Idiographic & Nomothetic Approaches

Test yourself on Idiographic & Nomothetic Approaches

After reading these notes, test your knowledge with free interactive questions on Seneca — used by over 10 million students.

Nomothetic Approaches

Nomothetic is an approach that focuses on the whole population.

Nomothetic research

Nomothetic research tries to find universal laws that can be applied to whole populations of people.
Mostly, the research entails quantitative research in the form of laboratory studies and correlational research. Statistical data is powerful because it is generally reliable and valid.
From these studies, general laws and theories of human behaviour can be made.

Strengths of nomothetic research

Nomothetic research has strengths, depending on the needs of the research.
As nomothetic research is quantitative, it is a highly scientific approach.
- The studies can be highly controlled, avoid extraneous variables and bias.
- Objective data can be obtained rather than subjective data.

Weaknesses of nomothetic research

Studies that use scientific research, such as laboratory studies, also tend to have low ecological validity.
- This means it is rare that the results can validly be applied to real life.
By examining the whole population, some details are going to be missed or ignored.
Behaviour that does not fit into the norm of the general laws created is sometimes not explained.

Idiographic Approaches

Idiographic approaches focus on the individual.

Idiographic research

Idiographic research focuses on individuals.
- (Remember ‘I’ for individual).
It looks at the individual in detail.
This research relies on qualitative methods such as questionnaires, case studies, interviews and observations of individuals.

Strengths of idiographic research

Idiographic research can be useful in different cases.
By focusing on the individual, a more complete explanation is likely compared to the nomothetic approach.

Weaknesses of idiographic research

By focusing on individuals, such as in case studies, it is difficult to generalise findings to a whole population.
Idiographic research is usually qualitative, so it can be more subjective. For this reason, it can be seen as less scientific than nomothetic research.

Exceptions

There are some exceptions.
- Certain case studies have been foundational in developing nomothetic laws and theories.
- A famous example of idiographic research that generated nomothetic ideas is the case study of H.M. (Milner et al, 1957).

(Milner et al. 1957)

H.M was a man who suffered from severe epilepsy.
The doctors treated him by removing the area of the brain responsible for the seizures - in this case, the hippocampus.
After the surgery, he had difficulty forming new long-term memories.

(Milner et al. 1957) conclusions

They concluded that the hippocampus is important in the formation of long-term memories.
This concept could be applied to everyone. So an idiographic conclusion had nomothetic applications.

Psychological Approaches - Idiographic-Nomothetic Approaches

There are five general approaches to psychology: psychodynamic, biological, cognitive, behaviourist and humanistic. These approaches fall along the idiographic-nomothetic approaches.

The psychodynamic approach

The psychodynamic approach has both idiographic and nomothetic tendencies.
The approach is idiographic because Freud studied behaviour in individuals (such as Little Hans) in case studies.
These case studies were then used to develop broader, nomothetic laws.
Freud’s theory of psychosexual development was based on these studies, but Freud believed they could apply to everyone.

The biological approach

The biological approach is nomothetic.
Its aim is to develop theories regarding biological function, structures and processes in everyone.
The approach assumes that human physiology is basically the same across a whole population, making it nomothetic.

Biological examples

For example, by discovering the localisation of brain structure, we can assume that the vast majority of people have the same brain structure.
Another example would be neuron structure being consistently the same across humanity.

The cognitive approach

The cognitive approach is also nomothetic.
Cognitive research looks at the mental processes of humans.
It assumes that the processes are largely the same across the population.
- For example, Piaget’s theory of cognitive development can broadly be applied across all humans. We all, basically, go through the same stages of development.

The behaviourist approach

The behaviourist approach is also nomothetic
Behaviourists look for cause and effect laws. These laws can be applied across a population.
- For example, Skinner’s operant conditioning principles of learning through positive and negative reinforcement can be generalised to an entire population.

The humanistic approach

Finally, the humanistic approach is really the only one that falls completely on the idiographic side.
Humanism focuses on the individual as they strive towards self-actualisation.
Most studies involve qualitative research.