Case Studies

Question 1

What’s a case study?

Answer 1

Detailed study of a particular person or people usually resulting in a large amount of info

It looks at past and present behaviour to build a case history which provides qualitative data

Question 2

2 examples of case studies

Answer 2

HM -memory
Little Hans - approaches

Question 3

+ case studies

Answer 3

Detailed so able to gain in-depth insight
Forms a basis for the future
From studying unusual behaviour you’re able to infer things about normal usual behaviour
Permits investigation of situations that would be otherwise ethical or impractical

Question 4

-case studies

Answer 4

Not generalisable to wider populations
Interviewer bias
Retrospective studies may rely on memory which can be inaccurate
They’re time consuming and difficult to replicate

Question 5

What’s content analysis?

Answer 5

Studying human behaviour indirectly by studying things that we produce e.g. tv adverts, newspapers

Question 6

How do you conduct a content analysis?

Answer 6

Identify hypothesis
Create a coding system depending on what you’re investigating e.g. 1=male 2=female
Gather resources
Conduct content analysis and record data in a table
Analyse data which is descriptive and qualitative
Write up a report in the format of a scientific report

Question 7

+content analysis

Answer 7

Strong external validity and the data is already in the real world - high mundane realism
Produces a large data set of both quantitative and qualitative data
East replication
Ethical issues (right of privacy)

Question 8

-content analysis

Answer 8

-Observer bias