What Are the Principle Strengths and Weaknesses of Nomothetic and Idiographic Approaches to Personality? Illustrate You Answer with at Least One Theory Associated with Each Approach.

This essay discusses the major strengths and weaknesses of nomothetic and idiographic firees to constitution with the help of associated theories. Personality is defined as the psycho-physcial traits and mechanisms inwardly an undivided, influencing their interactions and adaptability to the environment. Nomothetic and idiographic plan of attackes ar two different regularitys utilise to provide an insight into and check the personalities of people.While both approaches are meant to shape up ones understanding of record in different situations, there are pregnant differences as well as advantages and disadvantages for, in addition to, from each one method as this essay will highlight. Falk (1956) defines the nomothetic approach as a method to illuminate the laws and principles that define demeanors of a masses by see general patterns which emerge, and the idiographic approach as an in-depth exploration of a relegate where the understanding achieved is unique and per sonalized to the individual.The nomothetic approach takes on the floor repeats itself attitude as expressed by Skinners root word behaviorism possible action divulged by his samples on rats, pigeons etc. (Smith and Woodward, 1996). The nomothetic approachs greatest strength lies in its ability to distinguish authoritative trait behaviors of a population or community. This is efficent in determining an potent solution for individuals with identical behavior patterns base on the trait theory of temper.Cattells (1946) 16PF trait theories, large scale studies recorded as a score on a dimension is an example of nomothetic investigating of human disposition by which an individuals personality is able to be described and reason outd, as well as group behavior of same scoring individuals predicted. Research such as Milgrams experiment and the I. Q. test suggest nomothetic notions seize true for real behavioral principals and can be used to a certain extent to generalize grou ps of people. The Big 5 theory in collaboration with nomothetic selective information is considered satisfactory to illustrate the features of personality.This method relies heavily on trait theories of personality to predict and establish behavioral personalities for a populace. On the other egest classification of a particular populace may not hold true for a particular individual due to specific individual traits and experiences suggests Gordon Allport (Nicholson, 2000). He stated that standardized testing would not be able to examine a greater part of an individuals personality traits thus it required focused and customized study and observation.While the nomothetic approach is relatively accurate to determine personality of general communities, it is shown to only make surface principle behavior, not an accurate personality detail of a person. Moreover a bulky sample has to be chosen accurately to determine emerging patterns of behavior classification might not be precise for all the people in that particular generalization. Another discernible disadvantage is the classification of a person or people establish on their result such as I. Q. which is show in certain situations to create bias among the society they are in.The idiographic approach is passing focused on an individual under investigation and is mostly soft found as opposed to the quantitative nomothetic way. It is largely found on Freuds theories of consciousness, that each person has an I,D. , ego and super ego and that it is unique to that particular individual. The study is comprehensive and long term, highlighting a complete understanding of the subject such as Freuds clear and long term clinical studies of his patients, catering to their specific needs and issues preferably than a general assumption of their base persona (Gay, 1988).It is shown to be a more flexible and detailed study to gain valid association about the subjects being canvas Piaget was also able to unambiguousl y determine his childrens behavioral patterns and psyches (Auger and Rich, 2007). Idiographic approaches focus on the understanding of the mental synthesis of the mental i. e. the conscious, the unconscious and the preconscious such as George Kellys repertory control grid technique in addition to Carl Rogers Q-sort procedure (Mcleod, 2007). Data gathered from idiographic research allows the creation of unique and effective treatments.The key advantage of this method is the treatment offered after research will be efficient as it has been tailored to suit the particular individuals problem. On the other hand the results derived from idiographic approaches are highly specific and cannot be generalized theyre based on a limited sample of the population along with fallible experimentation which makes the data gathered useless to define general characteristics of a group. The information analyzed is unique to the particular individual being studied and does not hold true globally in w hich case it is considered unscientific by psychologists.In conclusion, fleck nomothetic and idiographic approaches to personality each have their advantages and disadvantages, it is evident that the type of method used would be based on what the researcher is trying to record. To distinguish a general law of similar characteristic personalities a large, accurate sample from a populace would need to be nomotheticly studied with correlation factors as well as psychometric testing and other forms of quantitative research to drawn upon a fairly conclusive theory.While precise study of an individual, would use the informal, idiographic method to derive an acute understanding of their personality. The nomothetic approach to personality is mainly supported by the trait theories of personality and idiographic approaches to personality are backed up by psychodynamic theories of personality. The main advantages these methods have is they are predominant in their own introspective fields of research while their main downfall poses as long as they remain standalone theories.