Idiographic and Nomothetic Approach (Issues and Debates)

Question 1

Nomothetic

Answer 1

Greek ‘nomos’ meaning laws
• quantitative data
• looks at trends and pattern
• Biological and behaviourist approach

Question 2

Idiographic

Answer 2

Greek ‘idios’ meaning own or private
• qualitative data to see differences between participants
• humanist and (not in his opinion) Freud

Question 3

Nomothetic approach to personality

Answer 3

-personality tests
• the basic premise of a personality test for psychologists is that your behaviour will be: predictable, consistent

Question 4

Advantages of personality tests

Answer 4

• enable us to predict behaviour
• some tests like IQ tests can be used to predict some behaviours like mental agility
• some tests do enable us to show which personalities may be best suited to jobs like the police force (Hathaway 1970)

Question 5

Fundamental attribution error

Answer 5

we tend to attribute more significance to situational factors when considering the causes of our own behaviour but attribute more significance to personality characteristics when considering causes of the behaviour of others

Question 6

Problems with personality tests

Answer 6

• personality is difficult to operationalise
• we cannot be sure any measurement is valid
• fundamental attribution errors
• tests are all different as they are based on different theories e.g. projective tests are based on psychodynamic theory, the Myers Briggs test is based on a theory of Carl Jung
• tests are often not generalisable to all people in all situations
• there is disagreements over whether research shows that behaviours based on personality tests can be often predicted

Question 7

Individual differences and personality

Answer 7

• some individuals may show more consistent personality traits, so may be more influenced by these traits
• some personality traits will only emerge in some situations
• some individuals will be more affected by the environment in which they are in than their personality traits
• this suggests we should view personality in a more idiographic way

Question 8

Gordon Allport

Answer 8

• found over 18,000 separate terms describing personal characteristics
• whilst some of these are common traits (that could be investigated nomothetically) the majority, in Allport’s view referred to more or less unique dispositions based on life experiences peculiar to ourselves
• he argues that they cannot be effectively studied using standardised tests
• what is needed is a way of investigating them idiographically

Question 9

The case for the nomothetic approach

Answer 9

• scientific
• testing under standardised conditions
• using data sets to provide group averages
• statistical analysis, predictions and control
• gives psychology greater scientific credibility

Question 10

The case against the nomothetic approach

Answer 10

• ‘losing the whole person’
• in lab studies involving tests of memory, for example, participants are treated as scores, rather than people
• subjectivity experience is ignored
• overlooks the richness of human experience

Question 11

The case for the idiographic approach

Answer 11

• in depth methods of investigation
• provides a complete and global account of the individual
• case studies such as HM and Phineas Gage

Question 12

The case against the idiographic approach

Answer 12

• narrow and restrictive
• meaningful generalisations cannot be made- no comparison of behaviour, for example, Little Hans and the Oedipus complex
• less scientific due to subjectivity

Question 13

Complementary rather than contradictory (Nomothetic and Idiographic approaches)

Answer 13

Bem’s 1974 androgyny scale:
• Modern Psychology should provide rich, detailed descriptions of human behaviour within the framework of general laws. In gender development, there are attempts at establishing general patterns of behaviour