Case Study method

What is a case?
Person
• The study of one single individual, generally using several different research
methods.
Group
• The study of a single distinctive set of people, such as a family or small group
of friends.
Location
• The study of a particular place, and the way that it is used or regarded by
people.
Organization
• The study of a single organization or company, and the way that people act
within it.
Event
• The study of a particular social or cultural event, and the interpretations of
that event by those participating in it.
Simons (2009) :

• “Case study is an in-depth exploration from multiple perspectives of the

complexity and uniqueness of a particular individual, group of individuals in
a real life setting”

Yin (1984)

• “As an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon

within its real-life context; and in which multiple sources of evidence are
used.”
Idiographic approach

• The case study method often involves simply observing what happens to, or
reconstructing ‘the case history’ of a single participant or group of individuals, i.e. The
idiographic approach.

Nomothetic approach

• Other methods such as survey research deal with a large number of research
participants (nomothetic approach) with the aim of ‘averaging’.
Freud (1909a, 1909b) conducted very detailed investigations into the private lives of his patients
in an attempt to both understand and help them overcome their illnesses.
• the best known one carried out by Sigmund Freud, was Anna O

Even today case histories are one of the main methods of investigation in abnormal psychology,
cognitive psychology and psychiatry.
 Case example: Anna O

Anna O was not actually Freud’s patient, she was a patient of Freud’s older friend Josef
Breuer.

However, Anna O can still claim the distinction of being the founding patient of
psychoanalysis because Freud developed the first stages of his theory based on her case.

At the time of her illness, Anna was 21 years old and until the illness struck she had been
healthy and intelligent and had shown no signs of neurosis
 Case example: Anna O

Her illness fell into several phases:

Latent incubation -
• the early signs of her illness began when her father fell ill and she had to nurse him.
• Gradually her illness became so bad that she could no longer nurse her father.
• The main symptom at this stage was a severe cough.

Manifest illness -
• Breuer described this as a “psychosis of a peculiar kind” where she had some paralysis
of the right arm and leg, a squint, severe disturbances of vision.
• She began to hallucinate and was abusive, threw things at people and accuse others of
doing things to her.
• Later in the course of her illness she began to speak only in English (she was a native
German speaker) but could still understand German!
 Case example: Anna O

Her illness fell into several phases:

After her father’s death -

• Sleepwalking added to the other symptoms and she could no longer understand german
and began to refuse food.
Freud and Breuer suggested
• That her symptoms were a result of a number of events that were buried in her
unconscious and were looking for some external expression.
• Her symptoms lasted about a year and a half and only went very gradually.
• They went, because she was subjected to a “talking cure” where each symptom was
taken in turn, from first to last and discussed with her to try to find the origins and the
reasons.
• Each symptom disappeared after she had described its first occurrence.
 Case example: HM

HM’s case study is one of the most famous and important case studies in psychology,
especially in cognitive psychology.
• It was the source of groundbreaking new knowledge on the role of the hippocampus in
memory.
• At the time of the first study by Milner, HM was 29 years old.
• He was a mechanic who had suffered from minor epileptic seizures from when he was
ten years old and began suffering severe seizures as a teenager.
• His seizures were getting worse in severity, which resulted in HM being unable to work.
 Case example: HM

Treatment for his epilepsy had been unsuccessful,

• so at the age of 27 HM (and his family) agreed to undergo a radical surgery that would
remove a part of his brain called the hippocampus.
• the surgery was successful as it resulted in HM experiencing less seizures.

However, immediately after the surgery, the hospital staff and HM’s family noticed that he
was suffering from anterograde amnesia
• (an inability to form new memories after the time of damage to the brain)
 Case example: HM

Here are some examples of his memory loss described in the case study:

• He could remember something if he concentrated on it, but if he broke his

concentration it was lost.
• After the surgery the family moved houses. They stayed on the same street, but a few
blocks away. The family noticed that HM as incapable of remembering the new address
• He would do the same jigsaw puzzles or read the same magazines every day, without
ever apparently getting bored and realizing he had read them before.
 Case example: HM

Later testing also showed that he had suffered some partial retrograde amnesia

• (an inability to recall memories from before the time of damage to the brain).
• For instance, he could not remember that one of his favourite uncles passed away three
years prior to his surgery or any of his time spent in hospital for his surgery.
• His memories from events prior to 1950 (three years before his surgery), however, were
fine.
 Case example: HM

There was also no observable difference to his personality or to his intelligence.

