Idiographic and Nomotheitc Approches to psychological investigation

Question 1

What is the idiographic and nomothetic approaches to psychological investigation a debate on?

Answer 1

Debate not onhow to best describe a behaviour, but about the best method to investigate behaviour

Question 2

what is the idiographic-nomothetic debate in psychology concern?

Answer 2

whether investigations should adopt an idiographic approach, which focuses on individuals and what makes people unique; or whether to adopt a nomothetic approach, which focuses on studying groups of people in order to formulate general laws/principles of behaviour so people can be compared and measured.

Question 3

What does each approach have implications for?

Answer 3

the types of research method that psychologists use

Question 4

what research methods do idiographic approaches use?

Answer 4

qualitative research methods

Question 5

what research methods do nomothetic approaches use?

Answer 5

Quantitative research methods

Question 6

what is the idiographic approach in psychology as an approach to psychological research focus on?

Answer 6

the individual as a means of understanding behaviour- People are studied as unique entities, each with their own subjective experiences, motivations and values. They do not seek to generalise to others from research and believe it is irrelevant to try to develop universal laws of behaviour.

Question 7

What does the idiographic approach generally associated with?

Answer 7

case studies and unstructured interviews- this reflects one of the central aims of idiographic research: to describe the richness of human experience and gain insight into people’s unique way of viewing the world

Question 8

What would strong supporters of the idiographic approach be unlikely to do?

Answer 8

conduct large-scale studies or use quantitative methods at all

Question 9

what does a nomothetic approach involve?

Answer 9

studying a sample of participants, with the main aim, to produce general laws/principles of behaviour- these provide a ‘benchmark’ against which people can be compared, classified and measured, and on the basis of which, likely behaviour can be predicted and/or controlled

Question 10

what is the nomothetic approach most closely aligned with?

Answer 10

with those research methods that would be regarded as ‘scientific’ within psychology such as experiments- These involve the study of large numbers of people in order to establish ways in which people are similar which will simultaneously inform us of the ways in which people are different from one another.

Question 11

what approaches are nomothetic?

Answer 11

-The Biological Approach
-The Behaviour Approach
-The Social Learning Theory

Question 12

how is the biological approach a nomothetic approach?

Answer 12

suggests that humans share similar physiology and that we can make general laws regarding behaviour-laboratory experiments are used to generate quantitative data to make generalisations

Question 13

how is the behaviourist approach a nomothetic approach?

Answer 13

-creates general laws of behaviour (e.g. cause and effect, stimulus response relationships) and uses laboratory experiments to generate quantitative data to make generalisations.
-The behaviourist approach proposes general laws for all animals – humans and non-humans

Question 14

How is social learning theory a nomothetic approach?

Answer 14

-aims to establish general laws of behaviour (e.g. we learning through observation and imitation of role models).
-SLT uses laboratory experiments to generate quantitative data to make generalisations.

Question 15

what are examples that adopt nomothetic and idiographic approaches?

Answer 15

-cognitive psychology
-psychodynamic approach

Question 16

what does cognitive psychology typically use nomothetic approaches to do?

Answer 16

establish general laws of cognitive processing- However, case studies are sometimes used (e.g. patient KF, HM, etc.) which utilise idiographic approaches.

Question 17

why is the psychodynamic approach of the labelled idiographic?

Answer 17

because of Freud’s use of case studies when detailing the lives of his patients (e.g. Little Hans)- however, Freud also used a nomothetic approach to create general laws about innate drives (e.g. Freud’s concept of the tripartite personality is that we are all born with an id).