| Abstract: | Questions the adequacy of the distinction between the nomothetic and idiographic approaches to personality introduced by G. W. Allport (1937) and proposes 3 types of explanatory but complementary norms instead: nomothetic, demographic, and idiodynamic. Idiographic (trait-oriented) and idiodynamic (event-oriented) approaches are differentiated. It is shown that over the past century, psychology, operationally considered, has been a coordinate composite of the other major sciences. Idiodynamics, focusing on the experiential events of a particular personality (idioverse), is at the center of this coordinate gamut. It is proposed that the norms in conjunction with the coordinates be reassembled to conceptualize the parameters of the idioverse. It is suggested that the organic, cultural, and idiodynamic milieus blend through a matrix that produces experiential uniqueness. Three empirical methods for exploring this idioverse are described, including the reciprocity of experimenter–experimentee interaction, self-generated measures for evaluating cognate responses of the same idioverse, and the hermeneutic analysis of 3 levels of communication. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
