idiographic
adj. relating to the description and understanding of an individual case, as opposed to the formulation of nomothetic general laws describing the average case that can then be applied to the single case. U.S. psychologists Kenneth MacCorquadale (1919–1986) and Paul Everett Meehl identified these as two contrasting traditions in explaining psychological phenomena. An idiographic approach involves the thorough, intensive study of a single person or case in order to obtain an in-depth understanding of that person or case, as contrasted with a study of the universal aspects of groups of people or cases. In those areas of psychology in which the individual person is the unit of analysis (e.g., in personality, developmental, or clinical psychology), the idiographic approach has appeal because it seeks to characterize a particular individual, emphasizing that individual’s characteristic traits (i.e., idiographic traits
or unique traits) and the uniqueness of the individual’s behavior and adjustment, rather than to produce a universal set of psychological constructs that might be applicable to a population.