Are case studies scientific

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Are case studies scientific ?
- Validity
  - +
    - Information comes from a real person in a real situation and is about his or her own life
    - detailed, rich, indepth
    - Not collected in an artificial setting
  - -
    - may be influenced by researcher
    - Are a snapshot of a certain time and situation
  - In general, valid
- Reliability
  - In general, not reliable
  - -
    - If repeated by another person, with a different Pp or at a different time may not get same results
  - +
    - Similar situations can be found eg damaged hippocampus, clive wearing and HM
    - Data from different studies can be compared and conclusions drawn
- Generalisability
  - In general data from case studies is not generalisable
  - +
    - Freud generalised from his cs because he thought they provided evidence for his general theory
  - -
    - Comes from one individual/small group and is therefore specific to them
- Objectivity
  - In general case studies seen as not objective (so subjective)
  - -
    - Involve interpretation from researcher both at data gathering and analysis stages
  - +
    - Can be achieved by using several different methods of data collection, triangulation, cross-case analysis etc.
  - Untitled
not easily replicated
- -
  - If repeated by another person, with a different Pp or at a different time may not get same results

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