7. idiographic & nomothetic

define idiographic

• derived from the greek ‘idios’ meaning private or personal

• an approach to research that focuses more on the individual case as a means of understanding behaviour

define nomothetic

• derived from greek word ‘nomos’ meaning law

• approach that attempts to study human behaviour in large samples through the development of general principles and universal laws

outline the idiographic approach

• attempts to describe the nature of the individual

• people are studies as unique entities, each with their own subjective experiences

• associated with methods that produce qualitative data e.g. unstructured interviews, case studies etc

• this reflects the central aim of ideographic research: describe the richness of human experience and gain insight into the persons unique way of viewing the world

examples of the idiographic approach in psychology - humanistic

• best example of the idiographic perspective

• Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow were interested only in documenting the conscious experience of the individual or 'self'.

• Describe themselves as ‘anti-scientific'.

• Investigate unique experience ‘on its own merits' rather than producing general laws of behaviour

example 2: psychodynamic approach

• often labelled 'idiographic' because of Sigmund Freud‘s use of the case study method when detailing the lives of his patients.

• However, Freud also assumed he had identified universal laws of behaviour and personality development (which is more akin to a nomothetic approach).

• e.g. stages of development, concept of the tripartite system

strengths for the idiographic approach: in depth

• In-depth qualitative methods of investigation give a complete and global account of the individual.

• Findings from brain damaged patients e.g. HM may reveal important insights about normal functioning which may contribute to our overall understanding

• e.g. without this case study we wouldn’t know the different types of memory: episodic, semantic and procedural

weaknesses for the idiographic approach - generalisations can’t be made

• Idiographic psychologists recognise the narrow and restricted nature of their work.

• One of the criticisms of Freud is that many of his key concepts, like the Oedipus complex, were largely developed from the detailed study of a single case (Little Hans).

• so Meaningful generalisations cannot be made.

weaknesses of the idiographic approach - less scientific

• Case studies are less scientific in that conclusions often rely on the subjective interpretation of the researcher and therefore are open to bias.

outline the nomothetic approach

• The main aim of the nomothetic approach is to produce general laws of human behaviour.

• These provide a 'benchmark' against which people can be compared, classified and measured.

• Based on this, future behaviour can be predicted and/or controlled.

• This approach is associated with methods that would be regarded as 'scientific'. E.g. lab experiments,

nomothetic approach in psychology

• The nomothetic approach tends to be a feature of those approaches that are reductionist, determinist and employ scientific methods of investigation.

• Hypotheses are formulated, tested under controlled conditions and findings generated from large numbers of people (or animals) are analysed for their statistical significance

• Much of the research conducted by behaviourist, cognitive and biological psychologists would meet the criteria of the nomothetic approach

examples - behaviourists

• Skinner and the behaviourists studied the responses of hundreds of rats, cats, pigeons, etc. in order to develop the laws of learning

examples - cognitive approach

• Cognitive psychologists have been able to infer the structure and processes of human memory by measuring the performance of large samples of people in laboratory tests

examples - biological approach

• Biological psychologists have conducted brain scans on countless human brains in order to make generalisations about localisation of function

what do these examples show

• In each of these cases, hypotheses are rigorously tested, statistically analysed and general laws and principles are proposed.

strengths for the nomothetic approach - more scientific

• Nomothetic research is more scientific - research is under standardised conditions, using data sets that provide group averages, statistical analysis, prediction and control.

• Such processes have enabled psychologists to establish norms of ‘typical’ behaviour (e.g average IQ of 100), arguably giving the discipline of psychology greater scientific credibility

weaknesses of the nomothetic approach - loses the individual

• The nomothetic approaches preoccupation with general laws, prediction and control has been accused of ‘losing the whole person’ within psychology.

• E.g. Knowing that there is a 1% lifetime risk of developing schizophrenia tells us little about what life is like for someone who is suffering from the disorder- we lose the subjective experience of the sufferer.

• This means, in its search for generalities, the nomothetic approach may sometimes overlook the richness of human experience.

ao3 - complementary rather than contradictory

• Rather than seeing idiographic and nomothetic approaches as mutually exclusive ‘either/or’ alternatives, it is possible to consider the same issue or topic from both perspectives, depending on the nature of the research question

• The goal of modern psychology is to provide rich, detailed descriptions of human behaviour within the framework of general laws