idiographic and nomothetic

idiographic - definition

the approach of investigating individuals in personal, in-depth detail to achieve a unique understanding of them assumes - people are all different and the differences are qualitative.

• no general laws of behaviour are possible due to existence of chance and free will

• does not exclude numerical measurements, however, it is not the focus of the approach

idiographic - methodology

• qualitative data, the idiographic approach is associated with methods in psychology that produce qualitative date.

• this reflects one of the central aims of the idiographic research - to describe the richness of human experience and gain insight into the person’s unique way of viewing the world.

Idiographic - example

• Humanistic psychology is the best example of the idiographic approach. Rogers and Maslow were interested only in documenting the conscious experience of the individual or self, rather than producing general laws of behaviour.

• The psychodynamic approach is often thought of as idiographic because of Freud’s use of the case study method. But Freud also assumed he had identified universal laws of behaviour and personality development (nomothetic approach)

nomothetic - definition

the approach of investigating large groups of people in order to find general laws of behaviour that apply to everyone.

assumes - groups of people are pretty much the same, they are homogenous; any differences are quantitative. they provide a benchmark against which people can be compared, classified and measured.

nomothetic - methodology

• quantitative research - this approach is closely associated with methods defined as reliable and scientific within psychology.

• they involve the study of larger numbers of people to establish how people are similar

nomothetic - example

• As previously stated, this approach looks at findings from large numbers of people. These findings are analysed for statistical significance.

• Behaviourist, cognitive and biological research would meet the criteria of the nomothetic approach. i.e. Skinner studied animals to develop general laws of learning (see behaviourism in approaches)

• Questionnaires that test characteristics such as personality or IQ are used to diagnose abnormality and predict behaviour.

nomothetic evaluation - considered as scientific

• the use of experimental (quantitative) methods, controlled measurement and the ability to predict behaviour are all strengths of the nomothetic approach.

• this matters because controlled methods allow psychologists to replicate research to examine the reliability of findings, which has helped psychology establish itself as a scientific discipline.

idiographic evaluation - strength

• the case of patient KF (Shallice and Warrington) exposed a limitation of the multi-store model of memory, by providing evidence that our STM comprises of at least two components (auditory and visual memory) and not one as stipulated by Atkinson and Shiffrin.

• consequently a single case study can generate further research into a particular phenomenon which contributed to the development of new theories highlighting a strength of the idiographic approach of psychological investigations.