Idiographic and Nomothetic

Question 1

Idiographic approach

Answer 1

• Focuses more on the individual case as a means of understanding behaviour - Doesn’t aim to produce general laws
• Produces qualitative data - for example an unstructured interview - this data is then analysed and emergent themes are identified - conclusions may help other people going through a similar experience
• For example - Humanistic and psychodynamic approaches - Rogers explained process of self development including role of unconditional positive regard - used client centred therapy - Freud used observations of individuals - these were the basis of his explanations of human behaviour

Question 2

Nomothetic approach

Answer 2

• Aims to study similarities of human behaviour through the development of general laws
• produces quantitative data - for example structured questionnaires - numerical data is analysed for its statistical significance
• For example - behaviourist and biological approaches - Skinner studied animals to develop general laws of learning - Biological approach may use a small sample e.g split brain research which involved repeated testing and was the basis for understanding hemispheric lateralisation

Question 3

Objective vs Subjective

Answer 3

• Objectivity = Nomothetic - Laws of behaviour are only possible if methods are standardised and objective - ensures replication can occur
• Subjectivity = Idiographic - it’s peoples individual experience of their unique context that’s important

Question 4

I+N - evaluation - strength

Answer 4

• Strength for Idiographic
• Contributes to nomothetic approach
• IA uses in-depth qualitative methods which provides a description of one individual
• May complement the NA by shedding further light on or challenging general laws
• e.g a single case may generate hypotheses for a further study
• Suggests IA may still help form general laws of behaviour

Question 5

I+N - evaluation - limitation

Answer 5

• Limitation of nomothetic
• Loss of understanding the individual
• e.g knowing there is a 1% risk of developing schizophrenia doesn’t tell us about what it is like for someone who has schizophrenia
• Means NA may sometimes fail to relate to experience