Learning Objective: to understand the idiographic vs nomothetic debate ALL will know what is meant by an ‘idiographic’ and ‘nomothetic’ approach MOST will be able to say which approaches are idiographic and which are nomothetic SOME will consider the implications of a nomothetic and idiographic approach for psychology as a science What is your current understanding of the terms ‘idiographic’ and ‘nomothetic’

Starter In pairs sort the words into whether you think they are descriptive of a nomothetic or idiographic approach The definitions are below, this is all you will have to help you with this task IDIOGRAPHIC APPROACH: an approach or method in Psychology concerned with understanding behaviour through studying individual cases NOMOTHETIC APPROACH: an approach or method in Psychology concerned with developing general laws of behaviour that apply to all people

Starter: feedback – how did you do? IDIOGRAPHIC NOMOTHETIC Uniqueness Individuality Subjective experience Feelings Qualitative methods Case study Introspection Reflection Subjective Dream Analysis Diaries and letters Laws Generalisation Classification General Principles Quantitative Scientific Theory Experiments Statistical analysis Prediction Scales e.g. IQ DSM-IVR Make a note of these key features of each approach in your notes!

Introduction ‘Nomothetic and idiographic approaches are both needed for a complete study of psychology.’ Discuss this statement with reference to at least one topic area in psychology. (12 marks) Most psychologists would agree with the quote – why do you think this is? What makes this debate different to the others we have studied?

Main Activity On the next slide is a series of comprehension questions which will enable you to make notes on the key points from the idiographic and nomothetic approaches This involves you making a judgement on where each of the approaches ‘sits’ on this debate (extension 1) As well as applying your knowledge to the study of psychology as a Science (extension 2) The information today will enable you to construct 4 strong A01 points to answer the essay question we looked at previously

Comprehension Questions: Idiographic and Nomothetic Approaches Describe the ‘key feature’ for each one of the approaches in a sentence. What methodology does the idiographic approach use? Give an example. What methodology does the nomothetic approach use? The nomothetic approach emphasises general laws of behaviour which can be applied to large populations. According to Radford and Kirby (1975) what are the 3 kinds of general law? Describe each one briefly. Describe in brief the aim, method, results and conclusion of the study by Schuckit (1985) What problems does this example of a nomothetic method face, what advantages does it have? Why could nomothetic and idiographic approaches be considered as complementary to one another? (examiners tip page 277) Ext1: Where does each approach lie on the nomothetic / idiographic approach debate? Why? Ext2: How do the features of each approach (nomothetic and idiographic) relate to the study of Psychology as a Science?

Learning Objective: to understand the idiographic vs nomothetic debate ALL will know what is meant by an ‘idiographic’ and ‘nomothetic’ approach MOST will be able to say which approaches are idiographic and which are nomothetic SOME will consider the implications of a nomothetic and idiographic approach for psychology as a science Plenary Dots!