case studies

•  case study = detailed study of a single individual, institution or event
• research techniques

  • interviews
  • observations
  • questionnaires
  • personal items - diaries, photos etc
• strengths:

  • Qualitative data - provides rich information, about an individual or group, unique to them and their experiences.
  • Holistic - Looks at the individual as a whole not in parts.
  • Rarity - Provides in depth information about cases not common to society.
  • Ethics - Allows us to get around ethics, for cases that we would not normally be able to construct ourselves, due to BPS Ethical Guidelines.
• weaknesses

  • Generalisability - Lacking scientific rigour and providing little basis for generalisation of results to the wider population.
  • Objectivity - Researchers' own subjective feeling may influence the case study (researcher bias and observer bias).
  • Replicate - Difficult to replicate, due to being individual cases
  • Time - time consuming, often longitudinal studies