Issues & Debates : Udiographic vs Nomothetic

Question 1

What’s the idiographic approach?

Answer 1

focusses on the individual and emphasise the unique personal experience of human nature

Question 2

What is the idiographic approach?

Answer 2

Focuses on the individual, generalisations could be made, subjective and rich human experience is used to explain behaviour.

Question 3

What type of research is involved in the idiographic approach?

Answer 3

Low number of Ps in research, qualitative research, indepth unstructured interviews (humanistic and psychodynamic approaches).

Question 4

What’s the objectivity of the idiographic approach?

Answer 4

Not seen as possible

Question 5

What does nomothetic mean?

Answer 5

concerned with establishing general laws, based on the study of large groups of people

Question 6

What’s the nomothetic approach?

Answer 6

Quantifies human behaviour to establish generalisations to create general ‘laws’ of behaviour that provide unifying principles that can predict and control behaviour.

(Radford & Kirby suggest the aims are to… classify people into groups, establish principles of behaviour that can be applied to people in general and establish dimensions along which people can be placed, compared and measured).

Question 7

What type of research is involved with the nomothetic approach?

Answer 7

They use statistical techniques and quantitative research like structured interviews and psychological tests (biological, cognitive and behaviourist approaches).

Question 8

What’s the objectivity of the nomothetic approach?

Answer 8

It’s central

Question 9

What are the strengths of the nomothetic approach?

Answer 9

• Follows scientific approach as it makes use of experimental methods → when cognitive psychologists model working memory, parts of the target behaviour can be reliably measured using operationalised categories, which increases the internal validity

Question 10

What are the limitations of the nomothetic approach?

Answer 10

• Doesn’t take into account individual differences → research into the frequency of depression or bipolar disorder tells us little about the experiences, so little about what treatments may be most beneficial.
• Can’t predict behaviour of an individual due to fixation on quantitative data (only group behaviour) → For example, Milgram’s research found 65% of Ps obeyed an authority figure and doing a 450-volt electric shock because they were ordered to. However, the results don’t explain why each person obeyed, as different circumstances could have led to obedience in different Ps

Question 11

What are the strengths of the idiographic approach?

Answer 11

• Powerful tool in evaluating psychological theories (bc of case studies) → For example, HM exposed a limitation of the MSM, by providing evidence that our LTM is not one unitary store as he was able to gain new procedural memories but not new episodic or semantic memories

Question 12

What are the limitations of the idiographic approach?

Answer 12

• Less scientific → For example, the emphasis on in-depth data collection and the difficulties in getting justifiable generalisations contradicts the central purpose of science (to explain the most variations in the fewest terms), so that behaviour can be predicted and controlled
• Case studies and qualitative methods are time consuming and unrepresentative → For example, the emphasis on in-depth data collection and the difficulties in getting justifiable generalisations contradicts the central purpose of science (to explain the most variations in the fewest terms), so that behaviour can be predicted and controlled