Idiographic and Nomothetic - Issues and debates
- Created by: Georgia
- Created on: 03-03-19 22:15
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- Idiographic and nomothetic approaches to psychological research
- Idiographic approach Considers the unique individual; subjective; personal study to 'capture' individuality; no general laws because of free will and uniqueness
- Research methods Case studies Self-report Content analysis
- Case studies Unique and holistic individual; demonstrate and evaluate theory
- Lack of applicability
- Self-report More detailed; self-reflection
- Content analysis Auto-biographies; letters; diaries; personal documents
- e.g. Clive Wearing's diary
- Case studies Unique and holistic individual; demonstrate and evaluate theory
- Research methods Case studies Self-report Content analysis
- Idiographic limitations Can't generalise; subjective and un-standardised research methods; can be considered unscientific (lack of qual. data)
- Nomothetic approach Studying large groups of people, similar behaviour; general laws of behaviour can be established
- 3 general laws Radford and Kirby (1975)
- 1. Classifying people into groups using behaviour (e.g. DSM)
- 2. Establishing principles of behaviour that can be generalised (e.g. obedience/ conformity research)
- 3. Establishing dimensions in which people can be compared (e.g. IQ scores, statistical deviation)
- Research methods Scientific methods (quan. data); data from large group can be scientifically analysed
- Idiographic strengths Qualitative data (detailed); holistic (full analysis); starting base for further research; allows us to explore naturally occurring stimuli (e.g. Romanian orphans)
- Nomothetic strengths Scientific (standardised, hypotheses); generalised and replicable (large groups)
- Nomothetic limitations Loses aspect of individuality (objective); gives superficial understanding of a person (e.g. F scale)
- Idiographic approach Considers the unique individual; subjective; personal study to 'capture' individuality; no general laws because of free will and uniqueness
- Idiographic
- Nomothetic
- Humanistic
- Psychodynami
- Biological
- Cognitive
- Behaviourist
- Cognitive
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