Idiographic and nomothetic approaches Flashcards
What is the idiographic approach?
- an approach that focuses on individual cases as a means of understanding behaviour
- This is done by obtaining high amounts of detailed information so we can understand human behaviour better
What is the nomothetic approach?
- studies human behaviour through the development of general principles and universal laws
- this is done by studying large and varied groups to make generalisations of what is typical in aspects of human behaviour
What is the idiographic approach to psychological investigations?
- the number of participants are small, often a single case
- focus is on detail and understanding the individual
Describe and state the type of research used for idiographic approaches?
- Qualitative research
- uses unstructured interviews to interview participants in depth
- analyses emergent themes and use to draw conclusions on individuals
What are examples of idiographic research?
- humanistic and psychodynamic approaches
- Carl Rogers developed the humanistic approach with in depth conversations with clients in therapy
- Freuds observations were on Little hans and provided a basis of explanation of how phobias can develop
What is the nomothetic approach to psychological investigations?
- the main aim is to generate laws and create general principles of behaviour which can then be applied to individual situations
Describe and state the type of research used for nomothetic approaches?
- use scientific methods
- hypotheses are formulated and samples of people are assessed by structured questionnaires
- numerical data is then analysed for statistical significance
What are examples of nomothetic research?
- the behavioural and biological approaches
- Skinner used animals to develop general laws of learning
Describe objectivity vs subjectivity in nomothetic and idiographic approaches?
nomothetic = objective and laws of behaviour are found in a standardised way ensuring that replication across samples of behaviour
Idiographic = subjective, peoples individuals experiences are unique
What is a strength of idiographic accounts?
- idiographic approaches contribute to nomothetic approaches
- the idiographic approach uses in depth qualitative methods
- these can complement the nomothetic approach by shedding further light on general laws and challenging laws
- for example, HM and KF revealed important insights on normal functioning of memory
C = idiographic approaches are subjective and tend to be less scientific.
What is a strength of both approaches?
- they fit with the aims of science
- the nomothetic approach is similar to sciences and establishes objectivity through standardisation and statistical testing
- idiographic approaches also can objectify their methods. Triangulation can use findings from a range of studies using different qualitative methods to increase validity.
- modern qualitative researchers also are more careful to prevent their biases and preconceptions as impacting their research
What is a limitation of the nomothetic approach?
- loss of the individual
- the nomothetic approach is preoccupied with general laws, prediction and control and can result in loosing the individual
- for example knowing quantitative details such as there is a 1% risk of developing schizophrenia does not tell us what life is like for people diagnosed with it
- therefore understanding subjective experiences is more important and useful
