Comparing the Nomothetic and Idiographic Approaches as They Apply to the Study of Intelligence and Personality

Burger (2008), says that there are many theories of personality and psychologists try to explain it with their own approaches. Discussed here will be the psychoanalytic approach, the trait approach, the biological approach the humanistic approach, the behavioural/social learning approach and the cognitive approach. They were devised to search for specific patterns in behaviour and ways of thinking about these

Describe the purpose of presenting data to the agreed format and within the agreed timescale.

It is commonly believed that people differ in various ways, and these individual differences play a detrimental role on their behaviour at work. To be more specific, individual differences include two kernel factors which refers to intelligence and personality. It is clear that individual differences are important in determining behaviour, however, there are other external factors which are equally important, such as working environment or culture within an organisation.

When discussing the accuracy of personality tests, there is no test, which will provide perfect precision. According to Dr. O'Neil, “an individual's personality is the complex of mental characteristics that makes them unique from other people” (2006, Para 1). O’Neil believes that the potential factors involved in shaping personality include values, beliefs, and expectations that are genetic and environmental (O’Neil, 2006).

Funder discusses on how personality psychology formulates around numerous basic approaches. One approach Funder talks about is the biological approach, which addresses the mental process on our behavior including anatomy, physiology, genetics, and evolution. This approach analyses our feelings, thoughts, and behaviors through our mind. Another approach that Funder discusses is the trait approach, which is basically the study of human personality; the trait approach concentrates on the way an individual differs in emotion, thought, and behavior and how those differences are measured. These two approaches complement each other because the trait approach focuses on routine patterns of an individual that are behaviors, feelings, and thoughts which those

Charles Spearman’s theory (1904) also takes the psychometric approach that there is a general intelligence. Spearman maintains that intelligence is hereditary and an individual is born with their maximum mental ability. This suggests that intelligence cannot be changed or strengthened. The concept of ‘general intelligence’ suggests that an individual has an underlying intelligence, in which their performance in one type of cognitive task is often similar to their performance in another (Boundless 2013). Spearman demonstrated this through the correlations between tests, where individuals who performed well in one test, often performed well in others. This led Spearman to the conclusion that intelligence is defined as a single factor. However, critics refute Spearman’s conclusions, as they argue that one cannot reduce all factors of intelligence to an indefinable “g” (Neisser et al. 1996).

The psychometric testing in other words may be called as “measurement of the mind”. During the selection process the education level, skills and experience are the things, which are normally estimated, however the behavioral traits and personality of a candidate is much more difficult to assess during an interview. As a result

in order to analyze the patterns that determine personality, certain issues need to be addressed

Intelligence tests are inaccurate to measures true ability of a person because genes affect how a person responds to their surroundings, the tests cannot measure the person biological makeup or his true potential for being “smart”.

I definitely believe that there is a benefit to using both the personality test and the intelligence test. People argue the validity of the tests but, it’s more beneficial for an organization to use assessments rather than not. The personality assessment helps to distinguish if an individual is fit for the job. For example, an introvert might not be the best person to hire for a sales position. Not to say that they wouldn’t do well, but someone who is introverted might have to work harder in a social atmosphere. They might not bring as much profit in sales compared to an individual who is extroverted. I think that the use of these tests is a great way to filter through many applicants. It can save the organization time and money. The intelligence

Personality is the enduring and unique cluster of characteristics that may change in response to different situations. It can be asses via different approaches such as Self-report or objective inventories, projective techniques, clinical interviews, behavioural assessment procedures and thought and experience-sampling procedures. In the study of personality ideographic research and nomothetic research are used and the major methods that the clinical method, the experimental method and the correlational method.

Companies have started to use personality tests in the past five years so that they can find a potential employee’s strengths and weaknesses. If questions and answers are quite accurate and test is done properly it can help an employer to find more about person’s advantages and disadvantages. It is very important to know because one of the most important points is that most of personality tests help to recognize unqualified candidates. “Although experts warn that many personality assessments don't deliver what they promise, legitimate scientifically validated tests are helping employers evaluate job candidates to select those best suited for particular positions. Other tests are designed to measure intelligence, honesty, management aptitude and other qualities.”

In describing what personalities are like, Kelly abandons the classical threefold division of psychological phenomena: cognition, affection and conation (Kelly, 1955, p.130). Instead, he formulates his own personality theory with a single structure named "Construct". In this section, let's review the concept of construct and some of its features.

The Nomothetic approach is an approach to personality assessment. The term comes from the Greek word "nomos" which means law. In an online dictionary homothetic is defined as "giving or establishing laws". Look for universal laws of behaviour. It is based on traditional, classical science. In psychology the nomothetic approach focuses on people in general, trying to find regularities or laws between people. The approach was proposed by a German philosopher Wilhelm Windelband in the 19th century.

The historical use of the terms objective and projective to classify a personality test, and the problems with such classification.