Lesson 7 - Idiographic and Nomothetic approaches to psychological investigation

Question 1

Define idiographic

Answer 1

Psychologists who take an idiographic approach focus on the individual and emphasise the unique personal experience of human nature. No comparisons are made with a larger group.

Gains qualitatively data, case studies and unstructured interviews with open questions are common to gain an understanding of the human experience

Question 2

What are open ended questions?

Answer 2

Questions that ask for a detailed, qualitative answer

Question 3

Examples of the idiographic approach

Answer 3

• Shallice and Warrington (1970) with case study of K.F. (weakness of the multi store memory model). He had a poor auditory STM but a good visual STM. We focus on his own experience.
• The humanistic approach focuses on the growth of the individual and their own experience
• The psychodynamic approach focuses on case studies, for example the case of Little Hans and Anna ‘O’. However, while he did look at these as individuals, he used them to create a nomothetic law of psychosexual development.

Question 4

Define nomothetic

Answer 4

Psychologists who use the nomothetic approach are concerned with establishing general laws based on the study of large groups of people using statistical or quantitative data

Question 5

Examples of a nomothetic approach

Answer 5

• Cognitive psychologists like Atkinson and Shiffrin try to apply a single model of memory to all humans, the Multi-Store Model of Memory. They believe that this can be generalised to everyone.
• Marie Ainsworth’s Strange Situation created three types of attachment and generalised this to all infants, with some having a Type A, B or C attachment.
• In psychopathology, classification manuals like the DSM-V and the ICD-10 take a nomothetic approach, as they diagnose people with mental illnesses based off of specific symptoms. This can be generalised to anyone.

Question 6

Strengths of the idiographic approach

Answer 6

• By using qualitative methods, it provides a complete and global account of the individual. It will therefore shed further light on nomothetic principles when challenging laws or adapting them. For example, the case study of H.M. in terms of memory and brain damage has aided our understanding
• Case studies are a powerful tool in evaluating psychological theories like the multi store model of memory. Shallice and Warrington (1970) proves that the short term memory is not a singular store. Therefore case studies can develop our understanding into a phenomenon like memory

Question 7

Weaknesses of the idiographic approach

Answer 7

• The idiographic approach cannot formulate general laws and predictions about human behaviour, and this severely limits its application of scientific understanding and limits its usefulness.
• Another flaw in this approach is the use of case studies. For example, they are very time consuming. Freud’s case of Little Hans contains 150 pages of exact quotes from Hans’ father, and as well as this, this is a very specific situation, therefore the psychosexual stages that developed from this (a nomothetic approach, as it is a law) is based off of limited and unrepresentative studies.

Question 8

Strengths of the nomothetic approach

Answer 8

• Unlike the idiographic approach, the nomothetic approach is more scientific, as it adopts features of conventional sciences like falsifiability and the ability to apply and generalise. It also uses quantitative experimental methods within a controlled environment. We can also replicate studies to test for reliability.
• It is also useful in predicting and controlling behaviour. For example, OCD is said to be caused by higher levels of dopamine and lower levels of serotonin. Therefore we can use drug therapies that are developed on the basis of scientific nomothetic research.

Question 9

Weaknesses of the nomothetic approach

Answer 9

• There are issues with generalising. For example, drug therapies to treat patients with depression cannot work on everyone, as anti-depressants are not successful on all patients. Therefore other treatments may be better like CBT. Therefore there are flaws with assuming that the same medication will work on everyone.
• Some psychologists argue that this approach loses sight of the ‘whole person’. It also only produces a superficial understanding of behaviour. For example Milgram’s Shock Experiment found that 65% of participants shocked up to 450V, but does not provide a valid explanation as to why.
• Allport argues that while experiments like Milgram’s can allow us to predict the behaviour of a population (like 65% of a group will shock up to 450V) it is only an understanding of the person that we can predict their individual behaviour.

Question 10

Holt (1967)

Answer 10

Holt argues that there is a false distinction between the two approaches, and they should be treated as complementary and not opposites. For example, some researches use both approaches together, like cognitive psychologists studying memory. They apply given laws (nomothetic) like the Working Memory Model, but also apply case studies like Shallice and Warrington (1970) and Patient K.F, which is an idiographic approach. This provides evidence or contradictions to help develop these theories.