qualitative methods - case studies

Question 1

what does information in a case study contain

Answer 1

biographical information and relates to events in the individual’s past and significant events currently occuring, based on one individual

Question 2

what does the procedure in a case study involve

Answer 2

researcher provides a decription of behaviour, coming from interviews and other sources like observation

Question 3

what does the individual do and the researcher then does as a result

Answer 3

reports detail from their point of view. researcher writes information from both sources as the case study and interprets it

Question 4

what is the researcher likely to use in terms of data for case studies

Answer 4

observation of an individual’s daily routine, unstructured interviews with participant (maybe with people that know them), diaries, personal notes or official docs

Question 5

what is the idiographic approach

Answer 5

simply observing what happens or reconstructing the case history of a single participant or group of individuals

Question 6

what theories can be used to analyse data collected

Answer 6

grounded theory, interpretative phenomenological analysis, thematic coding etc

Question 7

definition of case study

Answer 7

in-depth investigations of a single person, group, event, or community, typically data is gathered from a variety of sources

Question 8

disadvantage - subjective

Answer 8

researcher’s own subjective feeling may influence the case study (research bias) because they are based on analysis of qualitative data which depends on interpreation of data. therefore - may reduce internal validity - coul incorrectly interpret findings

Question 9

disadvantage - scientific and representative

Answer 9

lacks scientific rigour and provides little basis for generalisation of results to wider population since it deals with one perspective, can’t be sure if representative and generalisable. therefore lacks external population validity

Question 10

advantage - data

Answer 10

provides detailed info. allows researcher to investigate a topic in far more detail than if dealing with large number of participants with aim of averaging. therefore the data we collect may help build a better picture of behaviour. increase validity of findings

Question 11

advantage - ethical

Answer 11

can permit investigation of otherwise impractical or unethical situations, allows investigation into morally and ethically unsuitable circumstances and rare phenomenons of human behaviour, thetefore when they occur they come with significant increase of knowledge and understanding