Features of Case Studies Flashcards
What is a case study?
an in-depth investigaton of one person or a small group of people
What do case studies investigate?
typically a naturally occuring events so they allow psychologists to look at things that could not normally be investigated
can be longitudinal or retrospective (looking back) (i.e. romaneon orphan study)
What is case history?
a range of information e.g. family relationships, medical history, emloyment record ect…
What are triangulation of methods?
various methods used in case studies to gather information e.g. interviews,observations and psychological tests
Who is Clive Wearing?
Baddeley did a case study on clide wearing who suffered a rare brain infection caused by Herpes Simplex in which destoyred his hippocampus along with parts of his cortext, destorying his long term memory
What are the weaknesses of case studies?
The method can be particularly subjective. This is more of an issue for longitudinal studies as the psychologist gets personally involved with the P so will be more likely to be subjective (bias)
Poor generalisability, only focuses on small group or one P so is not represntative of the target population
What are the strengths of case studies?
rich and detailed - highly valid. produces qualitiative data as researcer gets to talk to the P, generating bith qual and quan data
has an abundance of ecological validity. case studies aren’t usually carried out in a lab so environment is more natural generating more natural responses, less demand characteristics
