Debates & Issues: Nomoethic-Idiographic Flashcards
Explain the Aim of the nomothetic approach in psychology.
The aim of the nomothetic approach in psychology is to obtain general laws that explain types or categories of objective phenomena. General laws are used to describe, explain and predict how people will generally think, feel and behave.
State the Three Types of general law discovered by Radford and Kirby.
- Classifying people into groups.
- Establishing general principles of behaviour that apply to most people. (Eg. Operant conditioning, retrieval failure and interference theory).
- Establishing dimensions along which people vary. (Eg. Locus of control or IQ).
What else does nomothetic research also allow for the study of?
Individual differences can be studied in nomothetic research since the establishment of general laws provides a standard for how most people behave, feel or think and individuals can be compared in terms of the extent to which their behaviour differs from this standard.
States the different methods of the nomothetic approach.
- Nomothetic researchers make use of large samples. Helping ensure the sample is representative of the relevant target population, allowing researchers to generalise their findings.
- Nomothetic research typically involves the collection of quantitative data that is analysed statistically.
- The collection of quantitative data is preferred as the large sample size would make the analysis of qualitative data too difficult. Quantitative is more objective than qualitative.
- The primary method of nomothetic research is the experiment, which allows researchers to develop a causal explanation.
- Carefully controlled research methods such as structured interviews.
Give an Example of Nomothetic Research.
Eg. Asch’s research into conformity is an example of the nomothetic approach. Asch studied a large sample size, followed statistical analysis and identified general principles to explain why people conform.
Explain the Aim of the ideographic approach.
The aim of the ideographic approach in psychology is to describe the uniqueness of the object of the investigation. Eg an individual. They do this as qualitative research methods provide a rich source of data.
They typically study small numbers of participants often employing the case study method which is a detailed analysis of a single case.
The use of small numbers of participants suits the idiographic aim, rather than seeking to generalise to the wider population.
It is practical, and less time consuming than studying a large group in greater detail.
Give an Example of idiographic research.
Maslow’s biographical analysis is an example of idiographic research. Maslow read the biographies of individuals he believed had self actualised, his qualitative analysis of a small sample of individuals allowed him to describe the unique ways in which individuals can reach their full potential.
Explain why a limitation of the nomothetic approach is its inability to make predictions about specific individuals.
Since researchers collect large amounts of data and produce generalisable laws, by nature these laws help explain how the average person might behave, feel or think. The problem here is that not everyone is like the average person. Therefore, general laws may not be effective at predicting what an individual would do but rather capturing how most people might think, feel or behave. According to Gordon Allport, it is only by describing the unique nature of an individual that we can make accurate predictions of how an individual will behave. Thus, to make a prediction at the level of an individual person, we need access to the rich qualitative data and its qualitative research methods. Overall, idiographic would be deemed a better method for predicting behaviour of an individual.
Why is a strength of the nomothetic approach/ weakness of the idiographic approach its scientific credibility?
The key features of science include conducting empirical and objective research, replicability and falsifiability. In nomothetic research, the collection of quantitative data and its analysis using statistics helps reduce levels of interpretation by the researcher, increasing its objectivity. In contrast, idiographic research makes use of qualitative data, which requires a high level of interpretation, meaning idiographic research is more subjective and therefore less scientific. Furthermore, nomothetic research is often replicable as it uses controlled methods with clearly operationalised variables , whereas idiographic researchers employ methods which are difficult to replicate precisely as the case studies are unique. Therefore, from a scientific perspective, the nomothetic approach is preferable to the idiographic as it demonstrates the key features of science.
Why is a Strength of the nomothetic approach/ weakness of the idiographic approach that is can/cant be applied to help large populations?
Nomothetic researchers establish general laws which can be applied to understand, explain and predict the behaviour of many people. Thus makes is ideal to developing interventions and treatments that can help many people, rather than just specific individuals. For example, CBT was developed as a treatment for depression because of general laws established about ways in which irrational thoughts cause depressive thinking. Likewise, treatments for OCD (eg SSRIs) were developed cause of general laws about the role of low serotonin levels. Consequently, millions of people diagnosed with these conditions could be treated. However, treatments could be criticised from an idiographic approach as they treat all people the same, and many people fail to benefit from these treatments and this may be because everyone’s illnesses should be treated as unique. Therefore, the nomothetic approach has the advantage of offering general laws that can help many and although these cant help every individual, they may offer a more practical approach than idiographic methods.
