Idiographic vs. Nomothetic

Idiographic approach focuses on individuals and how they possess unique psychological structure where as nomothetic approach looks for similarities between individuals and analyzes people more in a group form. Weaknesses for idiographic approach can be that the findings can’t be generalized to a wider population and that the methods are subjective and unstructured which would be difficult to analyze and replicate. Weaknesses for nomothetic approach can be that predictions from group results may not apply to an individual (reductionist). A strength for idiographic could be that each person is valued as an individual rather than seen as one amongst many, a strength for nomothetic approach can be that it is easier to develop theories of human behaviour because this approach focuses on large groups of people. Idiographic approach has to be more atomistic than nomothetic because you are breaking down ideas and research into one and same goes for reductionist. As mentioned above idiographic approach relates to reductionist because you are reducing or breaking down the research found into a smaller component.