Dr. Aris conducts in-depth, unstructured interviews with three survivors of a rare neurological condition to document their unique, subjective experiences of recovery without aiming to generate universal principles. Meanwhile, Dr. Vance administers a standardized coping scale to a sample of 500 stroke survivors to identify general statistical trends and establish a normative model of recovery.
Which of the following statements correctly identifies and describes the research approaches used by Dr. Aris and Dr. Vance?
Dr. Aris adopts an idiographic approach because she focuses on unique individual experiences, whereas Dr. Vance adopts a nomothetic approach because he aims to establish general laws of behaviour.
Dr. Aris adopts a nomothetic approach because she focuses on unique individual experiences, whereas Dr. Vance adopts an idiographic approach because he aims to establish general laws of behaviour.
Dr. Aris adopts an idiographic approach because she seeks to establish universal principles from unique cases, whereas Dr. Vance adopts a nomothetic approach because he avoids formulating general laws.
Dr. Aris adopts a nomothetic approach because she uses unstructured qualitative methods, whereas Dr. Vance adopts an idiographic approach because he uses quantitative standardized scales.
19 exam-style questions on AQA A Level Psychology Idiographic and nomothetic approaches. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.