Idiographic and nomothetic approaches to psychological investigation

Question 1

What does nomothetic research try to find

Answer 1

universal laws that can be applied to whole populations of people

Question 2

What does most of the nomothetic research entail

Answer 2

quantitative research in the form of laboratory studies and correlational research

Question 3

Why is statistical data powerful

Answer 3

generally valid and reliable

Question 4

What can be made from nomothetic research

Answer 4

general laws and theories of human behaviour can be made

Question 5

as the Nomothetic studies are highly scientific What’s the strengths of this

Answer 5

studies are highly controlled, avoid extraneous variables and bias

Question 6

What type of data is contained from nomothetic research

Answer 6

objective data rather than subjective

Question 7

What do laboratory studies lack

Answer 7

ecological validity

Question 8

As nomothetic studies have low ecological validity what does this mean

Answer 8

rare results can be applied to real world

Question 9

What happens when you examine the whole study

Answer 9

some details are going to be missed or ignored

Question 10

What does Idiographic research focus on

Answer 10

individuals in detail

Question 11

What does idiographic research rely on

Answer 11

qualitative methods such as questionnaires case studies, interviews and observations of individual

Question 12

What is a strength of idiographic research

Answer 12

a more complete explanation is likely compared to the nomothetic approach

Question 13

What’s a weakness of idiographic research

Answer 13

difficult to generalise to the whole population

Question 14

What does it mean as idiographic research qualitative

Answer 14

it can be more subjective

Question 15

Are there any exceptions of idiographic research

Answer 15

certain studies have been foundational in developing nomothetic laws and theories

Question 16

What’s an example of idiographic research

Answer 16

milner et al 1957

Question 17

What did milner et al study

Answer 17

man who suffered from severe epilepsy

Question 18

How did the doctors treat the patient in milner et als study

Answer 18

removed the area of the brain responsible for the seizures (hippocampus)

Question 19

What happened after the patients surgery in milner et als study

Answer 19

had difficulty forming new long term memories

Question 20

What did milner et al conclude about the hippocampus

Answer 20

t he formation of long term memories

Question 21

What was milner et als conclusions about idiographic approaches

Answer 21

concept could be applied to everyone, an idiographic conclusions had nomothetic applications

Question 22

What approach is the psychodynamic

Answer 22

idiographic and nomothetic tendencies

Question 23

Why is the psychodynamic approach idiographic

Answer 23

because Freud studied behaviour in individuals in case studies

Question 24

What is the biological approach

Answer 24

Nomothetic

Question 25

What’s the aim of the biological approach

Answer 25

develop theories regarding biological function structures and processes in everyone

Question 26

What does the biological approach assume

Answer 26

human physiology is basically the same across the whole world making it nomothetic

Question 27

What’re 2 biological examples

Answer 27

• discovering the localisation of brain structure most people have the same brain structure
• same neurone structure

Question 28

What’s the cognitive approach

Answer 28

nomothetic

Question 29

What does cognitive research look at

Answer 29

mental process of humans

Question 30

What does cognitive research assume

Answer 30

processes are the same across the population

Question 31

What can piaget’s theory of cognitive development can broadly be applied across

Answer 31

all humans

Question 32

What is the behaviourist approach

Answer 32

nomothetic

Question 33

What do behaviourists look for

Answer 33

cause and effect laws applied across a population

Question 34

What’s an example of a behaviourist approach

Answer 34

Skinners operant conditioning principles

Question 35

What happens in skinners operant conditioning

Answer 35

principles of learning through positive and negative reinforcement generalised to the whole population

Question 36

What’s the humanistic approach

Answer 36

idiographic side

Question 37

What does Humanism focus on

Answer 37

the individual as they strive towards self-actualisation

Question 38

What research do most humanistic studies involve

Answer 38

qualitative research