Idiographic and Nomothetic approaches

Question 1

Idiographic approach

Answer 1

focuses more on the individual case as a means of understanding behaviour, rather than aiming to formulate general laws of behaviour

• associated with methods that produce qualitative data, such as case studies, unstructured interviews and other self-report measures.

central aims of idiographic research: to describe the richness of human experience and gain insight into the person’s unique way of viewing the world

Question 2

examples of idiographic approach in psychology

Answer 2

humanistic psychology - idiographic perspective

Rogers and Maslow - interested in only documenting the conscious experience of the individual of ‘self’

Question 3

Nomothetic approach

Answer 3

study human behaviour through the development if general principles and universal laws

• experiments
• large numbers of people in order to establish ways in which people are similar

Question 4

examples of nomothetic approach in psychology

Answer 4

reductionist, determinist and empty scientific methods of investigation
- Hypotheses are formulated, tested under controlled conditions and findings generated from large numbers of people are analysed for their statistical significance