The Effectiveness of Nomothetic Methods in Personality Psychology E-Book

Cordula Zwanzig

• Herausgeber: GRIN Verlag
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

Seminar paper from the year 2013 in the subject Psychology - Personality Psychology, grade: 2,3, University of Warwick (Dept. of Psychology), course: Individual Differences, language: English, abstract: This essay aims to prove the effectiveness of nomothetic approaches in personality research and general applicability. It will not ignore the advantages of idiographic methods but then emphasize the theoretical pre-eminence and empirical benefits of nomothetic ideas. Evaluation strategies based on L. A. Pervin and Maltby et al. shall answer the question why desired outcomes are being achieved more frequently by the nomothetic paradigm. Finally, this paper should demonstrate that in dealing with the complexity of human personalities, profound investigations might sometimes be more interesting but almost never more effective.

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Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction

Conclusion

References

Introduction

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” According to Oscar Wilde’s statement, thus, there are only two types of people on this earth: the ones, who actively enjoy, suffer from, and change their lives by taking it in their own hands and, on the other hand, the ones who passively sit and wait for what the world might put into their lap. In terms of personality psychology, this would mean that the writer follows a nomothetic concept assuming to find a finite number of character traits in his fellow men. A habit of dandies, however, it is, too, to nonchalantly explain away complex issues of society in a few words.

This essay therefore aims to scientifically prove the effectiveness of nomothetic approaches in personality research and general applicability. It will not ignore the advantages of idiographic methods but then emphasize the theoretical pre-eminence and empirical benefits of nomothetic ideas. Evaluation strategies based on L. A. Pervin and Maltby et al. shall answer the question why desired outcomes are being achieved more frequently by the nomothetic paradigm (Pervin, 2003, 423ff; Maltby et al., 2010, 15). Finally, this paper should demonstrate that in dealing with the complexity of human personalities, profound investigations might sometimes be more interesting but almost never more effective.

Comparison with Idiographic Approaches

The main aim of personality psychology is to integrate various detected individual differences into one theoretical construct in order to develop strategies for psychological diagnosis.In Ancient Greece, people were figuratively coined, they had aχαρακτήρας. This alludes to the presumption of certain given and stable vόμouς among human personalities. On the contrary, idiographic researchers assume an infinite number of character traits within each individual or, at least, an infinite number of combinations of traits (Maltby et al., 2010, 8; Pervin, 2003, 66; Chammorro-Premuzic, 2011, 27).