Idiographic and Nomothetic

Idiographic

An approach to research aiming to understand the individual and their experience. Theory prefers qualitative methods like case studies

Nomothetic

An approach to research aiming to identify general laws of behaviour. Theory prefers quantitative methods like experiments

Idiographic Examples

• Humanistic psychology - Rogers and Maslow took a phenomenological approach to studying people and were only concerned with their conscious experience

  • Psychodynamic psychology - Uses idiographic methods such as case studies

Nomothetic Examples

• Behaviourism

• Cognitive approach

  • Biological approach I

Idiographic Evaluation

• Global account of the individual

• Narrow and restrictive, limiting generalisability

• Less scientific and objective

Nomothetic evaluation

• Highly scientific

• Establishing laws of behaviour can allow for the development of treatments

  • Fails to account for the whole person

Complementary rather than contradictory

The approaches can actually complement one another to allow for both understanding of the individual experience and a wider understanding of general laws of behaviour