Idiographic and Nomothetic approaches Flashcards
What is the nomothetic approach?
Looks at how our behaviours are similar to eachother as human beings
Psychologists who adopt this approach are mainly concerned with studying what we share with others to establish general laws
What methods do psychologists adopting the nomothetic approach use?
Quantitative methods such as experiments, they study large numbers of people in order to establish ways in which humans are similar
Experiments, correlation, psychometric testing and other quantitative methods
What is the psychometric approach to the study of personality ?
Compares individuals in terms of traits or dimensions common to everyone. This is a nomothetic approach and an example is Hans Eysenck’s type - details of his work not important - he assumes there are a small number of traits that account for the basic structure of all personalities and that individual differences can be measured along these dimensions
What does a nomothetic approach tend to be in favour of?
Reductionism and employs scientific methods of investigation which are analysed for statistical significance - much of the research covered by beh, cog, bio, would meet this criteria e.g Skinners experiments and those on brain localisation
In all cases hypotheses are tested rigorously an general laws are developed
What are the strengths of the nomothetic approach?
Seen as far more scientific than the idiographic approach, as it takes on a evidence based, objective approach to formulate causal laws
Research tends to be carried out under standardised conditions which allows for prediction and control - this has allowed psychologist to establish norms e.g. average intelligence
It enables us to make predictions about how people are likely to react in certain circumstances, which can be very useful e.g. Zimbardos research
What is the idiographic approach?
Looks at how people are different to eachother
Psychologists interested in this aspect of experience want to discover what makes each of us unique
What methods do idiographic psychologists tend to use?
Qualitive methods such as case studies, unstructured interviews, unstructured observations and other self report methods / qualitative methods
What has Carl Rodgers (a humanist psychologist) developed a method of doing and what is it?
Investigating ideographically - a procedure called the Q-sort - first the subject is given a large set of cards with a self-evaluative statement written on each e.g. ‘I am friendly’ - the subject is then asked to sort the cards into piles - one pile for ‘most like me’ , one for ‘least like me’ and piles for in-between
In a Q-sort what can be varied?
The number of cards, the number of piles and the type of question e.g. How am I now?, How I would like to be?
There are potentially infinite variations which is what it should be for an idiographic psychology because in their view there are ultimately as many different personalities as there are people.
How is Freud sometimes viewed as idiographic?
He studied case-studies, however, he did this in order to establish universal laws of behaviour and personality development
What are the strengths of the idiographic approach?
Its focus on the individual - Allport argues that it is only by knowing the person as a person that we can predict what the person will do in any given situation
Uses in depth qualitative methods which provide a complete account of the individual
A single case may generate a hypothesis and further our understanding of human nature e.g. patient HM
What are the limitations of the idiographic approach?
Work is still narrow and restricted
Oedipus complex was developed from a single case study which means meaningful generalisations cannot be made as there is no adequate baseline- also methods used tend to be less scientific and often rely on subjective interpretation
It is very time-consuming as it takes a lot of time and money to study individuals in depth whereas with nomothetic once a questionnaire/ experiment etc has been designed, data can be collected relatively quickly
Which perspectives are interested in which?
Nomothetic = behaviourists, cognitive, biological tend to focus on discovering laws or generalisations Idiographic = humanists interested in individuals
Which is the best approach to take?
A combined approach - Millon and Davis suggest research should start with a nomothetic approach and once general laws have been established, research can then move to a more idiographic approach e.g. in gender we can establish general behaviour using BSI but can have these sitting along side atypical case studies like David Reimer
The goal for modern psychology = provide rich detailed descriptions to human behaviour as well as explanations for such behaviour within a framework of general laws
What is an example of idiographic and nomothetic research in memory?
HM was a case-study of memory. Corkin (2002) demonstrated how he was able to form long-term procedural memories for simple motor skills and tasks. This case has been invaluable in revealing how different types of LTM are more resistant to forgetting
