Case Studies Flashcards
what is a case study?
a research method that involves the detailed study of a single individual, institution or event
case studies are examples of evidence-based research in which psychologists turn to individual cases to look at unusual behaviours and look in greater detail any kind of behaviour
aims to use objective and systematic method
tend to be longitudinal, meaning they follow the individual or group over an extended period of time
how are case studies conducted?
case studies use information from a range of sources including from the person being studied and from their family and friends
many techniques may be used…
- the person or group being studied may be interviewed or they might be observed while engaging in daily life
- psychologists may use IQ or personality tests or some kind of other questionnaire to produce psychological data about the target person or group
- they may also use the experimental method to test what the person can or can’t do
how are findings from case studies presented?
the findings are organised into themes to represent the individuals thoughts, emotions experiences and abilities
the data may be presented in a qualitative/descriptive way, though quantitive data may also be included such as scores from psychological tests
examples of case studies on individuals
Henry Molaison (HM)
Clive Wearing
Phineas Gage
David (the teenage addict)
David Reimer (the boy raised as a girl)
henry molaison (HM) and clive wearing
HM was the man whose hippocampus was removed to reduce his epileptic seizures, but this surgery resulted in an inability to form new memories
Clive Wearing was a man whose memory was damaged by an infection, he still had some procedural memory such as being able to play the piano and could remember his wife’s name but his LTM was severely damaged as he could only retain info for around 20-30 seconds
David (the teenage addict)
Griffiths (1993) sought to gain a greater understanding of addiction through an in-depth study of one individual who was addicted to playing fruit machines
data was collected through interviews with 18 year old David and his mother
initially David’s parents put his problems down to adolescence and saw it as harmless fun but his mother and sister soon began to find money missing
he started using fruit machines because the idea of winning money was very attractive to him, he soon became addicted and his addiction gradually converted to light, sounds and excitement as well as winning money
such information offers different insights into behaviour than just looking at quantitive data about addiction
Phineas Gage
Phineas Gage was a man who survived an iron rod passing through his brain
In 1848, he was working on the construction of a railway when an explosion drove an iron rod through his skull
he survived and was able to function fairly normally, showing that people can live despite the loss of large amounts of grey matter
however, the accident seemed to affect his personality
a record was kept of events in the rest of his life and people he knew were interviewed. his friend said that he was no longer the same man
although more a recent analysis has concluded that such changes were temporary
this case was important in the development of brain surgery to remove tumours because it shows the part of the brain can be removed without having a fatal effect
examples of case studies into events
psychologists have studied the psychological effects of many important events such as the….
- the London riots in 2011
- the mass suicide of a cult group in the late 1970s
mob behaviour in the London riots (2011)
the case of the London riots provided an opportunity to re-examine some of the explanations for the ‘unruly’ behaviour of mobs
one such study was conducted by Reicher et al (2011), they argued that their data showed that mob behaviour was not unruly
mobs don’t simply go ‘wild’ but actually tend to target particular shops and particular types of people
the patterns of what they attack and what they don’t attack reveal something about the way they see the world and their grievances about the world
mass suicide of a cult group
the study of obedience includes the behaviour of cult groups such as the People‘s Temple led by Jim Jones
he convinced members of his congregation to give him all of their money and property
he eventually came to see himself as a God and demanded that everyone else did too, if people refused they were publicly humiliated and even beaten
Jones moved the church to South America in the 1970s and created Jonestown
he eventually ordered 900 of his followers, including children, to commit suicide by drinking poison
this case study was used to reflect on social processes in groups and the effects of leaders, both on conformity and obedience
strengths of case study
case studies provide a rich record of human experience and give a very high level of in-depth and detailed information, such data can provide insights into the complex interaction of numerous factors
this amount of detail also means that insights that may be overlooked using other methods are likely to be identified in case studies
case studies allow researchers to investigate instances of human behaviour that are very rare and where it would otherwise be unethical to generate such conditions experimentally — for example, investigating cases of children locked in rooms during the childhood such as the study of Genie which enabled researchers to see what affect such disruption of attachment has on emotional development
limitations of case studies
case studies are hard to generalise from, it is difficult to generalise from individual cases because each one has unique characteristics that are not representative of the general population’s behaviour or experiences
case studies only take place after the incident in question has occurred, meaning there is no definitive way of knowing that the behaviour observed was present before
for instance the case study of HM told us a great deal about the effects of his operation on his memory but we do not know to what extent his epilepsy rather than the brain damage may have affected aspects of his behaviour
there are important ethical issues such as confidentiality and informed consent because many cases are easily identifiable because of the unique characteristics, even if real names are not given. additionally, many individuals such as HM are not able to give fully informed consent due to brain damage
psychological harm may also be an issue when an individual such as HM is tested repeatedly over decades or asked to remember a traumatic incident that caused their behaviour, such as an accident
