Idiographic and Nomothetic

Question 1

what is this debate about?

Answer 1

whether looking at individuals or looking at groups is more appropriate in aiding our understanding of behaviour

Question 2

what is the idiographic approach?

Answer 2

• a focus on an individual and the emphasis of unique personal experience of human behaviour, does not aim to formal laws to generalise to other
• comes from the Greek word ‘idios’ meaning own

Question 3

how are qualitative methods idiographic?

Answer 3

• gives depth and insight into individual behaviour
• uses case studies, unstructured interview and thematic analysis

Question 4

give examples of the idiographic approach in psychology

Answer 4

• Freuds Little Hans case study
• humanistic psychology

Question 5

how is Freud’s Little Hans case study idiographic?

Answer 5

• a case study on one individual

Question 6

give an evaluation point of the idiographic approach

Answer 6

• focusing on an individual gives a more complete understanding of behaviour
• lacks scientific credibility

Question 7

explain how an idiographic approach focuses on an individual

Answer 7

• through studying an individual we can fully understand their behaviour
• by focusing on one individual we can have a more complete understanding or behaviour

Question 8

explain the the lack of scientific credibility of the idiographic approach

Answer 8

• case studies reduce the ecological validity as cant be generalised beyond the individual
• cant be generalised without further examples to act as a baseline comparison

Question 9

what is the nomothetic approach?

Answer 9

establishing general laws about behaviour through studying groups of people, comes from the Greek word ‘nomos’ meaning law

Question 10

how does the nomothetic approach use quantitative methods?

Answer 10

• statistical analysis through quantitative data collection
• experiments, correlations and meta-analysis’ to gain quantitive data
• requires data from groups rather than indivudals

Question 11

give examples of the nomothetic approach in psychology

Answer 11

• biological approach to explaining and treating OCD
• behavioural approach to explaininging and treating phobias
• understanding of conformity and obedience, through Asch and Milgram studies

Question 12

how do behaviourists take a nomothetic approach

Answer 12

• Watson, Pavlov and Skinner, used their research to create general laws of learning and their application to behaviour
• behaviours are generalised to humans and animals
• these laws help create behavioural therapies, such as SD

Question 13

give an evaluation point of the nomothetic approach

Answer 13

• has useful applications
• may be better in combination with an idiographic approach

Question 14

how is the nomothetic approach useful

Answer 14

• helped develop drug therapies to treat chemical imbalances
• however, cognitive therapies, such as CBT, may be more useful at treating depression; an idiographic approach

Question 15

how would a nomothetic and idiographic approach be used in combination

Answer 15

• Holt (1967) argued there is a false distinction between the two approaches. he argues that the idiographic approach creates general principles
• Millon and Davis (1996) suggested research should start with a nomothetic approach and once ‘laws’ have been produced, they can then focus on a more idiographic understanding