case studies

• what is a case study

  a detailed study of a single individual, institution or event- researchers could be looking at unusual behaviour or some behaviour in more detail
• what are some characteristics of a case study

  uses a range of sources to collect data

  many techniques may be used

  quantitative or qualitative data

  a report is written about the individual

  usually longitudinal
• what is a strength of the case study method

  high ecological validity- it documents events that has already happened to a person and the researchers have no control over the situations as it has occurred in real life-people are observed in their natural environment- therefore case studies have high external validity as behaviour is naturally occuring and findings can be generalised
• what is a strength of the case study method

  it can gather rich, detailed qualitative data about an individual- there is often a variety of methods that are used= triangulation can be used to improve the validity of the findings if all methods generate similar findings and they all point to the same conclusions then the data can be valid
• what is a drawback of the case study method

  researcher bias- the researcher may become too involved in the case and become too close to the person being studied- research will lose objectivity as they will be analysing data in a subjective way- t/f reliability will be reduced as similar findings will not be recorded and validity can be questioned
• what is a drawback of the case study method

  unique case- variables are not controlled and the case itself is unique so researchers will not find the exact same case again- the reliability of the findings cannot be verified and case cannot be replicated
• what is a drawback of the case study method

  it lacks population validity- case studies are based on a single, one-off person that would be very different from any other- this means that case studies lack external validity as it is an unrepresentative sample and it is harder to generalise