Reading Case Studies

UNIT-III

7. READING CASE STUDIES

What Is a Case Study?

A case study is an in-depth analysis of an event or process. Past experience teaches the other person but every experience is different. It is an accumulation of experiences. For example, before applying immunization, it is checked in different ways. Not only in the medical field, it is applicable in marketing field as well. Case studies can be used in a variety of fields including psychology, medicine, education, anthropology, political science, and social work.

The hope is that learning gained from studying one case can be generalized to many others. Unfortunately, case studies tend to be highly subjective and it is sometimes difficult to generalize results to a larger population.

While case studies focus on a single individual or group, they follow a format that is similar to other types of psychology writing. If you are writing a case study, it is important to follow the rules of APA format.

Benefits and Limitations

A case study can have both strengths and weaknesses.

One of the greatest advantages of a case study is that it allows researchers to investigate things that are often difficult to impossible to replicate in a lab. Some other benefits of a case study:

✓ Allows researchers to collect a great deal of information

✓ Give researchers the chance to collect information on rare or unusual cases

✓ Allows researchers to develop hypotheses that can be explored in experimental research

On the negative side, a case study:

✓ Cannot necessarily be generalized to the larger population

✓ Cannot demonstrate cause and effect

✓ May not be scientifically rigorous

✓ Can lead to bias