Discuss Idiographic and Nomothetic responses Flashcards
Debate surrounding whether psychology should adopt an IDIOGRAPHIC approach, which is…
Approach focuses on the study of individuals.
The unique insight each individual give us about human behaviour.
Or a NOMOTHETIC approach which is…
Approach involves the study of large numbers of people
Makes generalisations to develop universal theories and laws
The IDIOGRAPHIC approach in psychology uses research methods including…
Open ended questions, case studies, unstructured interviews/observations
These gather qualitative data.
An approach in psychology which is idiographic would be…
Freud’s psychodynamic approach
Understanding of human behavior was built from conducting detailed case studies e.g Little Hans
Case consisted of 150 pages of quotes, descriptions of events
7
Freud was able to understand his disorder (phobia)
Explain it as an indication that he was explaining the Oedipus complex.
However, idiographic approaches are UNSCIENTIFIC
Methods rely on subjective interpretation
Research open to opinion
Eg. Freud’s interpretation (phobia = demonstration of the Oedipus complex) was soley based on his own interpretation of Hans’ behaviour.
This means that…
Meaningful generalisation & predictions cannot be made without further examples.
The NOMOTHETIC approach in psychology uses research methods including…
Experiments, correlation, structual observations/interviews
These gather quantitative data
An approach in psycholody which is nomothetic would be…
The behavioural approach
S&P studied 100s of dogs and rats to develop general laws of learning that apply to human behaviour
These explain learning through classical and operant conditioning
In evaluation, the nomothetic approaches are scientific
Replicability- studying large groups of people means samples are more representative so findings are more repeatable/reliable
Predictability- developing universal theories and makes it easier to generate hypothesis
This means… psychologists have been able to establish norms of ‘Typical’ behaviour giving the approach greater scientific credibility.
However, they can be criticised for losing the “WHOLE PERSON” this is because…
It is preoccupied with creating general laws to explain behaviour, making predictions and control.
E.g knowing there is a 1% risk of developing schiz. tells us little about what it is for someone to suffer/experience the disorder
This means that the nomothetic approach may sometimes overlook the richness of the human experience.
