Case Studies Flashcards
What is a case study?
A detailed study of a single individual, institution or event.
What information is used?
A range of sources from family members, friends or the person concerned.
What techniques are used?
Questionnaires, interviews, observations, experiments and psychological tests (e.g. IQ tests)
Are case studies longitudinal or short term?
Longitudinal as the psychologist follows the individual for a long period of time
What is the main critique of a case study?
Not being able to generalise the information to the rest of society as each case has unique characteristics
Many case studies use recollections of past events, what is the problem with this?
This type of data is likely to be unreliable and is difficult to verify.
What is beneficial about using a case study?
Complex interactions of many variables can be studied as they are conducted in the real world and variables are not controlled as they are in experiments.
