Topic 0 Concept Review and Application Case Study
Instance Study Method
By Dr. Saul McLeod, updated 2019
What is a case report research method?
Case studies are in-depth investigations of a single person, group, event or customs. Typically, data are gathered from a variety of sources and by using several different methods (east.g. observations & interviews).
The example study research method originated in clinical medicine (the instance history, i.e. the patient's personal history). In psychology, case studies are ofttimes bars to the study of a particular private.
The information is mainly biographical and relates to events in the individual'south past (i.e. retrospective), as well as to pregnant events which are currently occurring in his or her everyday life.
The case study is not itself a enquiry method, but researchers select methods of data collection and analysis that will generate material suitable for case studies.
What is an example of a case study in psychology?
Case studies are widely used in psychology and amidst the best known were the ones carried out by Sigmund Freud, including Anna O and Piddling Hans.
Freud (1909a, 1909b) conducted very detailed investigations into the private lives of his patients in an endeavor to both understand and help them overcome their illnesses. Fifty-fifty today case histories are one of the main methods of investigation in abnormal psychology and psychiatry.
This makes it articulate that the case study is a method that should only be used by a psychologist, therapist or psychiatrist, i.e. someone with a professional qualification.
At that place is an ethical issue of competence. Only someone qualified to diagnose and treat a person can conduct a formal case study relating to atypical (i.e. abnormal) behavior or atypical development.
How is a case report conducted?
The procedure used in a case study means that the researcher provides a description of the beliefs. This comes from interviews and other sources, such as observation.
The client likewise reports detail of events from his or her bespeak of view. The researcher then writes upward the information from both sources higher up as the case study, and interprets the information.
The research may also go on for an extended catamenia of fourth dimension, then processes and developments tin be studied as they happen.
Amongst the sources of information the psychologist is likely to plow to when carrying out a case study are observations of a person's daily routine, unstructured interviews with the participant herself (and with people who know her), diaries, personal notes (e.g. letters, photographs, notes) or official document (eastward.g. case notes, clinical notes, appraisal reports).
The instance study method often involves just observing what happens to, or reconstructing 'the case history' of a single participant or group of individuals (such equally a school class or a specific social group), i.eastward. the idiographic arroyo.
The interview is also an extremely effective process for obtaining data well-nigh an individual, and it may exist used to collect comments from the person'south friends, parents, employer, workmates and others who have a skillful cognition of the person, besides every bit to obtain facts from the person him or herself.
Most of this information is likely to exist qualitative (i.e. verbal description rather than measurement) but the psychologist might collect numerical data also.
How to analyze example study information
The information collected tin can be analyzed using dissimilar theories (eastward.g. grounded theory, interpretative phenomenological assay, text interpretation, e.grand. thematic coding).
All the approaches mentioned hither utilise preconceived categories in the analysis and they are ideographic in their approach, i.east. they focus on the private example without reference to a comparison grouping.
Interpreting the data ways the researcher decides what to include or exit out. A good case report should e'er make clear which information is the factual description and which is an inference or the opinion of the researcher.
Strengths of Instance Studies
Strengths of Instance Studies
- Provides detailed (rich qualitative) data.
- Provides insight for further research.
- Permitting investigation of otherwise impractical (or unethical) situations.
Case studies allow a researcher to investigate a topic in far more than detail than might be possible if they were trying to deal with a big number of inquiry participants (nomothetic approach) with the aim of 'averaging'.
Because of their in-depth, multi-sided approach case studies often shed light on aspects of human thinking and beliefs that would exist unethical or impractical to written report in other ways.
Research which only looks into the measurable aspects of human behavior is non likely to give us insights into the subjective dimension to experience which is so important to psychoanalytic and humanistic psychologists.
Case studies are oftentimes used in exploratory enquiry. They tin can help us generate new ideas (that might be tested by other methods). They are an of import way of illustrating theories and tin can help show how unlike aspects of a person's life are related to each other.
The method is therefore important for psychologists who adopt a holistic point of view (i.e. humanistic psychologists).
Limitations of Case Studies
Limitations of Case Studies
- Lacking scientific rigour and providing little footing for generalization of results to the wider population.
- Researchers' own subjective feeling may influence the case study (researcher bias).
- Difficult to replicate.
- Time-consuming and expensive.
- The volume of data, together with the fourth dimension restrictions in place, impacted on the depth of assay that was possible inside the bachelor resources.
Considering a instance study deals with simply 1 person/event/grouping we tin can never be certain if the case study investigated is representative of the wider trunk of "similar" instances. This ways the the conclusions drawn from a item case may not be transferable to other settings.
Because example studies are based on the analysis of qualitative (i.due east. descriptive) data a lot depends on the interpretation the psychologist places on the information she has acquired.
This means that there is a lot of scope for observer bias and it could be that the subjective opinions of the psychologist intrude in the assessment of what the data means.
For case, Freud has been criticized for producing case studies in which the data was sometimes distorted to fit the particular theories near behavior (e.g. Fiddling Hans).
This is besides true of Coin'south estimation of the Bruce/Brenda example study (Diamond, 1997) when he ignored evidence that went against his theory.
How to reference this article:
How to reference this commodity:
McLeod, Due south. A. (2019, August 03). Case written report method. Merely Psychology. www.simplypsychology.org/instance-study.html
APA Mode References
Diamond, G., & Sigmundson, Thousand. (1997). Sex Reassignment at Nascence: Long-term Review and Clinical Implications. Archives of Pediatrics & Boyish Medicine, 151(iii), 298-304
Freud, S. (1909a). Analysis of a phobia of a five twelvemonth old boy. In The Pelican Freud Library (1977), Vol 8, Case Histories 1, pages 169-306
Freud, Due south. (1909b). Bemerkungen über einen Fall von Zwangsneurose (Der "Rattenmann"). Jb. psychoanal. psychopathol. Forsch., I, p. 357-421; GW, VII, p. 379-463; Notes upon a case of obsessional neurosis, SE, ten: 151-318.
How to reference this article:
How to reference this commodity:
McLeod, S. A. (2019, Baronial 03). Case study method. Simply Psychology. www.simplypsychology.org/case-study.html
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