ISSUES AND DEBATES- Idiographic and nomothetic

Question 1

Define nomothetic

Answer 1

-Mainly concerned with studying what we share with others
-Establishing laws or generalisations about behaviour

Question 2

Define idiographic

Answer 2

-What makes each of us unique instead of what makes us similar

Question 3

Does the nomothetic approach prefer qualitative or quantitative data?

Answer 3

-Quantitative
-Measure of central tendency + dispersion
-Graphs
-Statistical analysis

Question 4

Why does the nomothetic approach use quantitative data?

Answer 4

-Calculations require data from groups of people (thousands of people) rather than individuals (ie. research into IQ norms)

Question 5

Which research methods do the nomothetic approach favour?

Answer 5

-Experiments
-Correlational research
-Psychometric testing

Question 6

Which psychological approaches have a nomothetic approach?

Answer 6

-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

Question 7

Does the idiographic approach favour qualitative or quantitive research?

Answer 7

-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

Question 8

Which research methods does the idiographic approach favour?

Answer 8

-Case studies
-Unstructured interviews
-Thematic analysis

Question 9

Which psychological approaches favour the idiographic approach?

Answer 9

-Psychodynamic- psychosexual stages, Oedipus
complex, iceberg theory, tripartite personality
-Humanistic- Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, self-actualisation is individual

Question 10

Strength of the nomothetic approach

Answer 10

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

Question 11

Weakness of the nomothetic approach (Looses sight of the whole person)

Answer 11

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