idiographic and nomothetic debate

Question 1

what is idiographic research

Answer 1

this focuses on an individual and emphasises the unique personal experience of human beings. it doesnt seek to generalise

Question 2

what are examples of idiographic research

Answer 2

case studies
unstructured interviews

Question 3

what is the nomothetic approach

Answer 3

people that take a nomothetic approach are concerned with establishing general laws, based on the study of large groups of people.

Question 4

what are examples of nomothetic research

Answer 4

correlations, experiments, psychometric testing

Question 5

what is a real life example of a nomothetic approach

Answer 5

the uk government is to pilot the use of psychometric personality and attitude tests on the unemployed in three regions of the country. the idea is that the tests will highlight personality traits and attitudes that might affect whether someone actively seeks employment

Question 6

what is the a03 for the idiographic and nomothetic approach

Answer 6

a strength is that it provides a more precise and scientific explanation than an idioographic approach- the process involved in nomothetic research tends to be more scientific, mirroring those employed within the natural sciences such as testing under controlled conditions and using standardised procedures.

the nomothetic approach is seen as scientific and is useful for predicting and controlling behaviour, biological psychologists take nomothetic approach when explaining OCD and claim its caused by high levels of dopamine and low levels of serotonin. drug therapies have been established due to the nomothetic research

nomothetic research has some exceptions, the laws found doesnt apply to every human being, e.g. operant conditioning can explain why some people get addicted but not why others dont. these laws are not universal

idiographic research focuses on the uniqueness of each individual therefore it can explain individual differences