2022-2024 Year 13 A-Level Psychology - Issues & Debates: Idiographic & Nomothetic Approaches
The nomothetic approach focuses on studying large groups to identify general laws of human behaviour, using quantitative data. It contrasts with the idiographic approach, which explores individual experiences in depth using qualitative methods.
What type of data is the nomothetic approach based on?
Quantitative
Key Terms
What type of data is the nomothetic approach based on?
Quantitative
The nomothetic approach aims to create …
General laws of human behaviour
Which sampling technique is used more by the nomothetic approach
Random
Which research methods are used by the nomothetic approaches
Lab experiments
Name two approaches which take a nomothetic approach
Biological
Behavioural
What does the idiographic approach suggest about people?
We are unique and we should study their subjective experience
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| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
What type of data is the nomothetic approach based on? | Quantitative |
The nomothetic approach aims to create … | General laws of human behaviour |
Which sampling technique is used more by the nomothetic approach | Random |
Which research methods are used by the nomothetic approaches | Lab experiments |
Name two approaches which take a nomothetic approach | Biological |
What does the idiographic approach suggest about people? | We are unique and we should study their subjective experience |
What type of data does the idiographic approach tend to use? | Qualitative |
Name methods used by the idiographic approach | Case study, unstructured interviews |
What is the aim of the idiographic approach? | To gain an insight into a person’s unique way of viewing the world |
Name an approach that uses a idiographic approach | Humanism |
What is one strength of an idiographic compared to a nomothetic approach? | More in-depth understanding of human experience |
Why is it not appropriate to argue for only using an idiographic or nomothetic approach? | They should be used together. We should create some general laws e.g. |
Why does Holy argue these two approaches are a false separation? | Despite humans being unique there are similarities and most idiographic will go on to create nomothetic approaches e.g. humanism and the core conditions of counselling |
Why do critics argue that idiographic approaches could lack internal validity? | Due to the absence of scientific methods. |
Why are we more able to create general laws of human behaviour through a nomothetic approach? | The nomothetic approach uses large samples allowing us to generalise behaviour to the wider population. |
Why would Freud’s work be considered to be idiographic? | Much of Freud’s work involved the use of the case study method, for example Little Hans. |
Why would the humanistic approach be considered idiographic? | Rogers and Maslow were interested in documenting the conscious experience of the self. They describe themselves as antiscientific and are more conscerned about the unique experience of the individual rather than creating ‘general laws of behaviour.’ |