Idiographic and Nomothetic Approaches

Question 1

Idiographic approach

Answer 1

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

Question 2

Evaluation: Idiographic + expands on general laws

Answer 2

+ The idiographic approach provides a complete and global account of the individual by shedding further light on general laws or by challenging such laws

+ For example, a single case may generate hypotheses for further study (e.g. HM case), these findings may reveal important insights about normal functioning which may contribute to our overall understanding

Question 3

Evaluation: Idiographic - restricted by nature

Answer 3

• The idiographic approach must still recognise the narrow and restricted nature of their work
• For example, one of the criticism levelled at Freud is that many of his key concepts, like the Oedipus complex, were largely developed from the detailed study of a single case (Little Hans)
• Meaningful generalisations cannot be made without further examples, as there is no adequate baseline with which to compare behaviour

Question 4

Evaluation: Idiographic - Methodological issues

Answer 4

• Methods associated with the idiographic approach, such as case studies, tend to be the least scientific in that conclusions often rely on the subjective interpretation of the researcher and, as such, are open to bias

Question 5

Nomothetic approach

Answer 5

Psychologists who take a nomothetic approach are concerned with establishing general laws, based on the study of large groups of people, and the use of quantitive techniques to analyse data

Question 6

Evaluation: Nomothetic + Scientific credibility

Answer 6

+ The processes involved in the nomothetic research tend to be more scientific, mirroring those employed within the natural scientific - testing under standardised conditions, using data sets that provide group averages, statistical analysis, prediction and control, for example in the field of IQ testing

+ Such processes have enabled psychologists to establish norms of ‘typical’ behaviour, arguably giving the discipline of psychology greater scientific credibility

Question 7

Evaluation: Nomothetic - ‘loose of individual’

Answer 7

• The preoccupation within the nomothetic approach on general laws, prediction and control has been accused of ‘losing the whole person’ within psychology
• Knowing that there is a 1% lifetime risk of developing SZ tells us little about what life is like for someone who experiencing the disorder

Question 8

Evaluation: Nomothetic - Overlooks human experience

Answer 8

• Lab studies involving tests, such as of memory, participants are treated as a series of scores rather than individual people and their subjective experience of the situation is ignored
• This means, in its search for generalities, the nomothetic approach may sometimes overlook the richness of human experience