idiographic & nomothetic approaches

Question 1

idiographic approach

Answer 1

approach focusing on individuals and emphasises uniqueness

Question 2

idiographic approach: qualitative data

Answer 2

• focuses on gaining insights into human behaviour by studying unique individuals in depth
• focuses on quality of info than quant
• methods like unstructured interviews & case studies

Question 3

idiographic approach: examples

Answer 3

• Freud used case study if Little Hand which included quotes from Hans’ father and descriptions of events in Hans’ life
• humanistic psychologists favour this approach as are concerned with studying the whole person & would form perspective of that person

Question 4

nomothetic approach

Answer 4

approach that forms general laws of behaviour based on study of groups and generalises findings

Question 5

nomothetic approach: quantitative research

Answer 5

• based on numbers & statistical analysis
• requires data from groups of people rather than individuals
• groups range from 20 to thousands

Question 6

nomothetic approach: examples

Answer 6

• biological approach aims to explain how body & brain works as such often generalises its findings to both sexes
• behaviourist approach produces general laws for behaviour- operant and classical conditioning

Question 7

evaluation for idiographic

Answer 7

FOCUS ON INDIVIDUAL LEVEL: respects humans as they are as unique individuals rather than a number
STRENGTH: more complete understanding of human behaviour
TIME CONSUMING: far more time consuming as collect large amount of data that is qualitative

Question 8

evaluation for nomothetic

Answer 8

TREATMENT: can generalise causes of one’s behaviour which makes it easier to developed treatments like SSRIs for OCD
LACK OF RESPECT: only sees humans as numbers and doesn’t respect individual differences and may give inappropriate treatments