case studies

Question 1

what are case studies ?

Answer 1

in depth investigations of a single person, group, event or community.

Question 2

how is data gathered?

Answer 2

from a variety of sources and by using several different methods (eg observations and interviews) data collected is mainly qualitative rather than quantitative. data gathered often over a number of years so are a type of longitudinal study

Question 3

example of case study ?

Answer 3

Phineas gage

Question 4

advantages ?

Answer 4

• idiographic approach allows researcher to investigate a topic far more in detail than might be possible if they were dealing with large numbers of participants
• detailed case studied allows researcher to find out about emotions, attitudes and subjective feelings of the people included
• sheds light on human thinking and behaviour that would be unethical or impractical to study in other ways

Question 5

disadvantages ?

Answer 5

• only deals with one person/event/group we can’t be sure if conclusions drawn from this case can apply elsewhere not generalisable therefore lack population validity
• because its based on analysis of qualitative data lots depends on interpretation of psychologist meaning there’s lots of scope for observer bias.
• no control or manipulation of variables internal validity may be quite low