Nomothetic literally means "proposition of the law" (Greek derivation) and is used in philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 (see also Nomothetic and idiographic

Nomothetic and idiographic

Nomothetic and idiographic are terms used by Kantian philosopher Wilhelm Windelband to describe two distinct approaches to knowledge, each one corresponding to a different intellectual tendency, and each one corresponding to a different branch of academe....

), psychology

Psychology

Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...

, and law

Law

Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

 with differing meanings. In psychology, nomothetic measures are contrasted to ipsative

Ipsative

Ipsative is a descriptor used in psychology to indicate a specific type of measure in which respondents compare two or more desirable options and pick the one that is most preferred . This is contrasted with measures that use Likert-type scales, in which respondents choose the score Ipsative is a...

 or idiothetic

Idiothetic

Idiothetic literally means "self-proposition" , and is used in navigation models as in the phrase "idiothetic cues" to indicate that path integration was used to determine the present location instead of allothetic, or external, cues...

 measures, where nomothetic measures are measures that are observed on a relatively large sample and have a more general outlook while the idiographic approach is relating to a more singular case as is done in case studies.

Etymology

In general humanities

Humanities

The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....

 usage, "nomothetic" may be used in the sense of "able to lay down the law", "having the capacity to posit lasting sense" (from , from nomothetēs νομοθέτης "lawgiver", from νόμος "law" and the root θη- "posit, place, lay down"), e.g., 'the nomothetic capability of the early mythmakers' or 'the nomothetic skill of Adam, given the power to name things.'

Psychology

In psychological

Psychology

Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...

 theories of personality

Personality psychology

Personality psychology is a branch of psychology that studies personality and individual differences. Its areas of focus include:* Constructing a coherent picture of the individual and his or her major psychological processes...

, the following could be categorized as nomothetic theories: Carl Jung

Carl Jung

Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and the founder of Analytical Psychology. Jung is considered the first modern psychiatrist to view the human psyche as "by nature religious" and make it the focus of exploration. Jung is one of the best known researchers in the field of dream analysis and...

's Psychological Types

Psychological Types

Psychological Types is the title of the sixth volume in the Princeton / Bollingen edition of the Collected Works of Carl Jung. The original German language edition, "Psychologische Typen", was first published by Rascher Verlag, Zurich in 1921....

, Eysenck's three factor model

Hans Eysenck

Hans Jürgen Eysenck was a German-British psychologist who spent most of his career in Britain, best remembered for his work on intelligence and personality, though he worked in a wide range of areas...

, the Big Five personality traits

Big Five personality traits

In contemporary psychology, the "Big Five" factors of personality are five broad domains or dimensions of personality which are used to describe human personality....

, and the Myers Briggs Type Indicator.

In other fields

In sociology

Sociology

Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...

, nomothetic explanation presents a generalized understanding of a given case, and is contrasted with idiographic explanation, which presents a full description of a given case. Nomothetic approaches are most appropriate to the deductive approach to social research in as much as they include the more highly structured research methodologies which can be replicated and controlled, and which focuses on generating quantitative data with a view to explaining casual relationships.

In anthropology

Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...

, nomothetic refers to the use of generalization rather than specific properties in the context of a group as an entity.

In law

Law

Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

, nomothetic propositions are law strictu sensu. That is, a nomo thesis (legal position) is an invariable "fact of life" and is invariable and cannot be other than it is. Legal science is generally not considered nomothetical in late modernity though some scholars in antiquity and in the Middle Ages seemed to believe that law, or at least some laws, were nomothetic (see natural law

Natural law

Natural law, or the law of nature , is any system of law which is purportedly determined by nature, and thus universal. Classically, natural law refers to the use of reason to analyze human nature and deduce binding rules of moral behavior. Natural law is contrasted with the positive law Natural...

). The field of "nomothetics" can also refer to the science of the creation of legal systems, as in jurisprudence

Jurisprudence

Jurisprudence is the theory and philosophy of law. Scholars of jurisprudence, or legal theorists , hope to obtain a deeper understanding of the nature of law, of legal reasoning, legal systems and of legal institutions...

and the ordered arrangement of law systemization in new and constructed ways.

The Nomothetic Fallacy

One important use of the word "Nomothetic" is in the term "Nomothetic Fallacy," which is the belief that naming a problem effectively solves it. For example, in applied psychology a patient may learn that his or her sad mood is termed, "depression" and is considered a mental disorder. Naming the problem can bring such relief (relief of personal responsibility or hope of treatability) that the client feels their depression is cured. This relief may improve the patient's mood temporarily, but it is unlikely to fix the social, situational or internal factors that originally led to the depression. The problem has been named and the client feels that awareness of the problem solves or ought to solve it, but in reality the problem remains unsolved.