Idiographic vs Nomothetic

Qualitative methods approach?

Humanistic approach (Maslow, Rogers)

Psychodynamic approach (Freud)

Qualitative methods examples - Freud

Freud’s (1909) case study of Little Hans. Consisted of 150 pages of quotes recorded regarding Little Han’s life events. Freud included his own interpretations of these events. Freud produced generalisations from these however they are idiographic as they were drawn from unique individuals

Qualitative methods examples Anna O

another case study conducted by Freud whereby she experienced hallucinations such as those of snakes + skeletons, + would wake anxiously from her daytime sleep with cries of “tormenting, tormenting”. Frued claimed that Anna O’s symptoms were directly related to her heartbreak over her father’s death, particularly cuz of the incestuous, sexual fantasies she had towards him. Freud then produced generalisations from these about progression + fixation through psychosexual stages

Qualitative methods examples Humanistic psychologists

such as Maslow use idiographic approach when explaining motivational needs towards achieving self-actualisation

Qualitative methods idiographic ao1

focuses in individual case as means of understanding behaviour

emphasies uniqueness in individuals

favours qualitative research methods

Qualitative methods idiographic ao1 idiographic appraoch involves the study of

individuals and unique insights each individual gives us about human behaviour
therefore approach is qualitative cuz focus is on gaining insights into human behabiour by studying unique individuals in order to understand human behaviour

in order to do this successfully idiographic appraoch uses qualitative research methods such as unstructured interviews, case studies + thematic analysis

Quantitative methods approach?

biological approach (Darwin, Holland)

Behavioural approach (Skinner, Pavlov)
Cognitive approach (Beck, Ellis)

Quantitative methods idiographic ao1

focuses on studying groups as means of understanding behaviour

seeks to formulate general laws of behaviour that can apply to groups of people

attempts to summarise the difference between people through generations

favours quantitative research methods + use of statistical techniques

Quantitative methods idiographic ao1 nomothetic involves the study of

a large number of people + then seeks to make generalisations or to develop laws/theories about their behaviour. This is also goal of scientific approach.

Therefore approach is quantitative as it attempts to establish cause + effect relationships which may involve thousands of ppts

in order to do this successfully, nomothetic approach uses quantitative data to complete graphs so measures of central tendency, dispersion + statistical analysis can be completed

Quantitative methods examples - biological approach

portrays basic principles of how body + brain work then findings are generalised to all people. e.g., principles of stress response was initially studied using just men + then it was assumed that these processes would be same in women. Studies such Holland, used large samples of twins to investigate mental health disorders

Quantitative methods examples - behaviourist approach

produced general laws of behaviour around classical and operant conditioning + then these principles have been applied to all human behaviour e.g., Pavlov used large samples of dogs to investigate classical conditioning + then applied the findings to humans

Quantitative methods examples - cognitive approach

also aims to develop general laws of behaviour which apply to all people, such as understanding typical memory + information processes

+ Focus on the individual (Idiographic)

Allport (1961)

argued that psychologists had lost sight of what it was to be human + that there was too much focus on measurement. He suggested that it is only by knowing a person as an individual that we can predict what a person will do in situation

suggest that focus on individuals can provide us with a more complete understanding

however, other would argue that as the idiographic approach focuses on case studies, meaningful generalisations cannot be made without further examples

+ Scientific (Nomothetic)

when approach is based on scientific + objective measures that are controlled + rigorous + allow for replications

e.g., nomothetic approach utilises standard procedures, which can be assessed for both their validity + reliability + further analysed by statistical tests to check for significance

suggest that taking nomothetic approach to research gives psychology greater scientific credibility

Interactionist approach best approach conducting research

a theory recognises the interaction of both sides of a debate as they both contribute to behaviour so a combination of the two is the most appropriate in explaining and treating behaviour.

This is because it is important to understand general laws about mental health disorders, such as knowing 1% of population have schizophrenia (nomothetic). However, schizophrenic symptoms may differ between patients and therefore we need to look at each schizophrenic individual to gain a more detailed understanding (idiographic)

This highlights the importance of taking an interactionist approach when considering both idiographic + nomothetic approaches to conducting research within Psychology

Findings of Phineas Gage could be considered idiographic as the findings were

derived from one case study of one individual who suffered damage to the pre-frontal cortex. However, it could also be considered nomothetic as biological psychologists have since generalised the findigns from Phineas Gage to suggest that everyone’s PFC is involved in inhibiting anger etc.