Case Studies

Question 1

What is a case study?

Answer 1

An in-depth investigation, description and analysis of a single individual, group, institution or event.

Question 2

What methods do researchers do to do case studies?

Answer 2

Observations, interviews, possibly experimental testing

Question 3

What are the strengths of a case study? (4)

Answer 3

• Rich in detail
• Good for studying unique cases (eg brain damage which cannot be done to someone for the sake of an experiment)
• Useful theory for contradiction
• May generate a hypothesis for future research

Question 4

What are the limitations of case studies? (4)

Answer 4

• Researcher bias (the results may be due to what they were looking for)
• Can’t establish a cause and effect relationship
• Has a reliance on memory - unfallable as you can’t prove or disprove memories
• Unrepresentative - results can’t be generalised to others as the cases are so unique