  Studying a large sample in order to formulate a general law. Generates quantitative data
• Idiographic data


  Belief in the uniqueness if individuals, research based in small groups to generate qualitative data
• Example of ideographic research


  Case study of Clive wearing
• Examples of Nomothetic research


  Skinners research into animals to develop general laws of learning
• strength of ideographic research

  an in depth, qualitative method of investigation provides a complete account of an individual. can also work well with nomothetic research to add understanding and detail to general laws
• limitation idiographic approach

  offers only a narrow and restricted view of behaviour, no meaningful generalisation can/should be made without further validation, relies on subjective interpretation
• strengths of nomothetic review

  a more scientific approach so data can be analysed qualitatively and tested under standardised empirical methods, have enabled psychologists to determine general laws of behaviour.
• limitations of nomothetic approach


  accused of losing the whole picture, overlooks the richness of human experience, e.g knowing 1% risk of schizophrenia tells us very little about how it's like to live with the illness. in lab experiments people are treated as a number/ score and their subjective experience is ignore