Nomothetic vs idiographic

Nomothetic

Study human behaviour through general priniciples and universal laws using quantitative data

Advantages of nomothetic

As quantitative data is easier to collect psychologist can generalise as we have more data available in less time

Objective as we reduce subjective bias

Scientific

Disadvantages of the nomothetic approach

Idiographic is more realistic to the real world as it ignores individual human experience

Idiographic

Aims to describe the nature of the individual through collecting qualitative data

Advantages of idiographic

Rich and detailed data- creates a more valid perspective on human experience

Limitation of the idiographic approach

Time consuming to collect data

Unscientific compared to nomothetic approach