Idiographic & Nomothetic Approaches Flashcards
What is the idiographic approach?
The idea of studying behaviour through studying individual cases (using a small sample).
What is the nomothetic approach?
The idea of understanding behaviour through developing general laws that apply to all people (using a large sample).
What are the features of idiographic research?
-Qualitative methods (e.g. thematic analysis, case studies).
-Small sample.
What are the features of nomothetic research?
-Quantitative methods (e.g. content analysis).
-Large sample.
What are examples of the idiographic approach?
-Humanistic Approach: we are all unique as human beings. CCT is specific to the individual.
-Psychodynamic Approach: seeks to understand the influence of the unconscious mind and experiences on human behaviour.
What are examples of the nomothetic approach?
Biological Approach: explaining psychological disorders (e.g. OCD, depression). They typically pinpoint biological factors, such as
neurotransmitters, that are responsible.
-Behaviourist Approach: Pavlov (CC) and Skinner (OC), conducted experiments with animals in order to establish laws of learning that could be generalised to humans.
Evaluation points for idiographic approach:
-It is not possible to generalise findings from idiographic research due to the restricted sample size which limits the overall usefulness of the research.
-Doesn’t meet the features of science in psychology.
-The idiographic approach provides a comprehensive, global understanding of the individual which in turn can lead to better insight into to inform therapies such as psychotherapy or Roger’s CCT.
-Nomothetic methods seek to ‘banish’ the individual from the process so the idiographic approach is one way to reinstate human beings as the focus of psychological research (which is, after all, the study of human behaviour).
Evaluation points for nomothetic approach:
-A large data set cannot explain the subjective experience of the individual, which may actually be more important and useful than a statistically significant result.
-Samples in psychological research are not always large enough from which to generate laws of behaviour e.g. Milgram’s (1963) obedience study used only 40 (male) participants so it would be unwise to state that this sample and their behaviour in the study is at all generalisable.
-Nomothetic research which applies statistical methods to test findings have enabled psychologists to identify what the norm for specific behaviours are e.g. IQ, which in turn strengthens psychology’s claim to be considered a science.
