Nonothetic Vs Idiographic

What is an idiographic approach?

Focuses on individual cases rather than formulating general rules

What Focuses on individual cases rather than formulating general rules?

Idiographic approach

What is the nomothetic approach?

Attempts to study human behaviour through general principles and universal laws

What Attempts to study human behaviour through general principles and universal laws

Nomothetic approach

3 methods idiographic uses

-Case studies

-Unstructured interviews

-Thematic analysis

What is

-Case studies

-Unstructured interviews

-Thematic analysis

2 methods idiographic uses

Idiographic doesnt

generalise

Example of idiographic

Humanism self-actualisation

Idiographic studies people as

subjective, unique entities

Strength of idiographic

Provides a complete and global account of individual

Strength of idiographic - Provides a complete and global account of individual

P: Provides a complete and global account of individual

E: May complement nomothetic by shedding further light on general rules and challenging them

C: Single cases may generate hypothesis for further study, contributing to overall understanding of psychological phenomena

Limitation of idiographic

Supporters still need to recognise narrow and restricted nature of work

Limitation of idiographic - Supporters still need to recognise narrow and restricted nature of work

P: Supporters need to recognise narrow and restricted nature of work

E: Meaningful generalisations cant be made without further examples coz need a baseline to compare behaviour with. Eg: Freud’s theories made from single case studies

C: Less scientific + subjective interpretation of researcher

Nomothetic can be

generalised to a wider population

3 methods nomothetic uses

-Experiments

-Correlational research

-Psychometric testing

What is

-Experiments

-Correlational research

-Psychometric testing

3 methods nomothetic uses

How does nomothetic work?

Study of larger number of people to establish ways they’re similar and different eg:

Classifying ppl in groups

DSM-5 and ICD-10

2 types of general laws in nomothetic

Establishing principles = Focus of establishing laws and principles that can be applied to human behaviour ie: behaviourism

Establishing dimensions = Attempt to document continuums to place an individual on for comparison to others

What is

Establishing principles

Establishing dimensions

2 general laws of nomothetic

What is establishing principles?

Establish laws and principles that can be applied to human behaviour ie: behaviourism

What is

Establish laws and principles that can be applied to human behaviour ie: behaviourism

Establishing principles

What is establishing dimensions?

Attempt to document continuums to place an individual on for comparison with others

What is

Attempt to document continuums to place an individual on for comparison with others

Establishing dimensions

Strength of nomothetic

Research tends to be scientific

Strength of nomothetic - Research tends to be scientific

P: Research tends to be scientific

E: Behaviour tested under standardisation using data sets that provide group averages, stat analysis and predictions

C: Gives psychology better scientific credibility

Limitaion of nomothetic

General laws lose the whole person within psychology

Limitation of nomothetic - General laws lose whole person within psychology

P: General laws lose the whole person within psychology

E: Ps treated as scores not individuals. Eg knowing there’s a 1% chance of developing SZ tells us little of what life is like with the disorder

C: Nomothetic may overlook richness of human experience