Complementary Approaches to Individual Differences Using Paired Comparisons and Multidimensional Scaling: Applications to Multicultural Counseling Competence

Multicultural research has traditionally involved normative methodology and definitions of individual differences. To further our understanding of multicultural concerns, the authors urge researchers to broaden the repertoire of methods used in these inquiries. First, the authors highlight the differences among normative, idiographic, and idiothetic approaches. Then, the authors introduce the use of paired comparison methods and multidimensional scaling techniques for use within these approaches. Last, examples of research using idiographic and idiothetic approaches with multicultural counseling competence as the focus are provided.