A Clinician’s Primer for Idiographic Research: Considerations and Recommendations

Abstract

Theorists and clinicians have long noted the need for idiographic (i.e., individual-level) designs within clinical psychology. Results from idiographic work may provide a possible resolution of the therapist's dilemma -the problem of treating an individual using information gathered via group-level research. Due to advances in data collection and time series methodology, there has been increasing interest in using idiographic designs to answer clinical questions. Although time series methods have been well-studied outside the field of clinical psychology, there is limited direction on how clinicians can use such models to inform their clinical practice. In this primer, we collate decades of published and word-of-mouth information on idiographic designs, measurement, and modeling. We aim to provide an initial guide on the theoretical and practical considerations that we urge interested clinicians to consider before conducting idiographic work of their own.

Evidence for the Feasibility of Person-Specific Ecological Momentary Assessment Across Diverse Populations and Study Designs

“…In the clinical realm, some have begun to collect quantitative data as a strategy to better understand treatment processes (Rubel, Zilcha-Mano, Giesemann, Prinz, & Lutz, 2019 ; Brown, Bosley, Kenyon, Chen, & Levenson, 2019 ). More recently, empirical and theoretical papers have discussed the merits of idiographic data collection and analysis applied to clinical work (Fisher, 2015 ; Piccirillo, Beck, & Rodebaugh, 2019 ).…”

Is it better not to think about it? Effects of positive and negative perfectionistic cognitions when there is increased pressure to perform

“…The monitoring of, evaluation of and changes in dysfunctional cognitions that arise in perfectionists' day-to-day lives play central roles in these interventions (Egan et al, 2014). However, within-person processes and changes in these processes might not be reflected properly in the investigation of pure between-person differences or within-person changes in trait levels or retrospective variables (Lloyd, Schmidt, Khondoker, & Tchanturia, 2015;Piccirillo et al, 2019). Beyond this, the identification of cues and the processes that they trigger might be used to tailor daily life interventions.…”

“…The monitoring of, evaluation of, and changes in dysfunctional cognitions that arise in perfectionists' day-to-day lives play central roles in the cognitive behavioural therapy of perfectionism (e.g., Egan, Wade, Shafran, & Antony, 2014). The process that is supposed to be initiated by these interventions is the change in withinperson processes and might not be properly reflected in the investigation of pure between-person differences (e.g., Piccirillo, Beck, & Rodebaugh, 2019).…”

The role of affect in chronic pain: A systematic review of within-person symptom dynamics

“…This disconnect between group-and individual-level results is perhaps unsurprising, as it is commonly accepted that no two individuals are exactly alike. Clinicians often face this problem, known as the therapist's dilemma, as they are tasked with treating a single individual, whereas the vast majority of clinical research is conducted at the group level [88,89]. If variation from the group is minor and rare, then using group-level information to characterize an individual is a relatively safe assumption.…”

“…In contrast to the studies reviewed here, which focused on characterizing groups of patients on average, idiographic research focuses on what is true for each individual. Several analytic approaches have been applied to ILD to generate idiographic, or personalized, models of within-person symptom dynamics [12,89]. These approaches differ from more traditional MLM approaches in that they estimate person-specific effects.…”