Idiographic & Nomothetic Approaches
Examples of Idiographic
Idiographic Approach
- The humanistic approach is the best example of the idiographic perspective.
- Rogers and Maslow were only interested in the conscious experience of the self.
- The psychodynamic approach is often called idiographic as Freud used case studies, but he did also develop universal laws.
- Attempts to describe the nature of the individual.
- People are studied as unique entities, with their own subjective experiences and values.
- Generally associated with methods that produce qualitative data.
- For example, case studies, unstructured interviews and other self-report methods.
- Reflects the aim of idiographic research - to describe the richness of human experience.
Examples of Nomothetic
Evaluation
Against Idiographic
For Idiographic
- Utilises in-depth qualitative methods.
- Provides a complete, global account of the individual.
- Complements the nomothetic approach by providing further light on general laws or by challenging them.
- A single case may generate hypotheses for further study.
- The approach is narrow and restricted.
- Freud, for example, received criticism for basing many of his key concepts on a single case study.
- Means generalisations cannot be made.
- Methods used are less scientific.
- Conclusions drawn are often based on subjective interpretations.
- A feature of reductionist and determinist approaches that use scientific methods.
- Hypotheses are formed and tested.
- Findings are generalised.
- Skinner and the behaviourists studied responses of hundreds of rats, cats, etc. to develop the laws of learning.
- Cognitive psychologists infer the structure and processes of human memory by measuring performance of large samples of people in lab tests.
- Biological psychologists have conducted brain scans on countless human brains to make generalisations about localisation of function.
Against Nomothetic
Nomothetic Approach
For Nomothetic
- Processes involved in nomothetic research are very scientific, mirroring those used in natural sciences.
- These processes have enabled psychologists to establish norms of 'typical' behaviour.
- Gives psychology greater scientific credibility.
- By focusing on general laws about large groups of people, the approach 'loses the whole person'.
- In lab research participants are often treated as scores rather than as people.
- Their subjective experience is ignored.
- Overlooks the richness of human experience.
Complementary, Not Contradictory
- Could consider the same topic from both.
- In research on gender development, there are general patterns of behaviour alongside case studies of atypical development.
- Modern psychology aims to provide rich, detailed descriptions of human behaviour as well as explaining behaviour within the framework of general laws.
- The main aim is to produce general laws of human behaviour.
- These provide a 'benchmark' against which people can be compared, classified and measured.
- Also predicts and/or controls likely future behaviour.
- Closely aligned with those 'scientific' methods such as experiments.
- Study a large number of people to establish ways people are similar.
- Radford and Kirby produced 3 types of law:
- Classifying people into groups (DSM 5)
- Establishing principles (applied in general)
- Establishing dimensions (placed into and compared)