Idiographic and Nomothetic

Idiographic and Nomothetic (AO1)

• Idiographic
• Means private, personal or individual.
• Focuses on individual behaviour as a means for understanding behaviour.
• People are studied as 'unique entities' with their own subjective experiences, motivations and values.
• No attempt made to compare these to a larger group standard or norm.
• Nomothetic
• Means law.
• Studies human behaviour through the development of general principles and universal laws.
• Provides a 'benchmark' against which people can be compared, classified or measured.
• Likely future behaviour can therefore be predicted and/or controlled.

Idiographic (AO3)

• For Idiographic...
• Provides a complete and global account of the individual.
• For example;
• A single case (like HMs) may generate hypotheses for further study. Findings may also reveal normal functioning which may contribute to our overall understanding.
• Against Idiographic...
• Work can be narrow and restricted.
• Criticism of Freud's Oedipus Complex
• is that concepts were developed from the study of a single case (Little Hans).
• Meaningful generalisations cannot be made without further examples.
• Case studies are also the least scientific as conclusions made are open to bias and rely on subjective interpretations.

Nomothetic (AO3)

• For Nomothetic...
• More scientific.
• Testing under standardised conditions, statistical analysis etc.
• Processes enable psychologists to establish norms of 'typical' behaviour, arguably giving the discipline of psychology greater scientific credibility.
• Against Nomothetic...
• Accused of 'losing the whole person' within psychology.
• For example;
• Knowing there is a 1% lifetime risk of developing Schizophrenia tells us little what life is like for someone who is suffering from the disorder.
• Participants are treated as scores rather than individual people. Subjective experiences are ignored.
• The Nomothetic approach may overlook the richness of human experience.