issues and debates - idiographic + nomothetic Flashcards
what does idiographic approach focus on
the individual and emphasises the unique, personal experience humans have
how is the idiographic approach demonstrated
People are studied independently,
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
what research methods are idiographic
Qualitative research methods such as case studies, unstructured interviews and thematic analysis
-> allows an in-depth insight into human behaviour from a unique point of view.
what are examples of the idiographic approach
The humanistic approach is an example.
Rogers and Maslow were only interested in documenting the conscious experience of the individual or self
avoided general laws because humanism -> antiscientific
what does the nomothetic approach want to establish and why ?
general laws based on the study of large groups of people using statistical techniques to analyse data.
because ->provide a benchmark against which people can be classified and measured. This allows future behaviour to be predicted and controlled.
what nomothetic research methods are there
Quantitative methods such as experiments, correlations and psychometric testing are favoured by nomothetic researchers
-> regarded as scientific
what is an example of nomothetic approach
. 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.
what is an example of where idiographic or nomothetic approaches overlap
psychodynamic
case studies -> idiographic
universal laws such as personality development and the psycho-sexual stages -> nomothetic
strength + weakness for idiographic approach
The idiographic approach can complement the nomothetic approach by providing support or challenging general laws of behaviour
eg -> individualised case study of KF -> showed two different types of short-term memory, challenging the multi-store model which said that it was a unitary store.
the idiographic approach uses unscientific methods to find out in-depth information about an individual -> case studies
conclusions likely to be subjective + bias as they require interpretation of researcher
strength + weakness of nomothetic approach
point -> Nomothetic research tends to be more scientific as: testing is under standardised conditions and more controlled, use of quantitive methods
evidence-> using nomothetic + scientific approaches
eg experiments - psychologists have established that the average IQ is 100 and that the normal range for IQ is between 70 and 130.
counter argument -> focusing entirely on general laws and predicting and controlling behaviour can mean that the whole person is lost.
explanation -> a 1% probability that someone will develop schizophrenia does not tell us what it is like to suffer from the illness. This means that the richness of human experience is overlooked.
strength of both approaches (NOT mutually exclusive)
, it is possible to consider the issue from both perspectives.
eg - , Shaffer’s stages of attachment -> nomothetic, suggest that all children go through the stages in the same order.
Bowlby’s 44 thieves study -> idiographic because used series of detailed case studies showing what can happen during early development.
considering both approaches -> detailed descriptions of human behaviour + explanation for behaviour within framework of general laws
