Nomothetic and Idiographic Theories of Personality

This article discusses the Nomothetic and Idiographic theories of personality and their strengths and weaknesses. The Nomothetic approach is based on a generalized form of studying the personality of humans, while the Idiographic approach delves deeper into the study of individualistic personality. Real-life examples of their application in organizations are also provided.

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Introduction
Personality is a set of behaviors, cognitive traits and emotional patterns that supports the
thinking abilities of the people. The identification of the psychological traits of the individuals is
supported through suitable study of personality. The identification of different high level
personality types has helped in identifying the diverse mentalities of the individuals. The
different personality traits drive the activities that are undertaken by the people in the di0fferent
contexts. Therefore, the identification of the personality in the different situations play an
important role in identifying the position of the individual in the social forum.
The personalities help in defining the mental setup and the cognitive aspects of a person.
The discussion in this connection will be delving deeper into the Nomothetic and Idiographic
theories and thereby witness the different strengths and weaknesses of the same. Generalization
of the human behavioral elements and the application of the theories in the specific contexts
contribute to the understanding of the human psychology. The purpose of undertaking the
discussion is to identify the different key elements of the theories and the manner in which they
help in understanding the human personality more vividly.
Nomothetic theory
The theory is based on the understanding of the law that governs the human
psychological traits as a whole. The Nomothetic theory is based on the identification of the law
of generalizations, which affects the psychological traits of the people while operating in the
different outsets. Bluemke and Friese (2012) stated that the application of the Nomothetic
theory helps in maintaining the congruency between the functions that are undertaken by the

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people in different situations and thereby predict their reactions based on general psychological
laws. The theory has helped in making different assumptions in order to study the nature of
human behavior. The theory clearly manifests the manner in which the personality is portrayed
in the society. It has helped in understanding the collective nature of personality in an unbiased
manner. The identification of the personality traits of the people in a collective manner has
helped in maintaining the proficiency of the study (Machotka, 2012).
The strengths of the Nomothetic theory is based on the universality of the behavioral
setup of the people. It has helped in identifying the psychologies in a collective and more
speculative manner. Moreover, Eckensberger (2015) opined that the application of the approach
has helped the researchers in understanding the different sets of mentalities of people while
undertaking simple interactions with the same. The highly scientific nature of the research is one
of the major positive points of undertaking the Nomothetic approach as it helps the researcher
in undertaking an unbiased research through the utilization of reliable data sources. Lamiell
(2014) stated that the predictability that is offered by the approach has helped most of the
researchers in culminating into a conclusion while studying the human psychological bindings as
an objective. The identification of the cause and its relative effects on the behavior of the people
is identified through the Nomothetic approach which has helped in developing different images
of the human psyche.
However, apart from all the positivity there is different weaknesses that affects the
Nomothetic approach. Fajkowska (2015) stated that the Nomothetic approach disregards the
subjective experience of the people which might affect the means of understanding the
vulnerable psyche that is contained by the individuals. Moreover, the generalization of the

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theories has affected the understanding of the psychological standpoints of the individuals. Lack
of ecological validity and the incapability to measure the psychology of the individuals works as
a constraining factor for the personality and behavioral study.
IBM applied the Nomothetic approach while identifying the personality traits in the
candidates while undertaking recruitments. The overall criteria of the candidates were based on
the asserted job roles that were pronounced to the same. The Nomothetic approach helped IBM
in maintaining the efficacy of the recruitment functions as per the objectives of the business. It
has helped the organization in choosing the suitable candidates as per their preferential criteria.
The application of the approach has helped the organization in maintaining the efficacy of the
recruitment functions as per the objectives of the business (Phelps, 2015).
Woolworths also utilized the Nomothetic approach in order to measure the buying
behavior of the people while promoting their products in the different parts of the world.
Personality, cognition and the specific aspects of the behavioral assessments has helped the
organization in making an outspread in the different parts of the world as per the needs of the
customers (Steele, Ferrer & Nesselroade, 2014).
Idiographic theory
The Idiographic theory has helped in identifying the subjective nature of the individual
personality traits. Poropat and Corr (2015) stated that the identification of the uniqueness of
people while conducting the review on their specific personality types has helped in maintaining
the proficiency of the study. The theory has helped in identifying the specific personality traits of
the people on an individualistic basis. It has helped in maintaining the congruency and thereby
create a more naturalistic outcome of the personality study. The individualistic study helps

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while conducting surveys on the different personality traits that drive the activities of the people.
On the other hand, the subjective nature of the study helps in understanding the nature of
behavior and personalities, which form a part of the psychological elements of the people. The
approach has helped in identifying the position of personality development in the individuals.
The individualism that is manifested through the portrayal of the same through the approach has
helped in identifying the personality and mental growth of the individuals.
The potentiality of the Idiographic theory is mostly due to its subjective nature, which
varies from person- to- person. The study purely coincides with the humanistic approach where
the different human related psychological factors are considered for conducting the personality
analysis. It helps in delving deeper into the mindset of the individuals. Sartori and Ceschi (2013)
stated that unlike the Nomothetic approach, the Idiographic approach is realistic and is based on
the interpretation of the personality of the people in more detailed manner. The potentiality of the
approach is based on the identification of the different behaviors and thereby discriminates
between them through thorough observation. Observing the people will be helping in identifying
the personality traits like extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability and
openness to experience (Picione, 2015).
However, Beltz et al. (2016) noted that the Idiographic approach is unable to generalize
the personality traits due to its smaller sampling size. It focuses on studying the individual’s
behavioral traits as per the objectives of the business. On the other hand, the lack of scientific
thinking and biases affects the study of the personalities. It affects the suitable nature of the study
of personalities. Idiographic approach is time consuming as it studies the personality traits of the
individuals. The uniqueness of the different personalities that are held by the people forms the
major part of the study while identifying the specific behavioral traits of the people.

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Apple Inc. applies the Idiographic approach while judging the capabilities of the
employees based on the innovativeness criteria. The Idiographic approach thereby helps the
organization in identifying the most innovative employee through counseling and sessions. The
application of the Idiographic approach in the organizational management has helped the
organization in judging the capabilities of the employees in a detailed manner. It has helped the
organization in maintaining the efficacy of the functions as the employees are divided in the
different departments through the assessment of their capabilities and personalities (Castro-
Schilo & Ferrer, 2013). The individualism has helped the organization in empowering and
motivating the employees in order to bring in changes in the systems of the business while
operating in the international markets.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion it can be stated that the personality is based on the
different cognition and behavioral aspects and the manner in which people reacts to different
situations. However, the personalities differ from person- to- person and thereby there are
different approaches in order to judge the personality traits of the people. In this connection, the
discussion enumerates the Nomothetic and Idiographic approaches. The Nomothetic approach is
based on a more generalized form of studying the personality of humans. The Nomothetic
approach is dependent more on a objectivity on the notion of understanding the general
personality traits of the people at large. On the other hand, Idiographic approach delves deeper
into the study of individualistic personality. The subjectivity of the approach has helped in
making the study more specific based on smaller sample sizes. There are different strengths and
weaknesses that are enumerated in the discussion, which clearly shows the applicability of the
approaches in the different situations. The real life examples, portrayed as a part of the

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discussion also helps in identifying the different situations where the approaches might be
applied. The identification of the different personality traits of the [people through collectivism
or individualism will be helping to understand the different aspects of the activities that are
undertaken by the same.

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References
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