Idiographic vs Nomothetic

Question 1

What is an idiographic approach?

Answer 1

• focuses on the individual case as a means of understanding behaviour
• emphasises uniqueness
• favours qualitative research methods
• (unstructured interviews, case studies, thematic analysis)

Question 2

What is a nomothetic approach?

Answer 2

• focuses on studying groups as a means of understanding behaviour
• seeks to formulate general laws
• attempts to summarise the differences between people through generations
• favours quantitative methods
• (structured interviews, questionnaires)

Question 3

AO3: focus on the individual

Answer 3

• Allport argued that the nomothetic approach causes psychologists to lose meaning behind what it is to be human
• he argued that there was too much emphasis on generalised measurements and it is only by knowing the person as an individual that we can predict their behaviour
• the focus on individuals can provide us with more complete understanding of human behaviour

Question 4

AO3: time consuming

Answer 4

• the idiographic approach is time consuming
• collect large amounts of data about one person whereas nomothetic methods collect data from large groups
• nomothetic methods are quicker
• the idiographic approach is less efficient when it comes to data collection

Question 5

AO3: scientific

Answer 5

• nomothetic approach is scientific
• the approach is based on scientific and objective measures
• the nomothetic approach utilises standard procedures, which can be assessed for both their validity and reliability

Question 6

AO3: interactionist approach

Answer 6

-not possible to separate both sides of the debate
-it is important to understand general laws about mental health disorders such as knowing 1% of the population has schizophrenia
however, schizophrenic symptoms may vary between patients and therefore we need to look at patients as individuals.