Idiographic And Nomothetic Approach Flashcards
What is an idiographic approach to investigating behaviour?
One that focuses on case studies, only trying to explain one person’s behaviour and not applying the findings to universal laws of behaviour
What is a nomothetic approach to investigating behaviour?
Using a large sample of individuals to generate universal laws of behaviour
- most examples of nomothetic approaches are lab experiments
Which approaches are idiographic and how?
Psychodynamic and humanistic:
. No universal laws applied from findings (this isn’t often the case)
. No statistical analysis, therefore not scientifically rigorous, subjective, and qualitative findings
. CCT therapy focuses on you as an individual, not general laws of behaviour
Which approaches are nomothetic and how?
Biological, behavioural, SLT and cognitive:
. Empirical
. Used statistical analysis
. Aims to generate universal findings on behaviour
How is the humanistic approach idiographic?
. Only tries to explain a single individual’s behaviour
. CCT is idiographic and needs to be tailored to individual needs as you can’t study lots of people to draw conclusions on your own problems to do with conditions of worth as everyone has a different self-actualisation journey
What are some important idiographic case studies?
. HM, CW, KF
- used to support WWM and MSM
- supported differences in LTM and STM
- opposed unitary stores
Although rejecting the scientific method, how can idiographic case studies be very important in developing theories?
Without these case studies, we may not have identified the knowledge needed to create a hypothesis that can be tested using a nomothetic approach
Which study revealed why we care about idiographic case studies?
Thigpen and Cleckley, 3 faces of Eve Study:
. 3 people lived in her head
. Her individual case study led to recognising multiple personality disorder
Clearly idiographic studies can help bring about specific questions in psychology that can become very important in clinical diagnosis and recognising extreme cases
How is a nomothetic approach more scientific (AO3)?
Trying to look for statistical significance and using controlled conditions to find patterns of behaviour between people
When is nomothetic and idiographic individually a more useful approach to take when studying behaviour?
Nomothetic: if trying to study general behaviour that is predictable and is quite common
Idiographic: if trying to study special cases, however can still be useful in raising questions that can be tackled with a nomothetic approach
Which approach is the most nomothetic and how?
Biological approach
