Nomothetic and Ideographic Flashcards
define nomothetic approach
a scientific method for studying human behavior by developing general laws and principles.
define ideographic approach
a method in the social sciences that focuses on understanding an individual’s behavior over time and in different situations
what are the experimental methods used for the nomothetic approach
experiment (lab, field, natural)
Correlation
what are the experimental methods used for the ideographic approach
case study
interviews
what is the main idea behind ideographic approach
they believe that every individual is unique and therefore isn’t concerned with generalisation
what is the main idea behind nomothetic approach
the generalization of rules based upon representative groups of the population using rigorous scientific methods
explain how psychopathology links to the nomothetic vs ideographic approach
CBT is used for many treatments e.g OCD, this therapy is directly linked to the client based upon their needs thus fitting an ideographic point of view unlike nomothetic treatments such as drug therapy which can be applied to everyone with that disorder
explain how social influence links to the nomothetic vs ideographic approach
explanations for conformity suggests that we conform due to normative or informational social influence suggesting that we all respond to social influence in the same way (nomothetic approach)
There may be more individual reasons as to why we do or don’t obey dependant or dispositional characteristics which may offer a better explanation of behaviour (ideographic)
strength of the nomothetic approach
P= nomothetic process is scientific
E= testing under standardised conditions, prediction and control and statistical analysis
E= general laws allows psychologists to predict behaviour and identify at risk groups as they can establish cause and effect
L= Therefore this allows for replication and determine if findings are reliable helping psychology become more scientifically disciplined
limitation of the nomothetic approach
P: the nomothetic perspective can only explain group behaviour and no that of the individual
E: as we lose sight of the whole person due to fixation on quantitative analysis
L: Therefore we gain a superficial understanding of human behaviour such as milgram finding 65% of p.t obeyed but doesn’t explain why each individual obeyed
strength of ideographic approach
P= provides deeper understanding that quantitative methods cant provide
E= qualitative methods such as case studies allow us to gain more in depth info on general laws
E= single cases can generate new ideas e.g. clive wearing showed MSM of memory was incorrect
L= these findings reveal important insights about normal functioning which helps contribute to understanding
limitation of the ideographic approach
P= supporters of idiographic approach must recognise narrow/restricted nature of their work
E= e.g. Freud’s concept like Oedipus were developed mostly from case study of Little Hans
E= meaningful generalisations can’t be made due to uniqueness of data
L= case studies often rely on subjective interpretation of researcher and as such open to bias
interactionism evaluation of idiographic and nomothetic approach
P= wrong to say nothing in common with other people or to say we’re all the same
E= both are needed but used at different stages in overall process
E= e.g use experiments to test effectiveness of antidepressants vs placebo then conduct extended interviews on p.t
L= this leads to a more complete understanding of behaviour.
