Nomothetic

The natural sciences are nomothetic, whereas the humanities are idiographic.

A focus on averaged risk effects, estimated across people, may occlude idiographic within-person processes which could aid in the precise detection of individual-level correlates of suicide. The present study focuses on new statistical models applied to intensive longitudinal data to quantify heterogeneity in within-person processes. Nomothetic approaches, such as multi-level models, are the most conventional method for identifying group-level suicide risk factors. These methods assume that effects apply equally across all individuals.