Idiographic Vs Nomothetic

	Nomothetic	Idiographic
Definition	The approach of investigating groups of people to try to find general laws of behaviour that apply to everyone.	The approach of investigating individuals in personal, in-depth detail to achieve a unique understanding of them.
Assumptions and Methods	• Assumes that people are best studied by large scale, preferable experimental methods to identify laws. • Differences between people are only quantitative, so an individual will be compared to others, classified with others, measured as a score or be a statistic.	• Assumes each human is unique and best investigated by the case study method. • Differences between people are qualitative so studies focus on unique aspects of thinking and behaviour.
Examples	• Behaviourist experiments on learning conducted on many subjects and replicated to find principles which were generalised to humans. • Asch and Milgram • Personality tests, IQ scores, classification manuals for mental health, etc.	• Humanistic psychologists focus on unique characteristics and life experiences of individuals. • Allport (1961) made the distinction between common and individual traits. • Kelly (1955) tried to identify the way individuals perceive the world in terms of personal constructs. • Freud used the clinical case study method to find a patient;s psychological problems.