Idiographic And Nomothetic Approaches

Question 1

What is an idiographic approach

Answer 1

An approach to research which focuses on the individual case and emphasises on uniqueness in order to understand human behaviour

Question 2

Which type of data does an idiographic approach focus on

Answer 2

Qualitative and subjective data

Question 3

Which methods are used by the idiographic approach

Answer 3

Case studies, journals, unstructured interviews to capture subjective experiences

Question 4

Which approach takes an idiographic approach

Answer 4

Humanism

Question 5

What is a nomothetic approach

Answer 5

An approach to research which seeks to formulate general laws of human behaviour based on the study of groups= goal of scientific approach

Question 6

Which type of data does a nomothetic approach focus on

Answer 6

Quantitative and objective data

Question 7

Which methods are used by the nomothetic approach

Answer 7

Experiments and statistical testing

Question 8

Which approaches take a nomothetic approach

Answer 8

Behaviourism, cognitive, biological and psychodynamic (uses idiographic methods to help inform general laws)

Question 9

What is an interactionist approach in the context of the idiographic vs nomothetic approach

Answer 9

Seeing the idiographic and nomothetic approach as complementary rather than contradictory and taking advantage of both to explain behaviour

Question 10

Explain why the cognitive approach can be seen as taking an interactionist approach

Answer 10

They aim to create general laws (eg. WMM), but use case studies to provide evidence for theories (eg. Patient KF)