idiographic and nomothetic

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  • Created by: Aimee W x
  • Created on: 14-03-22 16:53
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  • idiographic and nomothetic approaches
    • idiographic: approach which focuses on the individual - considered as a unique case with their own subjective experiences, values and motivations.
      • produces qualitative data (case studies, unstructured interviews)
        • use of these methods reflects aims of idiographic research - to describe richness of human experience and gain insight into the persons unique way of viewing the world.
      • Humanistic Psychology -  Rogers and Maslow concerned with the unique experience of the individual rather than producing general laws for behaviour.
        • psychodynamic psychology - Freud used detailed case studies (little Hans) as a way of understanding behaviour.
    • nomothetic approach: formulate general laws of human behaviour and then provide a standard against which people behaviour can be measured and compared in order to predict and control it.
      • produces quantitative data (experiments).
        • studying large numbers of people allow norms to be established
      • behaviourists
      • biological psychologists - brain scans to make generalisations about localisation of function
      • cognitive psychology -  Miller - Formulates general principles of memory processing.

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