Ideographic vs. Nomothetic Approaches to Psychology

NOMOTHETIC APPROACH DEFINITIONS

The approach of investigating large groups of people to try to find general laws of behaviour that apply to everyone.

ASSUMPTIONS & METHODS

The nomothetic approach (from the Greek word ‘nomos’ meaning ‘law’) assumes that since individuals are merely complex combinations of many universal laws,people are best studied by large scale, preferably experimental, methods to identify those laws. The individual will be classified with others ,measured as a score upon a dimension , or be a statistic supporting a general principle.

EXAMPLES FROM

PSYCHOLOGY

Nomothetic research is the main approach taken in scientifically oriented psychology:

The behaviourists’experiments on the principles of learning were conducted on many subjects , and replicated until the general principles of learning were well established .Most of the experiments were conducted on rats and pigeons , but the behaviourists’belief in the universal nature of the laws they discovered allowed them to generalise their findings to humans.

The social psychology experiments of Asch and Milgram also used the

心理学之特殊规律与一般规律研究法

一般规律研究法 定义

通过调查大群体的人，试图找到适用于每个人的普遍行为规律的研究方法。

研究假设和方法

一般规律研究法（源自希腊词汇‘nomos’,意思是‘规律’）假设，既然个体只是许多普遍规律的复杂结合体，那么在对人们进行研究时最好通过大规模的、较适合的实验方法来证实这些规律。这些个体将会与其他人进行分类，在一个维度上测得一个分数或一个典型统计量来支持一个一般原则。

心理学中的例子

一般规律研究法是科学心理学中主要使用的方法：

行为主义学家关于学习规律的实验在许多被试身上实施，这些实验被一再地重复，直到形成了完善的关于学习的一般规律。虽然绝大多数实验是用老鼠和鸽子进行的，但是基于他们的研究,行为主义学家在普遍的自然规律方面的信念使得他们把这些发现普及到人的身上。

阿施和米尔格兰姆的社会心理学实验也使用了一般规律研究法，目的是得

nomothetic approach, aiming to reach general conclusions.

All psychological theories that propose generalised principles of behaviour have nomothetic assumptions –Eysenck’s personality theory places individuals along a universal dimension of extroversion, intelligence tests measure people along the scale of IQ scores, the medical model classification manuals ,e.g.the DSMIV, classify people as suffering from particular types of disorder. ADVANTAGES

The nomothetic approach is in tune with the deterministic ,law-abiding nature of science, and has been applied very successfully in other sciences as well as psychology .The ability to generalise laws from limited instances is very useful in predicting & controlling behaviour.Personality questionnaires and mental disorer classification manuals have proven useful in the selection of personnel and the diagnosis and treatment of disorders .Nomothetic finding from psychological studies may prove useful in reducing global problems such as prejudice and aggression.

DISADVANTAGES

The drawback,however,is that this approach leaves us with a more superficial understanding of any one person-you and I may have answered different questions from you.

Also a piece of nomothetic research may tell me I have a 1% chance of becoming schizophrenic,but it will not tell me if am in that 1%.

Nomothetic generalisations may be too inaccurate for the individual.This is a

出具有普遍性的结论。

所有揭示行为普遍规律的心理学理论有一般性的假设 –艾克森的人格理论将个体按照外倾维度进行划分，智力测验则按照IQ得分对人们进行测量， 医学模型分类手册，比如：《诊断与统计手册》第四版，按照人们所具有的特定的障碍类型进行分类。

优点

一般规律研究法与具有确定性的、遵循规律的自然科学一致，并且已经被成功地运用于其它的科学领域，包括心理学在内。从有限的例子中概括出一般规律的能力在预测和控制行为方面是非常有用的。人格问卷和精神障碍分类指南在员工的选择和精神障碍患者的诊断和治疗方面已被证实是有用的。来自心理学研究的一般发现或许会在减少全球性问题（如歧视和攻击）上起到一定的作用。

不足

然而，这种研究方法的缺点是它使我们对于任何人都留下一个非常表浅的理解--

而且，一项一般性的调查研究可能会告诉我有1%的可能患分裂情感性精神病，但是它不能告诉我是否我在那1%内。

一般性的概括对于个体来讲或许会太

criticism of the medical model classification systems whose diagnosis may not accurately describe or help the subject. IDIOGRAPHIC APPROACH

DEFINATIONS

The approach of investigating individuals in personal,in-depth,detail to achieve a unique understanding of them.

ASSUMPTIONS & METHODS The idiographic approach(from the Greek ‘idios’ meaning ‘private or personal’) assumes that since each human is unique,they are best investigated by the case study method to provide a more complete and global understanding or the individual.Individuals are studied using more flexible,long term and detailed procedures and may be put in a class of their own.

EXAMPLES FROM

PSYCHOLOGY

There are many examples of idiographic studies in psychology:

Freud(1909) used the clinical case study method,seeing patients frequently,over long periods of time,and keeping detailed notes of his interpretations.Freud’s techniques were deliberately unstructured(as in free association) and he wrote up his notes at the end of the day to allow a more free and natural expression of the patients thoughts.

Piaget(1953) carried out longitudinal studies of the cognitve development of

不精确。这是对于医学模型分类系统 的批判，它的诊断可能对患者不能进行精确的描述或提供有效的帮助。

特殊规律研究法

定义

通过对个体进行单个的、深入的、详细的调查，以得出关于他们的独特的理解的研究方法。

研究假设和方法

特殊规律研究法（源自希腊词汇‘idios’，意思是‘私人的’或‘个体的’）假设：既然每个人都是与众不同的，因此最好采用个案研究法对他们进行调查，以提供对于个体的更全面、更完整的理解。采用更加灵活、长期的和详细的程序对个体进行研究并且这些个体可能被安置在适合自己的小团体内。

心理学中的例子

在心里学中有许多关于特殊规律研究的例子：

弗洛伊德（1909）使用临床个案研究法,在一段相当长的时期内，他会经常去看望他的病人，并详细地记下他们的谈话。弗洛伊德的治疗技术是非结构化的（就像在自由联想中那样），并且他会在一天结束的时候详细地做笔记，目的是使自己对病人的思想有一个更加自由和流畅的表述。

皮亚杰对自己的孩子实施了关于认知