ISSUES AND DEBATES- Idiographic and nomothetic Flashcards
Define nomothetic
-Mainly concerned with studying what we share with others
-Establishing laws or generalisations about behaviour
Define idiographic
-What makes each of us unique instead of what makes us similar
Does the nomothetic approach prefer qualitative or quantitative data?
-Quantitative
-Measure of central tendency + dispersion
-Graphs
-Statistical analysis
Why does the nomothetic approach use quantitative data?
-Calculations require data from groups of people (thousands of people) rather than individuals (ie. research into IQ norms)
Which research methods do the nomothetic approach favour?
-Experiments
-Correlational research
-Psychometric testing
Which psychological approaches have a nomothetic approach?
-Behaviourist- operational and classical conditioning, tabula rasa
-Biological- genes + hormones effect on behaviour
-SLT- positive + negative + vicarious reinforcement, mediational processes
-Cognitive- WMM, MSM, computer models
Does the idiographic approach favour qualitative or quantitive research?
-Qualitative
-The focus is gaining insight into human behaviour by studying unique individuals rather than gaining numerical data from many individuals and determining average characteristics
Which research methods does the idiographic approach favour?
-Case studies
-Unstructured interviews
-Thematic analysis
Which psychological approaches favour the idiographic approach?
-Psychodynamic- psychosexual stages, Oedipus
complex, iceberg theory, tripartite personality
-Humanistic- Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, self-actualisation is individual
Strength of the nomothetic approach
P- viewed as scientific
E- Useful for predicting + controlling behaviour. Biological psychologists take a nomothetic approach when explaining OCD as the cause of OCD is high levels of dopamine and low levels of serotonin
E- Drug therapies have been developed because of this and work by addressing the imbalance
L- SSRIs are used to treat OCD as they increase the availability and uptake of serotonin which reduces the anxiety associated with OCD and helps to improve the quality of life of individuals living with this condition
Counter-drug treatments are not successful in all patients. Some psychologists argue that the best way to deal with OCD is CBT which is based on the idiographic approach. It works by trying to understand and explain the disorder from the paitents view
Weakness of the nomothetic approach (Looses sight of the whole person)
P -Nomothetic approach loses sight of the whole person due to its fixation of quantitiave data + statistical analysis
E-Only provides a superficial understanding of human behaviour
E- Milgrams research found that 65% of partcipants obeyed an authority figuire and inflicted a 450 v shock becaus ethey were ordered to
L- These results fail to explain why the people obeyed and there could hav ebeen different circumstances that lead each person to obey and so we cxan only makle predictions on groups not nindividuals
Weakness of the idiographic approach (unable to produce general laws)
-The methods used to study single individuals tend to be subjective, which means that they may be prone to various forms of bias
-Case
-researcher bias - the researcher becomes overly involved in the research and loses objectivity and equal treatment of all partcipants
-confirmation bias - the researcher looks for examples of behaviour/experience which align with their pre-existing ideas
-Bias means that the research may lack credibility
Give a limitation of the idiographic approach (genereaslisibilty and usefulness)
-It is not possible to generalise the findings from idiographic research to general populations due to the restricted sample size and unique and subjective nature of idiographic studies
-Therefore, it is unable to produce general laws or predictions about human behaviour
-This limits the overall usefulness of the research
-In particular, as a source of practical knowledge about the diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders
Give a strength of the idiographic approach
-The idiographic approach provides a comprehensive, global understanding of the individual
-This level of detail can lead to better insight into the complex and multi-layered nature of individual experience
-Such insight can subsequently inform therapies designed to suit individual needs e.g. psychotherapy or Roger’s client-centred approach
