idiographic and nomothetic

Question 1

define idiographic

Answer 1

focuses on the individual and emphasises uniqueness- favours qualitative methods in research

Question 2

define nomothetic

Answer 2

seeks to formulate general laws of behavior based on the study of groups and the use of quantitative techniques
aims to summarise the differences between people through generalisations

Question 3

why does the idogroahic approach to psychology focus on qualitative research

Answer 3

• the focus is on gaining insights into human behavior by studying unique individuals in depth rather than gaining numerical data from many individuals
• the focus is on quality of research rather than quantity
• employs qualitative methods such as unstructured interviews and case studies

Question 4

what are some examples of the idiographic approach

Answer 4

1) Freud= used case studies for his patients as a way to understand human behavior eg little Hans consisted of 150 pages of quotes recorded by Hans’ father
2) humanistic psychology- concerned with studying the whole person and seeing the world from their perspective - what matters is their experience, not something that someone else may observe

Question 5

why does the nomothetic approach use quantitative data

Answer 5

• quantitative data is based on numbers such as measures of central tendency, graphs, and statistical analysis, such calculations require data from groups of individuals rather than individuals
• research studies may only involve 20 individuals but normative research such as establishing norms involves thousands of people

Question 6

give some examples of the nomothetic approach

Answer 6

1) the biological approach - aims to portray basic principles of how the body and brain work, did make generalizations that male behavior is the same as female such as the stress response
2) Behaviourst psychology- produce general rules of behavior where they seek to find one set of rules for all animals- humans and non-humans
3) cognitive psychology- aims to develop general laws of people to understand typical memory processes

Question 7

evaluate the idiographic and nomothetic approach

Answer 7

• Predictions= idiographic may be scientific but the inability to produce general predictions about behaviour is limiting. General predictions can be useful such as producing drug treatments. It would be far too time-consuming to produce personal therapies for unique individuals therefore predictions are needed for therapeutic solutions. This suggests that nomothetic approaches may be more useful in developing psychological treatments
• time consuming= both approaches are based on large amounts of data but one is in terms of collecting large amounts of data about one person and the other in terms of a number of individuals. Collecting large amounts of data from a group of individuals does take time but it is relatively quicker as once a questionnaire or test has been designed it can be generated and processed quickly- suggests the ideographic approach is less efficient at data collection
• focus on the individual level- humanistic psychology and qualitative psychologists felt that there was too much emphasis on measurement that psychologists had lost sight of what it was to be human. All port argued that it is only by knowing the person as an individual that they can predict what a person will do in a situation- this suggests that the focus on the individual can provide a more complete understanding
• Alport’s argument that by only understating the individual can you predict what can happen may raise awareness of an interactionist approach- it has been suggested that the idiographic approach eventually ends up being some what nomothetic, it is use to form general principle which open up greater research into studying the behaviour in a group setting