Idiographic and nomothetic approaches

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Strength - idiographic provides rich data

The idiographic approach provides a complete and global account of the individual, such as the study of HM. 

A single case may generate hypotheses for further study (e.g. the case of HM in memory research helped our understnading that some procedural memories are more resistant to amnesia).

Such findings from unique cases may reveal important insights about normal functioning which may contribute to our overall understanding of behvaiour.

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Limitation - idiographic lacks scientific rigour

Supporters of the idiographic approach may have to achknowledge the subjective and restrictive nature of their work.

One criticism of Freud is that many of his key concepts (e.g. the Oedipus complex) were largely devloped from the detailed study of a single case (e.g. Little Hans).

Meaningful generalisations cannot be made without further examples, which means conclusions tend to rely on the subjective interprertation of the researcher and are therefore open to bias.

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Strength - nomothetic is scientific

The processes involved in nomothetic research tend to be more scientific, mirroring those employed within the natural sciences.

These processes include standardised procedures, assessing reliability and validity, and using statistical analyses to demonstrate significance.

This arguably gives the discipline of psychology greater scientific credibility.

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Limitation - nomothetic loses the whole person.

The precoccupation within the nonomothetic approach on general laws, prediction and control has been accused of 'losing the whole person' within psychology.

Knowing there is a 1% lifetime risk of devloping schizophrenia tells us little about what life is like with it. In lab tests of memory participants are treated as a set of scores rather than as individual people. 

This means, in its search for general laws, the nomothetic approach may sometimes overlook the importance of human experience.

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Strength - complementary not contradictory

Rather than seeing idiographic and nomothetic approaches as either/or alternatives, we can consider the same issues or topic from both perspectives, depending on the nature of the research question.

Research on gender devlopment attempts to establish general patterns of behavour (e.g. Bem's androgymy scale) alongside case studies of atypical devlopment (e.g. the case of David Reimer).

The goal of modern psychology is to provide rich, detailed descriptions of human behviour as well as the explanation of such behviour within the framework of general laws.

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