Nomothetic approach: description, principles, research methods

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

The nomothetic approach is one of the major philosophical discussions in psychology. Psychologists who apply it are concerned with establishing general laws based on the study of large groups of people. In this case, statistical (quantitative) methods of data analysis are used.

Introduction

The goal of clinical psychological science is to facilitate the diagnosis of nervous disorders by understanding the essence of the disease and implementing optimal prevention and treatment strategies. Achieving this goal requires an accurate description of current symptoms and an accurate prediction of the future course of the disorder. It is necessary to apply methods to reduce and eliminate problem behavior, as well as ways to maintain psychological he alth. Accurate description and prediction require tools that accurately and reliably model clinical events. This requires a comparative analysis of the nomothetic and ideographic approaches.

Terminology

The term "nomothetics" comes from other Greek. νόΜος -"law" + root θη- - "assume", establish. Psychologists who apply the nomothetic approach are primarily concerned with the study of what people share with each other. That is, they establish the laws of communication.

The term "ideographic" comes from the Greek word idios, which means "own" or "private". Psychologists interested in this aspect want to find out what makes each person unique.

Historical background

The term "nomothetics" was introduced in the 19th century by the German philosopher Wilhelm Windelband. He used the nomothetic method to describe an approach to the accumulation of knowledge, seeking to make large-scale generalizations. This method is now common in the natural sciences and is seen by many as the true paradigm and goal of the scientific approach.

Nomothetic approach

The traditional approach to statistical analysis in clinical (and all psychological) science is nomothetic: the goal is to make general predictions about a population by examining inter-individual variation, that is, variation between individuals. This method is attractive because it allows participants (eg, members of a control or clinical group who share a disorder, risk factor, or treatment profile) to be pooled for data collected in both cross-sectional and longitudinal projects.

Nomothetic research is an attempt to establish general laws and generalizations. The aim of the nomothetic approach is to obtainobjective knowledge through scientific methods. Therefore, quantum research methods are used to establish statistically significant results. The subsequent laws that are created can be divided into three kinds: the classification of people into groups, the establishment of principles, and the establishment of measurements. An example of this from the world of psychology is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which classifies these conditions by dividing people into groups.

The research methods used by the nomothetic approach collect scientific and quantum data. For this, experiments and observations are used, and average groups are statistically analyzed to create predictions about people in general.

Advantages and disadvantages

The nomothetic approach is considered scientific due to its accurate measurement, prediction and control of behavior, large group studies, objective and controlled methods that allow replication and generalization. Through this, he helped psychology become more scientific, developing theories that could be tested empirically.

However, the nomothetic approach has its limitations. He has been accused of losing sight of "the man himself" due to his extensive use of middle groups. It can also give a superficial understanding, as people can exhibit the same behavior but for different reasons. Another limitation of this approach is that predictions can be made about groups, but not individuals.

Ideographic approach

In this approach to statistical analysis, the goal is to make specific predictions about an individual by examining intra-individual variation over time. Since the ideographic approach assumes heterogeneity between participants and time, each is intensively assessed across several time points, and then an individual analysis is carried out.

There are many types of data amenable to time series analysis, some of which clinical scientists and practitioners may have already collected but not coded or analyzed ideographically. The ideographic approach is developed using case studies and uses unstructured interviews to collect qualitative data. From these data, a we alth of human behavior can be observed. An example is Abraham Maslow's research on the motivation of human behavior. He uses celebrity biographies and student interviews as the basis of his hierarchy of needs.

Comparative analysis

Comparison of nomometric and ideographic approaches in psychology shows that their use is beneficial when working with completely different clinical cases. From a nomothetic point of view, preference is given to correlational, psychometric and other quantitative methods. Ideographic analysis will have the greatest impact on personalized treatment when combined with ideographicevaluation or measurement of behavior that is most consistent with a person's unique symptom profile or representation of an illness.

The strengths of the ideographic and nomothetic approaches in psychology depend on the quality of the data collected.

Studying Personality

The psychometric approach to personality studies compares individuals in terms of traits or dimensions common to all. This is the nomothetical approach. There are two examples: Hans Isaac's type and Raymond Cattell's theory of attributes. They both suggest that there are a small number of traits that define the basic structure of all personalities, and that individual differences can be identified along these dimensions.

Over the past 20 years, a broader consensus has begun to emerge about these traits. The Big Five are extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness to experience.

Case Study

In the study of nomothetic and ideographic approaches, a procedure called Q-sort is used. First, the subject is given a large set of cards, each of which contains a self-evaluative statement. For example, "I am friendly" or "I am ambitious", etc. The subject is then asked to sort the cards into piles. One stack contains the statement "most like me", the second - "least like me". There are also several stacks for intermediate statements.

The number of cards can vary, as can the number of stacks and the type of question (e.g. "What am I now?", "What was I like before?", "How does my partner see me?", "How would I like to be ?"). Thus, there is a potentially infinite number of variations. This is normal for the nomothetic and ideographic approaches, as they assume that there are as many personalities as there are living people.