Why Can’t We Be More Idiographic in Our Research?
Barlow DH, Nock MK. Why Can't We Be More Idiographic in Our Research? Perspect Psychol Sci. 2009 Jan;4(1):19-21. doi: 10.1111/j.1745-6924.2009.01088.x. PMID: 26158824.
Key Concepts:
idiographic approach: Carefully tracking one / few individual for a long time
nomothetic approach: Assemble large groups of individuals and measure mean
Core Arguments
Idiographic approach used to be popular in early stage of experimental psychology and middle of the last century
Nomothetic strategy is now the dominant option, e.g.: RCT
There are many challenges to the generalizability of nomothetic approach, normally in the form of methodology critic.
Advance in idiographic method now allows and calls for better integration of both approaches.
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