5.6. Idiographic vs Nomothetic

Question 1

What is idiographic?

Answer 1

• Detailed study of one individual or one group
• Provide an in depth understanding

Question 2

What doesn’t idiographic do?

Answer 2

Formulate general laws of behaviour

Question 3

Idiographic types of methods

Answer 3

Qualitative methods
- Focus on insight into human behaviour by studying unique individuals
- Focus on quality of info not numerical data to form averages.
- Unstructured interviews, case studies, thematic analysis

Question 4

Idiographic example: psychodynamic

Answer 4

• Freud used case studies such as Little Hans
• 150 pages of quotes from Hans’ father which Freud put his interpretation on these.

Question 5

Idiographic example: humanism

Answer 5

• Concerned with studying the whole person, and seeing the world from the perspective of that person.
• The person’s subjective experience is what matters.

Question 6

Idiographic example: research methods

Answer 6

Allport believed that the idiographic perspective could tell us more about human behaviour and personality than conducting a personality test - only provides statistical information

Question 7

How would an idiographic approach be carried out?

Answer 7

• Researcher would test a small sample
• Involves a collection of large amounts of data about a small group or individual from various different methods
• Analysis would involve qualitative methods
• Enables greater insight

Question 8

What does nomothetic aim to do?

Answer 8

Aim of discovering norms, universal principles or ‘laws’ of behaviour

Question 9

Nomothetic research type

Answer 9

Quantitative research
- Based on numbers
- Measures of central tendency and dispersion, graphs and statistical analysis
- Data required from groups of people, not individual’s uniqueness
- Studies may have 20 to 1000s of ppts
- Findings are generalised

Question 10

How would a nomothetic approach be carried out?

Answer 10

• Researcher would test a large sample
• Sampling should involve a method of sample selection to give representativeness of a larger target population
• Researcher would use a testable directional hypothesis
• Involves a collection of a large amount of data
• Analysis would involve quantitative methods

Question 11

Nomothetic example: biological

Answer 11

Seeks to portray the basic principles of how the body and brain work, however in past only men are used

Question 11

Nomothetic example: cognitive

Answer 11

Uses case studies but these are required in order to understand the workings of the normal mind, it’s often necessary to look at an abnormal case

Question 12

Nomothetic example: behaviourist

Answer 12

Produces general laws of behaviour through operant and classical conditioning, however a lot of research was carried out on animals and generalised to humans

Question 13

Discussion: focus of the individual level

Answer 13

• Qualitative researchers felt there was too much emphasis on measurement and psychology has lost sight of what it was to be human.
• Allport argued that it’s only by knowing the person that we can predict what the person will do in any situation.
• Therefore, approach is a strength to focus at an individual level.

Question 14

Discussion: time consuming

Answer 14

• Idiographic approach is time consuming as have to collect and collate huge amounts of data about 1 person.
• Nomothetic approach is not as time consuming although samples are usually huge, once a questionnaire has been devised, data can be generated and processed relatively quickly.

Question 15

Discussion: scientific basis

Answer 15

• Idiographic approach isn’t scientific; led to growth of positivist psychology as they believed findings of humanism were meaningless.
• Therefore, positivists aim to be more evidence based.
• Other idiographic methods like case studies or qualitative research are evidence based and seek to be objective.
• They seek to use reflexivity- where the researcher thinks critically during the research process about the factors that affect behaviour

Question 16

Discussion: Being able to make predictions

Answer 16

• Idiographic approach is limited when it comes to making general predictions about behaviour.
• It’s too time consuming to make personalised therapies for each individual.
• Therefore predictions about the most likely therapeutic solution is best.
• Allport argues once a detailed case of a few individuals has been completed, these can be used to make generalisations to formulate theories.
• However, Hall argues the stance Allport is taking is basically nomothetic anyway

Question 17

Discussion: combined methods

Answer 17

• Holt: both methods make generalisations in the end, he stated there’s no such thing as a unique individual. As Hall stated, idiographic methods do eventually become nomothetic.
• Million: It would be best to start as nomothetic, then once laws have been produced, focus on a better idiographic understanding.
• Freud’s approach uses both approaches as idiographic methods are used to study people, but also used to generate principles about human development.
• Uniqueness can be explained through nomothetic laws, as Eysenck said each individual is unqiue as they have a unique combination of extraversion, introversion and neuroticism.