Case Studies and Secondary Research

• what is a case study?

  an in depth-study that gathers a lot of detail about one person or a small group.
• examples of case studies?

  • phineas gage
  • HM
  • clive wearing
  • KF
• strengths of case studies?

  • often gives rich, qualitative data, allowing us to understand why behaviour occurs.
  • allows us to study unique behaviours.
  • may study a behaviour that would be able to be manipulated/controlled in a way.
  • can give insights that may lead to further research or support theories.
• weaknesses of case studies?

  • as the behaviours are unique, the results can't be generalised to explain all behaviour.
  • there is little control over a no. of variables involved in a case study, so it's difficult to confidently establish any casual relationships between variables.
• what is content analysis?

  kind of observation using behavioural categories- indirect observation using the artefacts people produce.

  • qualitative turned into quantitative.
  • words turned into numbers.
• what are the results of content analysis?

  may either be qualitative (giving examples of each categories).

  OR

  quantitative (counting instances in each category).
• what decisions need to be made when creating a content analysis?

  • sampling method.
  • behavioural categories.
• how can data from content analysis be represented?

  • you can count the instances (a quantitative analysis), e.g. no. of times.
• how is a content analysis done?

  1. decide what research question is.
  2. decide WHAT you are going to analyse and how you will collect it.
  3. decide how the content will be analysed or coded. develop a list of behavioural categories.
  4. pilot it. make any changes needed.
  5. take a sample and tally/count the no. of times the categories occur.
  6. check the reliability of the content analysis by correlating one researchers scores with another's.
• what are the strengths of content analysis?

  • qualitative into quantitative- data becomes easier to analyse.
  • secondary data: already collected for you- no manipulation of p's = more ethical.
  • you can replicate the data, improving reliability.
• what are the weaknesses of content analysis?

  • bias- researcher chooses what to research. as behavioural categories are chosen by the researcher there can be bias/subjectivity in the data collection.
  • it can lack validity as data collected for the purpose of this research.
• what is thematic analysis?

  • a way of summarising qualitative data.
  • unlike content analysis, the info is not converted into quantitative data- it remains qualitative.
• what is the purpose of thematic analysis?

  • to impose order onto qualitative data.
  • the order must represent the material and not the researcher.
  • the order must emerge from the data.
  • a summary of the data is produce to reduce it.
  • to enable themes to be indentified and conclusions drawn.
• what is the process of thematic analysis?

  1. read the data dispassionately.
  2. coding- break the data into a meaningful unit. assign a label or code (initial categories).
  3. search for themes- combine simple codes into larger themes.
  4. review the themes- check your themes against the data. themes are refined (added/split/removed).
  5. define and name the themes.
  6. writing up- combine and conclude them and analyse.
• what are the strengths of thematic analysis?

  • it imposes order on qualitative data, therefore it can help make analysis possible.
  • as the data is secondary, there is no manipulation of p's which is more ethical.
• what are the weaknesses of thematic analysis?

  • even though the data is reviewed dispassionately it may be difficult to avoid all bias in analysis.
  • it can lack validity as the data wasn't collected for the purpose of this research.