A critique of the clinical-personological approach to idiographic personality study

Abstract

Idiographic research occupies an accepted position in personological study and clinical psychology. This review critically examines one such method of investigation, the clinical-personological approach, which relies on inductive inference and attempts to provide description at the level of the "whole person." The data base is essentially clinical, psychosocial and psychometric, and information integration is achieved through "convergent validation." The approach was criticized on three grounds: (a) level of description is only at a single level, ie., the general; (b) the data base is limited to grosser system attributes and is typically of low reliability and validity; and (c) inductive inference formulation is unduly susceptible to influence by chance factors, and attempts to validate the hypothesis are rare. Of the alternative approaches, Personal Construct Theory appears a promising avenue, but is also open to criticism.