Case study
A detailed study of a single individual or a small group of people
What kind of data is most often collected
Qualitative - descriptions or opinions
Triangulation
Using more than one method to to check the validity of your findings
Case of genie
-13 yr old girl but size of a 6 yr old
-severely neglected slept in a cage, never taught to speak, babbles infantly, still in diapers
-psychologist & lingustic teacher. Tried to teach her english
-she was getting on well but suddenly stopped
- father committed suicide avoided or refused to acknowledge what he did to genie
Case of David reimer
- 2 yr old boy supposed to get circumcised but ended up with a severed penis
- mother had seen a TV show about gender reassignment
-she decided to reassign david to female and brought him up as a girl
-psychologist was negligent and put his research above ethics and consent
-when David found out he changed back to male but was so mentally troubled with what happened he committed suicide at 36
Longitudinal study
When your going to study it over time - repeated measures design
Positives of a longitudinal study
Allows you to look at changes over time
Negatives of a longitudinal study
Participants may drop out leading to a smaller sample size
Strengths of case studies
- high levels of validity - they go into depth
-allows multiple methods to be used
-allows you to research things that would otherwise be impractical and unethical - efficient, refute theorys
Limitations of case studies
-Researcher bias
-lack of control
-Lack of scientific rigour - no control over the IV
Phineous gage
Metal rod through the Brain, survived but personality was completely changed, went from reserved man to a gambling prostitute using man
