---
title: "Idiographic vs. nomothetic: history"
description: "There are separate entries (see \"try also\") for idiographicm, sometimes spelled \"ideographic\", and nomothetic measures, this is about some background that I discovered years after using the terms purely as descriptors of measures. #### Details The history is well described…"
url: "https://www.psyctc.org/psyctc/glossary2/idiographic-vs-nomothetic-history/"
updated: "2024-01-13"
category: All OM book glossary entries
---

# Idiographic vs. nomothetic: history

There are separate entries (see "try also") for idiographicm, sometimes spelled "ideographic", and nomothetic measures, this is about some background that I discovered years after using the terms purely as descriptors of measures.

#### Details

The history is well described in [this wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomothetic_and_idiographic) but boils down to something that is only tangentially connected with measures but interesting: an epistemological and methodological distinction rather than one just about tools and measures. I that use of the terms nomothetic is about the search for general rules and regularities and idiographic the search for the personal and individual. There is a clear link to the use of the terms for measures but looking at the more general use of the terms helps alert us to the way that psychological research has become dominated by the search for general rules, in these terms, the nomothetic.

#### Try also

[Idiographic measures](https://www.psyctc.org/psyctc/glossary2/idiographic-measure-idiographic-methods/)
[Nomothetic measures](https://www.psyctc.org/psyctc/glossary2/nomothetic-measures-nomothetic-data/)

#### Chapters

Chapters 2, 3 and 10.

#### Online resources

[Wikipedia page "Nomothetic and idiographic"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomothetic_and_idiographic)

#### Dates

First created 13.i.24.