Issues And Debates: Idiographic And Nomothetic

Question 1

What Is The Idiographic Approach?

Answer 1

• Focuses on the individual and emphasises the unique, personal experience humans have.
• People are studied independently, and their own experiences, motivations and values considered.
• No laws are formulated using this approach or generalisations to others made.
• Usually no attempt is made to compare individuals to larger groups, standards or norms.

Question 2

What Methods Do The Idiographic Approach Use?

Answer 2

-Qualitative research methods such as case studies, unstructured interviews and thematic analyse are favoured.
- This allows an in-depth insight into human behaviour and allows the richness of human experience to be described from a unique point of view.

Question 3

Example Of An Approach Which Use Idiographic Approach.

Answer 3

• The humanistic approach is an example.
• Rogers and Maslow were only interested in documenting the conscious experience of the individual or self.
• It is anti-scientific wanting to look at unique experiences rather than creating general laws of behaviour.

Question 4

What Is The Nomothetic Approach?

Answer 4

• The nomothetic approach wants to establish general laws based on the study of large groups of people using statistical techniques to analyse data.
• The general laws provide a benchmark against which people can be compared, classified and measured.
• This allows future behaviour to be predicted and controlled

Question 5

What Methods Do The Nomothetic Approach Use?

Answer 5

• Quantitative methods such as experiments, correlations and psychometric testing are favoured by nomothetic researchers.
• Methods are regarded as scientific.
• They involve large numbers of people to establish ways in which people are similar and different from each other.
• This approach is the main approach within scientifically orientated psychology.

Question 6

Examples Of An Approach Which Use Idiographic Approach.

Answer 6

• Behaviourism: the response of rats was used to develop the laws of learning.
• Cognitive psychologists infer the structure and process of human memory by looking at large numbers of people completing lab experiments.
• The biological approach looks at brain scans to make generalisations about localisation of function.

Question 7

Idiographic And Nomothetic Approach Overlap.

Answer 7

• Psychodynamic is idiographic as case studies were used to detail people’s lives.
• However, universal laws such as personality development and the psycho-sexual stages were also developed which fits with the nomothetic approach.

Question 8

Evaluation: Idiographic Approach.

Answer 8

• The idiographic approach can complement the nomothetic approach by providing support or challenging general laws of behaviour.
• For example, the study of KF showed that there was two types of STM, challenging the MSM which said it was a unitary store.
• However, the ideographic approach uses unscientific methods to find in-depth information about an individual, e.g. case studies.
• The methods tend not to be scientific, so the conclusions that are drawn regarding individuals often rely on subjective interpretation of the researcher so they are open to bias.

Question 9

Evaluation: Nomothetic Approach.

Answer 9

• Nomothetic research tends to be more scientific as testing is done under standardised conditions, where statistical analysis can occur, and prediction and control are used.
• For example, when testing for IQ, psychologists have established that the average IQ is 100 and that the normal range for IQ is between 70 and 130.
• However, the pre-occupation to focus on general laws and predicting and controlling behaviour can mean that the whole person is lost.
• Knowing that there is a 1% probability that someone will develop schizophrenia does not tell us what is like to suffer from the illness.
• This means that the richness of human experience is overlooked.

Question 10

Evaluation: Nomothetic And Idiographic Approach.

Answer 10

• Rather than seeing idiographic and nomothetic approaches as mutually exclusive, it is possible to consider the issue from both perspectives.
• For example, Schaffer’s stages of attachment are nomothetic suggesting that all children go through the stages in the same order.
• But, Bowlby’s 44 thieves study is idiographic as it was based on a series of detailed case studies showing what can happen during early development.
• Considering both approaches together will provide a rich, detailed descriptions of human behaviour as well as the explanation of such behaviour within the framework of general laws.