case studies Flashcards
1
Q
what is a case study?
A
an in-depth investigation, description and analysis of a single individual, group, institution or event
case history of individual produced with interviews, observations, questionnaires
(usually qualitative data, longitudinal)
2
Q
strengths
A
- detailed insights on very unusual forms of behaviour (less superficial than experiment/questionnaire data)
- may contribute to understanding of ‘typical’ functioning (e.g. HM, separate stores in STM and LTM)
- can generate hypotheses for future study
3
Q
limitations
A
- generalisation of findings (small sample)
- subjective data selection/interpretation from researcher
- retrospective observation may mean inaccuracy/memory decay. evidence may have low validity