Idiographic & Nomothetic Approach

Idiographic approach - Psychologists who take an idiographic approach focus on the individual and emphasise the unique personal experiences of human nature
1. Idiographic methods of investigation provide an in depth insight to individual behaviour. This approach does not seek to formulate laws or generalise results to others
  1. Case studies - Shallice and Warrington (1970) examined the case of Patient KF, who experienced a motorbike accident. KF’s short-term forgetting of auditory information was greater than his forgetting of visual information, suggesting that short-term memory (STM) consists of multiple components. The idea of a single STM component is undermined by Patient KF, and the results suggest the existence of a separate auditory and visual STM store.
  2. Unstructured interviews
  3. Thematic analysis
  4. The Humanist Approach
Nomothetic approach - Psychologists who take a nomothetic approach are concerned with establishing general laws, based on the study of large groups of people.
1. The nomothetic approach is the main approach within scientifically oriented psychology.
  1. Biological Approach - Biological Psychologists take a nomothetic approach when explaining psychological disorders, such as OCD and depression. They typically pinpoint biological factors, such as neurotransmitters, that are responsible for such disorders and use biological therapies (e.g. drugs) to treat all patients.
  2. Behaviourist Approach - Behaviourists, such as Pavlov and Skinner, conducted experiments with animals in order to establish laws of learning (classical and operant conditioning) that could be generalised to humans and non-human animals.
  3. Cognitive Approach - Cognitive Psychologists, such as Atkinson and Shiffrin, developed general laws, such as the Multi-Store Model of Memory, which they believed could be generalised to everyone
    1. While the cognitive approach attempts to establish general laws (e.g. the Multi-Store Model of Memory) in relation to cognitive process, cognitive psychologists also utilise the case study method (an idiographic technique) e.g. Shallice and Warrington (1970) Patient KF and Corkin (1997) Patient HM
  4. Psychometric testing
  5. Lab experiment
  6. Correlational research
Evaluation points
1. One strength of the idiographic approach is the focus on the individual. For example, Allport (1961), who was the first to use the term idiographic, argued that a drastic reorientation was needed as psychologists has lost sight of what it was to be human. Allport argued that it is only by fully understanding an individual that we can predict how an individual might act in a given situation. This matters because the idiographic approach has been responsible for refocusing psychology back on the individual.
2. One criticism of the idiographic approach is that it is not scientific. However, some idiographic approaches such as case studies or qualitative research, do use an evidence based approach and seek to be objective and attempts are made to ensure validity. Despite criticism, the idiographic approach attempts to use evidence based methods and techniques. For example, qualitative approaches use techniques like reflexivity, where the researcher reflects critically during the research process about the factors that might affect the researcher and participants.
3. Another criticism of the idiopgraphic approach is the inability to produce general predictions about behaviour. For example, to allow psychologists to develop drugs that treat mental illness. Some psychologists argue that this is a severe limitation. Furthermore, it would be too time consuming to produce personal theraphies for every individual. This suggests that the idiographic approach is not suitable for developing psyhchological treatments and other approaches might be more useful.
4. One more criticism of the idiographic approach is that it is relatively time consuming. While both approaches are based on large amounts of data, the idiographic approach is basedon large amounts of data from one person. Collecting a large amount of data from a group also takes time but is relatively quicker because the data can be generated more easily. This matters because the idiographic approach is less efficient when it comes to collecting data.
5. A final cionsideration id the idiographic approach is that the disticition between the idiographic and nomothetic approach is fake, For example, Holt ( 1967) claimed that there is no such thing as a unique individual and the approach is used for general principles. Some argue that researchers should start with the nomothetic approach and can then focus on idiographic understanding. Consrquently, researchers argue that both approaches should be used together,

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Idiographic & Nomothetic Approach

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	Created by Anya Riley about 7 years ago