ABSTRACT
In an idiographic approach to development, the individual, and his or her individuality, are of primary interest. Developmental scientists taking an idiographic approach thus focus primarily on intraindividual change. When the idiographic (ipsative) approach is interrelated with the orthogenetic principle, the ipsative approach takes a clear position on the continuity–discontinuity issue. The idiographic (ipsative) approach also has specific applicability to the nature–nurture issue. An essential consideration of the idiographic (ipsative) approach is the role of the processes governing the individual. The idiographic (ipsative) approach to human development assesses intraindividual consistencies and changes in the attribute repertoire and the attribute interrelation of a person over the course of development. The idiographic (ipsative) approach lends itself, then, to an relational developmental systems-based analysis of human development, at least insofar as, following Schneirla, it involves the idea that the organism's own characteristics play an active role in its own development.
