Case Studies & Content Analysis

Question 1

What is a case study?

Answer 1

To study a ‘case’ in psychology is to provide a detailed and in-depth analysis of an individual, group, institution or event

Question 2

When do case studies tend to take place?

Answer 2

Case studies tend to take place over a long period of time (longitudinal) and may involve gathering data from family and friends of the person as well as the individual themselves.

Question 3

What do case studies involve?

Answer 3

Often involves the analysis of unusual individuals or events

e.g., someone with a rare disorder or the sequence of events that led to the 2011 London riots

Question 4

What doe case studies concentrate on?

Answer 4

Case studies may also concentrate on ‘typical’ cases like an elderly person’s recollections of their childhood.

Question 5

What do researchers use to construct a case history?

Answer 5

Researchers will construct a case history of the individual or event in question by using interviews, observations, questionnaires or combination of all of them.

The data collected is mainly qualitative.

Psychological tests may also be used to assess aspects of an individual (e.g., personality or intelligence). These are likely to produce quantitative data.

Question 6

Strengths of case studies

Answer 6

Rich, detailed & insightful

Preferred to the more ‘superficial’ forms of data that might be collect (e.g., experimental assessing one aspect of behaviour at one moment in time). Such detail is likely to increase the validity of the data collected .

Enables study of unusual behaviour

Some behaviour/conditions are very rare (e.g. HM) and cannot be studies using other methods. In addition, some cases can help with the understanding of ‘typical’ functioning.

Question 7

Limitations of case studies

Answer 7

Prone to research bias

Conclusions are based on the subjective interpretation of the research and personal accounts. This may reduce the validity of the study.

Small samples

Sample may be one person/event with unique characteristics. This makes it difficult to make generalisations (low ecological validity)

Question 8

What is content analysis?

Answer 8

Content analysis is a type of observation research

Question 9

How are people studied in content analysis?

Answer 9

People are studied indirectly via their communications This may include:

Spoken interaction (e.g., speech or conversation)

Written forms (e.g., texts or emails)

Examples from the media (e.g., books, magazines, TV)

Question 10

Explain coding in content analysis

Provide examples

Answer 10

Coding is the first stage of content analysis.

Some data sets may be extremely large (transcripts of serval dozen lengthy interviews).

The information that is needed must be categorised into meaningful units. This can include:

counting the number of times, a certain word

phrase appears in the text to produce quantitative data.

Example: A newspaper report may be analysed for the number of times derogatory terms for people with mental health problems are used, such as ‘crazy’ or ‘mad’.

Example link to other topics: Examining TV adverts to see how often men and women are depicted in ’professional roles’ (at work) or ‘familial roles’ (at home) – media influence on Gender development – Furnham and Farragher (2000)

Question 11

What is thematic analysis?

Provide an example

Answer 11

Thematic analysis is like content analysis but is more qualitative and aims to produce themes rather than word counts.

The themes are more descriptive than the coding units.

Example: People with mental health problems may be represented in newspapers as a ‘threat to our children’ or as a ‘drain on the NHS’.

Such themes may then be developed into broader categories, such as ‘control’ or ‘stereotyping’ of people with mental health problems.

Question 12

Understand this

Answer 12

Question 13

Strengths of content analysis

Answer 13

Many ethical issues may not apply

The material to study (e.g., TV adverts, films etc) may already be in the public domain. So, there are no issues with obtaining consent, which can be an issue when conducting research.

A flexible method

Content analysis can produce both quantitative and qualitative data as required. This means it is a flexible approach that can be adapted to suit the aims of the research.

Question 14

Limitations of content analysis

Answer 14

May lack objectivity

Content analysis may lack objectivity, especially when more descriptive forms (thematic analysis) are used. Such bias may threaten the validity of the findings and conclusions.

However, reflexivity is a method of addressing the lack of objectivity. Personal viewpoints are seen as an important part of the data collected.

Communication is studied out of context

The researcher may attribute motivations to the speaker or writer that were not intended. This is likely to reduce the validity of the conclusions drawn.

Question 15

Overview of content analysis

Answer 15

Content analysis is a research tool used to indirectly observe the presence of certain words, images or concepts within the media (e.g., advertisements, books films etc.). For example, content analysis could be used to study sex-role stereotyping.

Researchers quantify (i.e., count) and analyse (i.e., examine) the presence, meanings and relationships of words and concepts, then make inferences about the messages within the media, the writer(s), the audience, and even the culture and time of which these are a part.

To conduct a content analysis on any such media, the media is coded or broken down, into manageable categories on a variety of levels - word, word sense, phrase, sentence, or theme - and then examined.