6. Nomothetic and Idiographic Approaches

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this lecture, we think about nomothetic and idiographic approaches to research, focusing in particular on: (i) nomothetic being based on the Greek word for law and which is concerned with building generalisable models for behaviour; (ii) idiographic being based on the Greek word for private and which tries to describe personal experiences in rich detail; (iii) Tajfel and Turner’s study, wherein children were divided into groups based on a fake personality test, which still led them to identify with their ingroup and discriminate against the outgroup; (iv) a criticism of social identity theory being its lack of consideration for individual differences and social context; (v) cultural differences in identity, including the more typical omission of national pride expression by British people, when compared with other countries.

Course

In this course, Dr Metodi Siromahov (University College London) explores some historic debates in psychology. In the first lecture, we think about the history of the free will versus determinism debate and the origins of psychological theory. In the second lecture, we think about some modern viewpoints on this debate, including drawing similarities between behaviourism with cognitive psychology. In the third lecture, we think about social constructivism and the impact of culture and environment on our thought processes. Next, we think about reductionism versus holism, including a contrast between Freudian theory and humanistic psychology. In the fifth lecture, we think about religion as an example for which holistic and reductionist theories can be applied. In the sixth lecture, we think about the definitions and impacts of nomothetic and idiographic approaches to research. In the seventh lecture, we think further about these research approaches, including some key criticisms and examples. In the eighth and final lecture, we review two studies which approach the topic of nationalism from a nomothetic and idiographic view respectively.

Lecturer

Dr Metodi Siromahov is a lecturer in the Division of Psychology and Language Sciences at University College London. Dr Siromahov’s research interests are in historical controversies and debates within social psychology, and the application of these to understanding political ideologies. Dr Siromahov’s recent publications include 'Beliefs in national continuity are related to essentialist thinking and to perceptions of the nation as a family' (2020) and 'Mapping visual spatial prototypes: Multiple reference frames shape visual memory' (2020).