Idiographic And Nomothetic Approach

Question 1

Idiographic:

Answer 1

Psychologists who take an idiographic approach focus on the individual and emphasise the unique personal experience of human nature.

Question 2

Nomothetic:

Answer 2

Psychologists who take a nomothetic approach are concerned with establishing general laws, based on the study of large groups of people.

Question 3

Idiographic research:

Answer 3

Methods of investigation include:

• case studies
• unstructured interviews
• thematic analysis

These methods collect qualitative data eg. Thoughts and feelings and they provide an in depth insight into individual behaviour.

Behaviour must be understood in terms of subjective experience, as only the individual can explain what a behaviour means; a detached observer’s explanation if worthless.

Question 4

Why are case studies a powerful research method?

Answer 4

A single case study can highlight flaws within a theory and significantly undermine other research eg. Shallice examined the case of KF, who had had a motorbike accident. KF’s short-term forgetting of auditory information was greater than his forgetting of visual information, suggesting that short-term memory consists of multiple components.
This disproved Atkinson and Shiffrin’s multi store model of memory that states that STM was a single component.

Question 5

Strengths and limitations of idiographic approach:

Answer 5

Strengths:

• gain detailed and informative descriptions of behaviour
• can uncover causes for behaviour not identified using the nomothetic approach
• develop a holistic understanding of individual
• can provide hypotheses for future scientific study

Limitations:

• cannot generalise to wider population
• methods are subjective, flexible and unstandardised so replication, prediction and control of behaviour is difficult, since the idiographic approach rejects scientific methods

Question 6

Nomothetic research:

Answer 6

Methods of investigation:

• experiments
• correlational research
• psychometric testing (personality)

It is scientifically orientated, as it uses scientific method and quantitative data.
Group averages are statistically analysed and predictions made.

Question 7

The three kind of general laws:

Answer 7

• classification (DSM and IV)
• establishing principles (conformity and obedience)
• establishing dimensions (IQ)

Question 8

Example of nomothetic research:

Answer 8

Behaviourists, such as Pavlov and Skinner, conducted experiments with animals in order to establish laws of learning (classical and operant conditioning) that could be generalised to humans and animals.

Question 9

Strengths and limitations of the nomothetic approach:

Answer 9

• can generalise to wider population
• methods are objective, measurable and can be verified so replication, prediction and control of behaviour is easy.
• generalised laws and principles may not apply to an individual
• understanding is often superficial (eg. Same score in personality tests but different answers)

Question 10

How can the idiographic and nomothetic approaches be complementary?

Answer 10

The insights from an idiographic approach can shed more light on the general principles developed using the nomothetic approach.

Question 11

Example of how the nomothetic and idiographic approaches can be complementary:

Answer 11

Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation suggests that extreme maternal deprivation is irreversible and this was developed using a nomothetic approach.
However, the case of Koluchova’s twins demonstrates that in this single, idiographic study, maternal deprivation was overcome.

This means Bowlby’s theory can be challenged.