The Ideographic vs' Nomothetic Approaches to Psychology

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The Ideographic vs. Nomothetic Approaches to
Psychology

• idios - Greek
• private or personal.
• IDEOGRAPHIC APPROACH- the approach of
  investigating individuals in
• personal, in depth, detail
• to achieve a unique understanding of them. This
  approach emphasises the differences between
  individuals.
• IDEOGRAPHIC THEORIES - are based on the
  assumption that human beings are unique and can
  only be understood through the use of techniques
  that are designed to reflect that uniqueness.

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• IDEOGRAPHIC METHODS(techniques) OF RESEARCH-
  ideographic research focuses on detailed study of
  an individual or group or individuals as opposed
  to groups. The
• Case study
• method is the best example, as they involve more
  flexible, long term detailed procedures.
• nomos Greek
• law
• NOMOTHETIC APPROACH-the approach of
  investigating large groups of people to try to
  find
• general laws
• of behaviour that apply to everyone. This
  approach emphasises the similarities between
  individuals.

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• NOMOTHETIC THEORIES-
• are based on the idea that there are laws of
  behaviour which are
• applied to everyone
• and can be used to compare people with each
  other.
• Individuals are merely complex combinations of
  many
• universal laws and are best studied by
• large scale
• methods to discover those laws.
• Individuals studied will be classified with
  others, measured
• as a score on a dimension, or be a statistic to
  support a
• general principle or law.

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• NOMOTHETIC METHODS OF RESEARCH-
• nomothetic research focuses on gathering
  information
• (data) from large groups of people in order to
  arrive at
• principles of behaviour. These principles are
  then applied
• (generalised) to a larger group (or a whole
  population of
• people) by making comparisons with norms of
  behaviour.
• Experimentation is the preferred technique used
  to
• gather this data, but other nomothetic methods
  include
• Surveys, Observations and Content analysis.
• Correlation techniques are often used.

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ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF THE TWO
APPROACHES.
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
N M O T H E T I C
in tune with the law abiding nature of
science. Successfully used by other sciences as
well as psychology
Gives a more superficial understanding of any one
person. E.g. we may both score the same on a
memory test but may have used different
techniques to remember the items.
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WHICH APPROACH IS THE BEST TO USE IN PSYCHOLOGY?

• Psychology the scientific study of mind and
  behaviour (R. Gross)
• Consider the aims of science-
• To describe
• To understand
• To predict
• To control
• Ideographic methods may be more suitable for
• 1 2.
• Nomothetic methods may be more suitable for
• 3 4.
• Clearly both approaches and methods of study are
  needed for a complete understanding of Psychology.

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• As pointed out by Kluckholm Murray (1953)-
• every person is in some respects is
• like no other person,
• like some other people,
• like all other people.
• Therefore, both ideographic methods (to consider
  the uniqueness of the individuals behaviour) and
  nomothetic methods (to consider the similarities
  between the individual and others) are needed for
  a complete understanding of human behaviour.

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WHERE DO EACH OF THE APPROACHES IN PSYCHOLOGY
STAND ON THE IDEOGRAPHIC vs. NOMOTHETIC DEBATE?