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Combining idiographic and nomothetic methods in the study of internal working models
Author(s) -
REICH WARREN A.,
TUSKENIS ALBERT D.,
SLUTZKY ALYSON W.,
SIEGEL HAROLD I.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
personal relationships
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.81
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1475-6811
pISSN - 1350-4126
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-6811.2000.tb00010.x
Subject(s) - nomothetic and idiographic , nomothetic , psychology , interpretation (philosophy) , variety (cybernetics) , representation (politics) , cognitive psychology , narrative , social psychology , computer science , artificial intelligence , linguistics , philosophy , politics , political science , law , programming language
Attachment theory's notion of internal working model refers to an affective–cognitive structure that guides how individuals experience, and act within, their close relationships. Understanding working models in general (i.e., nomothetically) can be greatly enhanced by attending to the unique (i.e., idiographic) properties of individuals’data. A general method is described for eliciting and empirically representing both the common and unique properties of individuals’descriptions of self and others. This approach is illustrated by two studies in which participants described self and others in a variety of significant roles and relationships by choosing from a list of attachment‐related descriptive terms. A hierarchical clustering algorithm, HICLAS (DeBoeck & Rosenberg, 1988), is used to generate a unique graphical representation for each individual's responses. We illustrate the use of HICLAS to (a) assess nomothetic properties of the structures and relate those properties to other variables such as attachment style, and (b) link aspects of any individual's structure with other idiographic data such as interview narratives. Data from HICLAS enhances the interpretation of other, more qualitative idiographic information, and helps to produce new constructs, variables, and propositions amenable to rigorous hypothesis tests in future research.