Nomothetic Flashcards
What is nomothetic?
Study of larger groups aimed at discovering norms, universal principles or ‘laws’ of behaviour.
How has mainstream psychology approached research?
Mainstream psychology has tended to be nomothetic in its approach, but idiographic contributions have been substantial.
What is quantitative research based on?
Quantitative research is based on numbers and involves measures of central tendency and dispersion, graphs, and statistical analysis.
What type of data is required for quantitative research?
Data required from groups of people, not individuals, emphasizing generalization over uniqueness.
How many participants can quantitative studies have?
Studies may have 20 to thousands of participants.
What is an example of biological nomothetic research?
Biological research seeks to portray the basic principles of how the body and brain work, however in the past only men were used as subjects.
What does behaviourist research produce?
Behaviourist research produces general laws of behaviour through operant and classical conditioning, often generalizing findings from animals to humans.
What is an example of nomothetic approach in social psychology?
Milgram’s research used the nomothetic approach and made general conclusions based on his findings.
What do psychological theories with nomothetic assumptions propose?
They propose generalised principles of behaviour, such as the intelligence theory of 10.
What do classification manuals like the DSM-IV do?
They classify people according to particular types of disorders.
What is the first step in carrying out research?
The researcher would test a large sample.
What method should be used for sample selection?
Sampling should involve a method to give representativeness of a larger target population, e.g., random sampling.
What type of hypothesis is used in research?
The researcher would use a testable directional hypothesis.
What does the research involve in terms of data?
It involves a collection of a large amount of data.
What methods are used for analysis in research?
Analysis would involve quantitative methods, e.g., statistical testing and drawing conclusions in relation to a wider population.
