Learning Objective: to understand the idiographic vs nomothetic debate

1. 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’

2. 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

3. Starter: feedback – how did you do? Make a note of these key features of each approach in your notes!

4. 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?

5. 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

6. 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?

7. 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!