Case Studies & Content Analysis Flashcards
Outline what is meant by a ‘case study’
Detailed & in-depth analysis of individual, group, institution or event
Often involve analysis of unusual individuals or events, like rare disease
Usually involves production of qualitative data
What is the process of creating a case study?
Produce qualitative data
Researchers construct case history of individual, using questionnaires, interviews, observations or combination of all
Person may go through experimental or psych testing to asses what theyare(n’t) capable of, producing quantitative data
Take place over long time (longitudinal) & may involve gathering additional data from family & friends
PHET
Evaluate the use of case studies as an experimental method
Strength: Qualitative data generated
E.g. - Offer rich, detailed insights that shed light on unusual behaviour. May be preferred to ‘superficial’ data collected from questionnaire
Also contribute to understanding of typical functioning, e.g. HM significant in LTM & STM field
Ex. - C.S. may generate hypothesis for future study & one single contradictory instance could lead to revision of entire theory
Limitation - Problems generalising
E.g. - Generalisation issue when dealing with small sample sizes & info making it to final report based on subjective selection & interpretation of researcher.
Also personal accounts from parties & family & friends may be prone to inaccury & memory decay, especially if childhood stories told
Ex. - Evidence from case studies begins to look low in validity
Outline what is meant by content analysis
Type of observational research where people studied indirectly via communications produced
Forms of communication subject to this analysis = Spoken interaction, written forms or media
Aims to summarise & describe communication in systematic ways so overall conclusions can be drawn
FAT
Outline what is meant by coding
initial stage of content analysis
Some data sets to be analysed may be huge, so we need to categorise info into meaningful units
Involves counting up number of times particular word/phrase appears in text to produce quantitative data
E.g. newspaper report analyses how many times mentally ill people called derogatory names, like crazy/mad
Outline what is meant by thematic analysis
Form of analysis producing qualitative data - more descriptive than coding
Main process = identification of themes (anything that keeps ‘cropping up’)
E.g. mentally ill people misrepresented in news as ‘ drain on NHS’ or ‘threat to well-being of our kids’, they’re than developed into broader categories like ‘stereotyping’
Once researcher satisfied themes developed cover data they’re analysing, they’ll collect new data testing validity of themes & categories
If these explain new data adequately, researcher will write up final report, using direct quotes from data to illustrate theme
