idiographic and nomothetic

Question 1

what it abt

Answer 1

abt how psychologists should study people

idiographic = study each person as unique
nomothetic = look for general rules that apply to everyone

Question 2

idiographic approach

Answer 2

personal experiences
doesn’t make general rules
qualitative meths used
believes results shouldn’t be generalised to others

e.g freud case =
studied lil Hans in detail

key meths used
case study
interviews
diaries

high ecological validity , low gen
idio= individual

Question 3

nomothetic approach

Answer 3

finds laws of behaviour that apply to many ppl
focus on group not individual
scientific , qualitative meths

e.g
behaviourist approach
how rewards/punishmnt , affect everyone

key meth
experiments
large samples

high generalisability , lack depth

Question 4

strength , minority

Answer 4

gives voice to minority
help understand rare behaviours , which may be ignored by nomothetic research

Question 5

weakness , idiographic

Answer 5

limits genreealisability
hard to apply case study findings to wider pop

Question 5

nomothetic strength

Answer 5

scientific cred
uses standardised controlled exp
findings more reliable

Question 6

nomothetic limitation

Answer 6

lacks individual insight
doesn’t tea into acc uniqueness of human experience