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Idiographic and nomothetic approaches

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Question 6

Dr Vance conducts two investigations into human memory:

  • Investigation 1: She administers a standardized recall test to 350 undergraduate students to identify a general statistical relationship between sleep duration and cognitive performance.
  • Investigation 2: She performs in-depth, unstructured interviews with two patients who have a rare form of amnesia to understand their unique lived experiences of memory loss.

Which of the following statements correctly identifies and describes the research approaches used in these investigations?

Investigation 1 is idiographic because it uses standardized quantitative testing, whilst Investigation 2 is nomothetic because it gathers deep, subjective insights from a small sample.

Investigation 1 is nomothetic because it seeks to establish general laws of behaviour, whilst Investigation 2 is idiographic because it focuses on the unique experiences of the individual.

Investigation 1 is nomothetic because it prioritises qualitative depth, whilst Investigation 2 is idiographic because it seeks to generalise its findings to the wider clinical population.

Investigation 1 is idiographic because it examines a specific hypothesis, whilst Investigation 2 is nomothetic because it avoids making any generalisations about human memory.

Idiographic and nomothetic approaches Questions

  1. A Level
  2. /Psychology
  3. /Idiographic and nomothetic approaches

Practise AQA A Level Psychology Idiographic and nomothetic approaches with exam-style questions for A Level Psychology. 19 questions, matched to the AQA A Level Psychology (7182) specification and written in Paper 1, Paper 2 and Paper 3 style. Every question includes a full worked solution and mark scheme, so you can see where marks are awarded rather than just whether you got the answer right.

Question bank