Idiographic and nomothetic debate

the focus is on the individual and their own unique experiences. it emphasises the unique aspect of each person, aiming to understand the specific and subjective experiences that shape behaviour.

what is the ideographic side of the debate?

this is concerned with establishing general/ common laws of behaviour that apply to large groups of people.

what is the nomothetic side of the approach?

Qualitative research

• Case studies

• Unstructured interviews

• Self-report measures (using open questions to discover individual experiences of a situation)

• Diaries

• Focus groups

what type of research methods are favoured by the ideographic side of the debate?

Quantitative research

• Experiments

• Correlational data

• Psychometric data (personality and IQ tests)

• Questionnaires (large-scale sample and closed questions)

what type of research methods are favoured by the nomothetic side of the debate?

nomothetic

which side of the debate concerns itself with the three concepts of common law?

• Classifying people into groups such as through the use of the DSM-5 (symptoms lead to a diagnosis)

• Establishing principles of behaviour that can be applied to people in general e.g. classical conditioning

• Establishing dimensions along which people can be placed e.g. IQ scores where people’s IQ can be compared and measured easily

what are the three types of common law?

1. The modern goal of psychology is to provide rich, detailed descriptions of human behaviour in addition to providing explanations of human behaviours.

2. So therefore, nomothetic general laws are attempted to be made within a psychological topic using scientific experiments but ideographic case studies often sit alongside these to understand the topic more in depth.

Complementary research

1. What is the modern goal of psychology?

2. How does this link to the debate?

complementary research

what concept describes the mix between an ideographic and nomothetic approach?

• Cognitive psychologists

• Bowlby’s 44 thieves study

• Freud’s psychodynamic approach

what are the three examples of complementary research?

Cognitive psychologists have created general laws of memory models which are applied to everyone. However, case studies (such as KF and HM) add specific detail to the understanding of memory.

what is the complementary research talked about by cognitive psychologists?

Freud analysed case studies (e.g. Little Hans) but created a general law of behaviour based on Freud applying the findings from this case study onto others.

what is the complementary research given by Freud’s psychodynamic approach?

Bowlby’s 44 Thieves study is an example of ideographic research as it was based on a series of detailed case studies involving interviews with children and parents over many months. The data was used to produce generalisations about early development.

what is the complementary research given by Bowlby’s 44 thieves study?