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What Is The Idiographic Approach To Study Personality

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1) In the idiographic approach to studying personality, the goal is to understand all the specific details, factors and characteristics that make up the personality of a specific individual. There are three different kinds of traits in this approach, central traits, secondary traits, and cardinal traits. These three types allow psychologists to identify traits that are the most important to understanding an individual, traits that are vary in when/how they are revealed, and single traits that completely dominate a personality. To study personality using this approach, psychologists read case studies or have participants complete surveys. In the nomothetic approach, rather than focusing on the traits that can be applied to a specific individual, the focus is on finding traits that can be applied to all people. There are three approaches that are used, often in combination. The theoretical approach begins with a theory, which is then used to determine which variables or traits are important. The lexical approach starts with a lexical hypothesis, and is a good starting point for identifying important trait terms and important individual differences. Lastly, the measurement approach starts with a diverse pool of personality items and the goal is to identify major dimensions of personality. Factor analysis can be used to group items together, determine what variables belong on the same group, and is helpful in reducing a large assortment of diverse traits into smaller, useful

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