Nomothetic and idiographic

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Nomothetic and idiographic are terms used by Neo-Kantian philosopher Wilhelm
Windelband to describe two distinct approaches to knowledge, each one corresponding
to a different intellectual tendency, and each one corresponding to a different
branch of academe.

Nomothetic is based on what Kant described as a tendency to generalize, and is

typical for the natural sciences. It describes the effort to derive laws that
explain types or categories of objective phenomena, in general.
Idiographic is based on what Kant described as a tendency to specify, and is
typical for the humanities. It describes the effort to understand the meaning of
contingent, unique, and often cultural or subjective phenomena.
Use in the social sciences
The problem of whether to use nomothetic or idiographic approaches is most sharply
felt in the social sciences, whose subject are unique individuals (idiographic
perspective), but who have certain general properties or behave according to
general rules (nomothetic perspective).

Often, nomothetic approaches are quantitative, and idiographic approaches are

qualitative, although the "Personal Questionnaire" developed by M.B. Shapiro, and
its further developments (e.g. Discan scale) are both quantitative and idiographic.
Personal cognition (D.A. Booth) is idiographic, qualitative and quantitative, using
the individual's own narrative of action within situation to scale the ongoing
biosocial cognitive processes in units of discrimination from norm (with M.T.
Conner 1986, R.P.J. Freeman 1993 and O. Sharpe 2005).

In psychology, idiographic describes the study of the individual, who is seen as a

unique agent with a unique life history, with properties setting him/her apart from
other individuals (see idiographic image). A common method to study these unique
characteristics is an (auto)biography, i.e. a narrative that recounts the unique
sequence of events that made the person who she is. Nomothetic describes the study
of classes or cohorts of individuals. Here the subject is seen as an exemplar of a
population and their corresponding personality traits and behaviours. The terms
idiographic and nomothetic were introduced to American psychology by Gordon Allport
in 1937.

Theodore Millon (1995) states that when spotting and diagnosing personality
disorders, first we start with the nomothetic perspective and look for various
general scientific laws; then when you believe you have a disorder, you switch your
view to the idiographic perspective to focus on the specific individual and his or
her unique traits.

In sociology, the nomothetic model tries to find independent variables that account
for the variations in a given phenomenon (e.g. What is the relationship between
timing/frequency of childbirth and education?). Nomothetic explanations are
probabilistic and usually incomplete. The idiographic model focuses on a complete,
in-depth understanding of a single case (e.g. Why do I not have any children?).

In anthropology, idiographic describes the study of a group, seen as an entity,

with specific properties that set it apart from other groups. Nomothetic refers to
the use of generalization rather than specific properties in the same context.