case studies

Question 1

purpose of a case study

Answer 1

• provide a detailed analysis of an individual, establishment or real-life event
• can use experimental or non-experimental methods
• used when a rare behaviour is being investigated that doesn’t arise often enough to warrant a larger study
• can be the starting point for further research

Question 2

strengths of case studies

Answer 2

can unveil rich in-depth information about a situation. these unique insights may be missed in situations when there is only the manipulation of one variable to assess its effect on another

used when it would be unethical to examine experimentally

Question 3

limitations of case studies

Answer 3

by only studying one person, an isolated event or a small group of people results are very hard to generalise to the wider population. creates issues with external validity - would anyone beyond the case behave in the same way?

especially when qualitative methods are used the researcher’s subjectivity is an issue. e.g. in the case of little hans freud based an entire theory on what he observed, there was no scientific evidence to support him. we cannot be certain findings are objectively recorded. so bias/subjectivity can affect the validity of the research