The nomotetic approach is one of the main philosophical discussions in psychology. Psychologists who use it are engaged in the establishment of general laws based on the study of large groups of people. In this case, statistical (quantitative) data analysis methods are used.
Introduction
The goal of clinical psychological science is to facilitate the diagnosis of nervous disorders, understanding the essence of the disease and implementing optimal prevention and treatment strategies. Achieving this goal requires an accurate description of the current symptoms and accurate prediction of the future course of the disorder. It is necessary to apply methods to reduce and eliminate problematic behavior, as well as ways to maintain psychological health. Accurate description and prediction requires tools that reliably and reliably model clinical phenomena. This requires a comparative analysis of nomothetic and ideographic approaches.
Terminology
The term "nomotetics" occurs al-Greek. νόμος - "law" + root θη- - "believe", establish. Psychologists who use the nomothetic approach are mainly engaged in studying what people share with each other. That is, they establish the laws of communication.
The term "ideography" comes from the Greek word idios, which means "own" or "private". Psychologists interested in this aspect want to find out what makes each of the people unique.
Historical reference
The term "nomotetics" was introduced in the XIX century by the German philosopher Wilhelm Windelband. He used the nomothetic method to describe the approach to the accumulation of knowledge, trying to make large-scale generalizations. Now this method is common in the natural sciences and is considered by many as the true paradigm and goal of the scientific approach.
Nomotic approach
The traditional approach to statistical analysis in clinical (and all psychological) science is nomothetic: the goal is to make general predictions about the population by studying interindividual variations, that is, variations between people. This method is attractive because it allows you to combine participants (for example, members of the control or clinical group who share the disorder, risk factor or treatment profile) for data collected in both transverse and longitudinal projects.
Nomotic research is an attempt to establish general laws and generalizations. The goal of the nomothetic approach is to obtain objective knowledge using scientific methods. Therefore, to establish statistically significant results, quantum research methods are used. Subsequent laws that are created can be divided into three types: classification of people into groups, establishment of principles and 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. To do this, experiments and observations are used, and middle groups are statistically analyzed to create predictions about people in general.
Advantages and disadvantages
The nomotetic approach is considered scientific due to its accurate measurement, prediction and control of behavior, studies of large groups, objective and controlled methods that allow replication and generalization. Thanks to this, he helped psychology become more scientific, developing theories that can be tested empirically.
However, the nomothetic approach has its limitations. He was accused of losing sight of "the man himself" due to his widespread 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 with respect to groups, but not individuals.
Ideographic approach
With this approach to statistical analysis, the goal is to make specific predictions for the individual by examining intraindividual variations over time. Since the ideographic approach involves heterogeneity between participants and time, each is intensively evaluated at several time points, and then an individual analysis is carried out.
There are many types of data that can be analyzed in time series, 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 quality data. From these data one can observe the richness of human behavior. An example is a study by Abraham Maslow on the motivation of human behavior. He uses biographies of famous celebrities and student interviews as the basis of his hierarchy of needs.
Comparative analysis
A comparison of the nomometric and ideographic approaches in psychology shows that their use is beneficial when dealing with completely different clinical cases. From a nomothetic point of view, preference is given to correlation, psychometric and other quantitative methods. An ideographic analysis will have the greatest impact on personalized treatment, combined with an ideographic assessment or measurement of behavior that is most consistent with a unique profile of symptoms or presentation of a person’s disease.
The strengths of ideographic and nomothetic approaches in psychology depend on the quality of the data collected.
Personality study
The psychometric approach to the study of personality compares individuals in terms of traits or dimensions common to all. This is a nomothetic approach. There are two examples: the Hans Isaac type and the Raymond Cattell trait theory. 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 determined from these dimensions.
Over the past 20 years, an increasingly widespread consensus has begun to emerge regarding these traits. “Big Five” are extroversion, goodwill, good faith, emotional stability and openness to experience.
Practical example
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-esteem statement. For example, “I am friendly” or “I am ambitious,” etc. Then, the subject is asked to sort the cards into piles. One pile contains the statement “most of all resembles me”, the second - “least of all resembles me”. There are also a few piles for intermediate statements.
The number of cards can vary, as well as the number of piles and type of question (for example, “What am I now?”, “How have I been before?”, “How does my partner see me?”, “What would I like to be?”). Thus, there is a potentially infinite number of variations. This is normal for nomothetic and ideographic approaches, since they suggest that there are as many personalities as there are living people.