The Nomothetic Approach in Personality Testing Essay

The Nomothetic Approach in Personality Testing Essay Psychology practices two major approaches to studying and assessing personality. The idiographic approach focuses on an individual personality testing to conduct individual case studies and determine the scope of personality characteristics unique for each person. (Weiner and Greene, 2017). The nomothetic personality assessment utilises the opposite approach commemorating on commonalities in personality characteristics shared by people. Findings of nomothetic assessments allow analysing individual differences in specific personality traits. The nomothetic approach emerged in the early 20th century in response to a rapid boost of studies examining human temperament styles and personality traits. The increase in personality scholarship underpinned the shift from the person-focused investigation to a process-oriented assessment. Thus, nomothetic testing aims at studying personality resemblances and developing rules for personality understanding. In this respect, nomothetic tests usually take the form of personality questionnaires, results of which are subject to factor analysis. Nomothetic testing is widely used in psychometrics, which is a branch of psychology concerned about discovering and outlining individual difference in personality traits (Kline, 2013). The nomothetic approach is highly useful to create a general picture of personality characteristics peculiar to a specific group of people. Analysis of group resemblances allows suggesting specific behaviour patterns and reactions to different situations and social events. In its turn, the idiographic approach is beneficial for identifying individual preferences, needs, capabilities and attitudes to enable differentiate diagnosis and appropriate treatment in clinical settings (Carducci, 2009). The individual-oriented approach enables clinical practitioners to investigate social factors and environmental environment affecting individual’s mental state and mood. While focusing personality assessment on a single person to identify risk factors of mental illness peculiar to him or her under the experienced socio-economic factors, cultural background and personality, clinicians rely on knowledge produced by nomothetic assessments. In this vein, the nomothetic approach is mostly appreciated and widely used by researchers rather than clinical assessors. As such, nomothetic testing serves to observe and theorise the normal course of personality development along with indicators and symptoms of abnormal development. Besides, nomothetic assessments give evidence to life experiences, events and generic dispositions that may influence individual personality facilitating the rise of specific traits (Martin, 2005). Using nomothetic findings, researchers suggest behaviour patterns peculiar to particular personality traits, which allows predicting responses to various factors. On the ground of the observed commonalities, nomothetic assessors formulate universal principles and rules for understanding personality. Given evidence cited above, practitioners prefer using the idiographic assessment when dealing with individual clients, while scholars utilise nomothetic testing to outline a scope of personality traits shared by the studied population. Though the nomothetic approach to personality assessment differs from the idiographic testing, they are typically used to complement one another. Indeed, each person is unique in terms of some traits and temperament, which make him or her distinct from the group. At the same, each person shares a set of common personality characteristics and behaviour styles as a member of the group (McKenna, 2000). Therefore, while ideographic approach is used predominantly in clinical settings, nomothetic assessment is practiced by both theorists and practitioners. In other words, when studying the uniqueness of each patient, clinical assessors refer to the body of knowledge generated by nomothetic testing findings to gain a basic understanding of traits and motives possessed by a person. Conversely, each psychological inquiry is driven by the initial observation or assessment of individual traits and characteristics. Hence, idiographic assessment of individuals lays the ground for the suggested co mmonalities or deviations targeted by normative expectations. To sum up, the nomothetic approach to personality testing implies a study of resemblances and differences in personality traits in a given group of people. Nomothetic assessments produce an empirical base for the clinical practice and further scholarship while relying on initial idiographic assessments. References Carducci, B. J., 2009. The psychology of personality: Viewpoints, research and applications. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley Sons. Kline, P., 2013. Handbook of psychological testing. New York, NY: Routledge. Martin, J., 2005. Organisational behaviour and management. London: Cengage Learning. McKenna, E. F., 2000. Business psychology and organisational behaviour: A student’s handbook. New York, NY: Psychology Press. Weiner, I. B. and Greene, R. L., 2017. Handbook of personality assessment. 2nd ed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley Sons.