case studies and content analysis Flashcards
case studies
involve analysis of unusual individuals or events
however they may concentrate on more typical cases
conducting a case study usually involved the production of qualitative data
researchers may conduct a case hisotry of the indicual concerned perhaps using interviews, observations, questionnaires or a combination of everything
it is even possible that the perosn may be subject to experimental or psychological testing to assess what they are or aren’t capable of
this may produce quantitative data
case studies tend tot take place over a long period of time (longitudinal)
may involve gathering additional data from family and fiends of the indivual as well as the person themselves
content analysis
type of observational research
people are studied indirectly via the communications they have produced
forms of communication that may be subject to content analysis are wide-ranging and may include spoken interaction
written ohms
or from the media
aim is to summarise and describe this communication in a suystemaci way so overall conclusions can be drawn
coding and quantitative data
coding is the initial stage of content analysis
some data sets to be analysed may be extremely large
so there us a need to categories this information into meaningful units
this may involve counting up the number of times a particular word or phrase appeals in the text to produce a form of qunatitsivte data
thematic analysis and qualitative data
thematic analysis and qualitative data is a form of content analysis but the outcome is qualitative
main process involves the identification of themes
a theme in content analysis refers to any idea , explicit or implicit that is recurrent
once the research is satfidied that the themes they have developed cover most aspects of the data they are analysing they may collect a new set of data to test the validity of the themes and categories
assuming these explain the new data adequately the researcher will write up the final report , typically isn’t direct quotes form the data to illustrate each theme
strength of case studies
able to offer rich detailed insights that may shed light on very unusual and atypical forms of behaviour
may be preferred to data that s collected from a questionnaire
case studies mya contribute to our understanding of typical functioning
example - HM was significant as it demonsatated typical memory processing and the distance of separate stores in STM and LTM
case studies may generate hypotheses for further study and one solitary contradictory instance may lead to the revision of an entire theory
limitations of case studies
generalisation of findings is obviously an issue when dealing with such small sample sizes
info that makes it into the final report is based on the subjective selection and interpreatation of the researcher
add to this the fact that perosnal accounts from the participants and their family and friends may be prone to inaccuracy and memory decay , especially if childhood stories are being told
means that evidence form case studies being to look a little low in validity
strenght of content analysis
content analysis is useful in that it can get around many ethical issues normally associated with psychological research
much of thr material that an analysis might want to study may already distributed within the public domain
no issues with obtaining permission
such communication have he benefit of being high in external validity and may access data of a sensitive nature provided te authors contents to its use
we have also seen that content analysis is flexible in the sense that it may produce both qualitative and quantitative data depending on the aims of the research
limitations of content analysis
people tend to be studied indirectly as part of content analysis so the communications they produce are usually analyses outside of the context in which it occurred
there is a danger that the researcher may attribute options and motivation to the speaker or writer that were not intended originally
content analysis may suggest from a lack of objectivity