Issues And Debates - Idiographic & Nomothetic

Question 1

What is the idiographic approach?

Answer 1

An approach that attempts to describe the individual as a unique entity and not compared to a larger group, standard or norm

Question 2

What research methods does the idiographic approach usually use?

Answer 2

case studies
unstructured interviews
self-report techniques -> find qualitative data

Question 3

What is the nomothetic approach?

Answer 3

An approach that attempts to study human behaviour through developing general principles and universal laws

Question 4

What research methods does the nomothetic approach usually use?

Answer 4

Experiments (regarded as scientific & can study large amount of people and find ways that are similar or different)

Question 5

What approaches in psychology follow the idiographic approach?

Answer 5

Humanistic -> Rodgers & Maslow had a phenomenological approach to studying humans and was only interested in the individual

Psychodynamic -> Freud used case studies (however he did claim to find universal laws of human behaviour -> nomothetic)

Question 6

What approaches in psychology follow the nomothetic approach?

Answer 6

Behaviourism - Skinner studied animals to develop laws of learning
Biological - brain scans have allowed generalisations of localisation of brain function to be made
Cognitive - large samples of people in lab tests has allowed the structure and processes of human memory to be inferred

Question 7

EVALUATION: What is the strengths of the idiographic approach?

Answer 7

Provides a complete & global account of the individual & may complement the nomothetic approach (sheds light on general laws or challenging them)

e.g., case studies e.g. HM may generate hypotheses for further study but brain damaged individuals (like HM) findings may reveal insights of normal functioning -> contribute to overall understanding

Question 8

EVALUATION: What is the criticisms of the idiographic approach?

Answer 8

Very narrow & restricted nature of work + methods e.g. case studies tend to be the least scientific & are open to bias (rely on subjective interpretation of researcher)

e.g. Criticisms of Freud for the Oedipus complex (largely developed from case studies e.g. Little Hans) -> generalisations cannot be made without further example (no baseline to compare behaviour)

Question 9

EVALUATION: What is the strengths of the nomothetic approach?

Answer 9

More scientific (standardisation) -> allows psychologists to establish norms of ‘typical’ behaviour -> gives psychology greater credibility

Question 10

EVALUATION: What is the criticisms of the nomothetic approach?

Answer 10

Accused of ‘losing the whole person’ e.g. lab tests of memory, the particpants are treated as scores rather than individuals & the subjective experience of the situation is ignored -> may overlook richness of human experience

Question 11

EVALUATION: What is the complementary rather than contradictory approach to the idiographic & nomothetic debate?

Answer 11

You can consider the same issue/topic from both perspectives depending the nature of research question - allows psychology to provide rich & detailed descriptions of human behaviour + explaining behaviour in terms of general laws