Case studies

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Case studies

• By Mr Daniel Hansson

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What Is a Case Study?

• Originated in clinical psychology to diagnose and
  treat patients
• An in-depth investigation of one single case
  (person, group, organization etcetera)?
• Often uses triangulation more than one method,
  researcher, approach to gather data.

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Question

• What methods were used in your case study?

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Types of case studies 1

• Intrinsic Study unique phenomena because they
  are interesting in their own right. Does not aim
  to generalize
• Instrumental Study more general phenomena of
  interest. Aims to generalize

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Question 2

• Is your case study an extrinsic or intrinsic case
  study? Motivate your answer.

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Types of case studies 2

• Descriptive Generate a detailed description of a
  phenomena
• Explanatory Aims to describe and to find
  possible explanations for the phenomenon under
  investigation

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Question

• Is your case study a descriptive or explanatory
  case study? Motivate your answer.

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Evaluation Strengths

• Opportunity to investigate phenomena that could
  not be investigated otherwise
• Permits insight into social processes in a group
• Stimulates new research
• Contradicts established theory and helps to
  develop new theories

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Question

1. Of the strengths mentioned, which apply to your
   case study? Motivate your answer.
2. Does your case study challenge any of the
   psychological theories that you know? If that is
   the case, which one and why?

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Evaluation Weaknesses

• Researcher bias
• Memory distortions and effects of social
  desirability
• May be time consuming and expensive

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Question

• Of the weaknesses mentioned, which apply to your
  case study?

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To Which Extent Can Case Studies Be Generalized?

• If evidence from other studies confirms the
  findings, it might be possible to generalize to
  people who are similar to those in the case study
  (general is always present in the individual)?
• The findings may be applicable to similar
  settings (transferability)?
• Single case studies may be generalized to theory

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Question

• Give examples of case studies that confirm the
  findings of your study
• Does your case support any of the psychological
  theories that you know? Which one and why?

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Ethical aspects

• Participants must be anonymized
• Participants may have to deal with painful
  memories and emotions
• Difficulty of obtaining informed consent from
  some participants (e.g. Children, mentally ill)?

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Question

• What do you consider to be the ethical strengths
  and limitations of the H.M. study?

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How Can a Case Study Be Used To Investigate a
Problem in an Organization or Group?

• Can combine different data collection methods
• Can observe a phenomena over a longer period of
  time
• Can use in-depth methods that are not likely to
  be obtained by other snapshot methods