Idiographic And Nomothetic Approaches

Question 1

What is the idiographic-nomothetic debate?

Answer 1

• Idiographic suggest psychology should study individuals because by achieving high levels of detail regarding that individual, we can understand human behaviour better (e.g case studies)
• Nomothetic suggests psychology should be the study of large and varying groups to make generalisations of what is typical of human behaviour

Question 2

What is the idiographic approach to a psychological explanation?

Answer 2

• Small number of pps (maybe an individual), info from family friends or others, focus on the detail, initial focus on understanding the individual

Question 3

What is the idiographic approach to a psychological explanation?

Answer 3

• Small number of pps (maybe an individual), info from family friends or others, focus on the detail, initial focus on understanding the individual
• Most of it is qualitative e.g through unstructured interviews, data is then analysed and emergent themes are identified

Question 4

What are examples of the Idiographic approach in psychology?

Answer 4

• associate with the humanistic and psychodynamic approaches e.g Roger’s unconditional positive regard was derived form extensive therapy with clients, also Freuds little Hans case study

Question 5

What is the nomothetic approach to psychological research?

Answer 5

• Main aim is generalisation to create laws i.e general principles of behaviour that can then be applied to the individual
• Mainly uses quantitative data, hypothesis are formulated, samples formed and assessed e.g through structured questionnaire and the numerical data collected is analysed for its statistical significance
• seek to quantify (count) human behaviour

Question 6

What are the examples of nomothetic research in psychology?

Answer 6

• Behavioural and biological approaches e.g skinner studies animals to develop general laws of learning (main aim was to establish general laws)

Question 7

What is meant by subjectivity vs objectivity?

Answer 7

• objectivity lies at the heart of the nomothetic approach, laws of behaviour only possible is research is done in a standardised and objective way, this removes bias
• However, for idiographic, the focus is on the unique experience of the individual and therefore objectivity is impossible

Question 8

In what ways are both approaches compatible with psychology as a science?

Answer 8

• Process involved in nomothetic research is similar to that in natural science e.g objectivity and standardisation. However, researchers using ideographic approach also seek to objectify their methods e.g through triangulation (findings from a range of studies each using different variations of qualitative data are compared to increase validity). Therefore both contribute to psychology’s status as a science

Question 9

In what was is the nomothetic approach losing the person?

Answer 9

• With such a focus on general laws this approach has lost sights of the individual, for example knowing 1% chance we will develop schizophrenia in life tells us little about the personal experience of schizophrenia. Fully understanding the subjective experience of Sz might be useful in developing treatments.

Question 10

How does the Idiographic approach contribute to the nomothetic approach?

Answer 10

• Idigraphic uses in depth methods of investofation and this may complement the nomothetic approach by shedding further light on general laws or by challenging them. E.g the case of HM in which the idea of the different types of LTM was derived from studying his individual memory. Even though focuses on individuals idiographic may still help in developing general laws of behaviour.