Case studies

Question 1

What are case studies? What do they contain?

Answer 1

• Longitudinal study of an individual, institution or event
• Interviews, questionnaires, IQ tests, personality tests
• Qualitative and quantitative data

Question 2

What are the strengths of case studies?

Answer 2

• Provides insight into complex interactions in contrast to experiments where all variables are held constant
• Case studies investigate rare instances of human behaviour that would be unethical to investigate in an experimental setting

Question 3

What are the weaknesses of case studies?

Answer 3

• Difficult to generalise as individual cases are unique
• Ethical issues with confidentiality and informed consent