idiographic + nomothetic debates

Question 1

idiographic

Answer 1

• attempts to describe the nature of the individual
• people are seen as unique, with their own experiences, motivations + values
• NO COMPARISON made w/ others or a larger group
• e.g. case studies - KF, WMM
• humanistic approach = idiographic

Question 2

nomothetic

Answer 2

• aims to produce general laws of human behaviour
• people can be classified, compared + measures
• future behaviour can be predicted + controlled
• helps to establish ways that people are similar
• scientific methods + uses experiments
• e.g. behavioural + cognitive approach

Question 3

ads of idiographic approach

Answer 3

• provides rich, in depth info
• qualitative research

Question 4

disads of idiographic approach

Answer 4

• not scientific
• inability to produce general predictions about behaviour
• idiographic = time consuming, expensive, large amount of data from one person

Question 5

+ve = provides rich, in depth info

Answer 5

• The great strength of the idiographic approach is that it provides rich and in depth information about single cases
  = nomothetic approach is not able to do
  e.g. psych maintained that it is only by knowing a person as an
  individual that we can predict what they will do in any given situation

Question 6

-ve = not very scientific

Answer 6

• main reason for the growth of positive psychology (evidence based), many considered the humanistic approach to not be sufficiently evidence based = meaningless

Question 7

+ve = qualitative research

Answer 7

some elements such as case studies + thematic analysis = scientific + evidence based + objective
= Qualitative research methods use reflexivity to identify the
influence of any bias

reflexivity = refers to the process where the researcher reflects/ thinks critically about factors that affect behaviour of both parts + researcher

Question 8

-ve = inability to produce general predictions about behaviour

Answer 8

idiographic may be scientific, but unable to produce general predictions about behaviour unlike nomothetic
= e.g. far too time consuming to produce personal therapies for every person with a mental illness

HOWEVER Allport (1961) argues that the idiographic approach does allow general predictions to be made, once enough data has been gathered from detailed observations of several individuals

Question 9

-ve = idiographic = time consuming, expensive, large amount of data from one person

Answer 9

nomothetic = cheaper, less time consuming, collect small amount of data from large amount of people
= latter is quicker, cus once a test pr questionnaire has been designed, can be generated + processed quickly

Question 10

ads of nomothetic

Answer 10

• very scientific
• controlled methods allow for replication
  = key feature of science

Question 11

disads of nomothetic

Answer 11

• approach tends to ‘lose the whole person’
  = doesn’t really look at the individual
• treated as numbers rather than individuals making humans more like machines, rather than people w/ experiences