Case Studies

• Gathering detailed info about an indiv or group of people – single case

• Production of case history

o Records relevant detail about indiv e.g employment history, family relationships, medical history, economic status

• Longitudinal or retrospective

• Very individualistic

• Method is descriptive – allows collection of qualitative data that is rich in detail

• Often very focused on particular aspect of beh = Narrow research

• Gain insight into personal experiences 

Advantages

• Rich, meaningful date – quantitative

• High levels of ecological validity

• Challenges established thinking – new psychological insights

Disadvantages

• Difficult to replicate – difficult to establish reliability 

• Idiographic nature – difficult to generalise results beyond the individual = low population validity

• Researcher bias is high