In contrast with clinical psychology, academic psychology is primarily focussed on the study of groups of people. For example, psychologists may study the level of aggressiveness in a group of people that are the same age, share the same culture, the same gender or have the same occupation, in a variety of situations. This is called the nomothetic approach. Famous academic personality theorists are Eysenck, Cattelll and Allport.
There is a clear distinction drawn between the idiographic and the nomothetic approach. The idiographic approach doesn’t generalize, but individualize, which means it entertains by uniqueness of personality. Another positive feature of this approach is the depth of the investigation, which permits us to detect the unconscious processes more correctly. The big disadvantage of this method is the results are too subjective and unscientific; as a result there are different conclusions for each individual, which are suitable only to the individuals that were clinically diagnosed. The findings are not applicable to the non-clinical population.
The measurement of the nomothetic approach is more valid, precise and reliable. The findings are more objective than in idiographic methods and it is possible to use them in a new study. The aim of this theory is to find what is normal in a group of people. The methods are possibly applicable to all people. The investigation is not depth, but very superficial. It is not really possible to define the unconscious processes.
We are aware of 6 paradigms that guide personality research. These are:
- Psychodynamic theories – a presumption that an individual’s personality is motivated by unconscious emotions, which occurred already in childhood and these are commonly unpleasant and negative. Psychodynamic theories use the idiographic methods. The representatives of those theories are Sigmund Freud, Jung, Adler, Anna Freud and Erikson.
- Humanistic theories – study how the positive and healthy personality can reach self-actualisation and individual happiness. A case study approach is used in this research method. The main theories are Maslow, Rogers and Kelly.
- Trait theories – inform how the combination of personality characteristics, which are called traits, can affect the behaviour of people. Trait theories are measured by questionnaires. Allport, Cattell, Eysenck, Costa and McCrae contributed to this paradigm.
- Cognitive-behavioral theories – emphasize thoughts and beliefs and their effect in the attitude of an individual in a particular situation, and will completely disregard the biological aspect. Self report and questionnaires are used to obtain the measure of personality. The main representatives of this paradigm are Bandura, Rotter, Kelly and Mischel.
- Biological theories – are focused on our biological material and hormones and the influence of it in our behaviour. The work with twins and through neurological research helped us to understand this part of personality. That was thankful to Sheldon, Plomin, Eysenck and Cloniger, who contributed to this theory.
- Behavioral theories – explain the effect of behaviour on reward and punishment. The primary method of research for behavioural theories is by observing the individual. The main theorists are Skinner, Dollard and Millar.
We can find a number of research methods concerned with personality researches. These are clinical studies that record an abnormal personality. The second method is case studies, which research the individual. Another method such as self report and questionnaires are directed towards the general population. Observation and twin and adoption studies also help us to develop and further research personality theories.
A variety of techniques have been used to explore the idiographic approach. For instance, the respondents are asked to provide 20 answers to the question ‘who are you?’ (Bugental and Zelen, 1950) or to complete the expression such as ‘I am …’ or ‘The person I would like to be …’ (Smith, 1992).
The typical example of the measure method of nomothetic approach is a questionnaire, which researches who is more anxious and who is less anxious and the consequences of anxiety in the influence of life satisfaction and career choice.
The aim of this work is not to find out if the idiographic approach is better or worse than with the nomothetic approach. They are just used within different purposes. So put simply, the idiographic approach points out that every single person has got a unique psychological structure and that some characterictics are possessed by only one person. In contrast, the nomothetic approach emphasizes a person such as sets of dimensions that have the psychological meaning in everyone.
References:
Albery, Chandler, Field, Jones, Messer, Moore, Sterling (2004), ‘Complete Psychology, Personality’
‘The comparison of Nomothetic and Idiograpic measures of Multifaceted Self-Concepts’, Roche and Marsch, (1993)
‘Personality and intelligence testing’, Dr. Asli Niazi, handouts
Robert. R. Holt, Individuality and Generalization in the Psychology of Personality: A theoretical rationale for personality assessment and research, New York
‘Introduction to Personality Psychology’, Ulrika Schimmack, handout