• In fact, he scored 112 points on his IQ after the surgery, compared with 104 previously.
• The IQ test suggested that his ability in arithmetic had apparently improved.

It seemed that the only behaviour that was affected by the removal of the hippocampus was
his memory.

HM was described as a kind and gentle person and this did not change after his surgery.
Characteristics/ Nature of case studies
A case study has several hallmarks:

• Case studies have often been considered to be part of qualitative research

and methodology, they may also contain a combination of qualitative and
quantitative approaches.
• Case study method is appropriate when a ‘how’ or ‘why’ question is being
asked about an event
• It is concerned with a rich and vivid description ‘thick description’ of events
relevant to the case.
• Involve looking at a case or phenomenon in its real-life context
• It provides a chronological narrative of events relevant to the case.
• It blends a description of events with the analysis of them.
A case study has several hallmarks:
• It focuses on individual actors or groups of actors, and seeks to understand
their perceptions of events.
• It highlights specific events that are relevant to the case.
• The researcher is integrally involved in the case.
• An attempt is made to portray the richness of the case in writing up the
report.
• Case study methods are found in the literature associated with theory
building rather than theory testing
Conducting a case study in seven steps
Step 1: Formulate the research question
• Problem, phenomenon that the researcher wants to investigate

Step 2: Select the broad case to investigate

• Individual, groups, organizations etc.
• Can I gain access to the case?
• Whether there is data/secondary data available
• Will I be able to conduct the study in the time I have available?

Step 3: Determine data gathering and analysis techniques

• Questionnaire, interview, observation, existing data (personal
documents, pictures, written texts, letters)
• Content analysis, thematic analysis
Step 4: Prepare to collect the data
• Protocols for interviews and surveys
• Field notes, hand written or tape (audio) or video recordings

Step 5: Collect the data

• From as many source and in an in depth manner

Step 6: Analyse the data

• Quantitative data can be used to corroborate and support the qualitative
data obtained and vice-versa.

Step 7: Prepare the report

• No one correct way to report a case study
• Context, phenomenon, chronological order, focusing on research question
Types of case studies
Yin (1993) has identified some specific types of case studies:

• Exploratory
• Descriptive
• Explanatory

Stake (1995) included three others:

• Intrinsic
• Instrumental
• Collective
Exploratory case studies

• Fieldwork and data collection may be undertaken before defining a research question.
• May be seen as a prelude to a large social scientific study—which may or may not in
itself involve case studies.
• May follow “intuitive paths often perceived by others as sloppy.”
• seek to discover theory through directly observing some social phenomenon in its
natural and raw form.
Exploratory Case Studies

• The sort of exploratory study may be useful as a pilot study, for example, when
planning a larger, more compréhensive investigation
• The circumstances under which such an approach would be valid include needing to
respond quickly to unanticipated events
• Calling a study “exploratory” should not be an excuse for failing to plan.
Descriptive Case Studies

• used to describe an intervention or phenomenon and the real-life context in which it

occurred
• Differ from explanatory ones in that we would be focused on the uniqueness of the case
and not try to develop an inferential model that would necessarily be applied to other
cases.
• The investigator must also determine before beginning the research what exactly the
unit of analysis in the study will be.
• Designed to measure the factors that are most relevant, and also to measure the factors
that are less relevant.
• Compare the influence of the different measures to see how well interpretation holds
against the other possibilities.
Explanatory Case Studies

• Explanatory case studies are useful when conducting causal studies

• Particularly in complex studies of organizations or communities, one might desire
to employ multivariate cases to examine a plurality of influences.
• The explanatory case study, then, attempts to discover and analyze the many
factors and conditions that can help us to build a causal explanation for the case.
Explanatory Case Studies

• We do this for theory development, theory testing, and theory expansion.

• Theory development case studies are useful when something new or unexpected
has occurred, and
• we can only begin to build a theoretical model to explain it by comparison to other
cases that might be said to resemble our case.
Intrinsic case studies:

• Are undertaken when a researcher wants to better understand a particular case.

• It is not undertaken primarily because it represents other cases or because it illustrates
some particular trait, characteristic, or problem.
• Rather, it is because of its uniqueness or ordinariness that a case becomes interesting
Intrinsic case studies:

• The role of the researcher is not to understand or test abstract theory or to develop
new or grounded theoretical explanations;
• Instead, the intention is to better understand intrinsic aspects of the particular child,
patient, criminal, group, organization, event, or whatever the case may be.
• The case may generate findings or stimulate ideas that will be applicable to other
cases, but the intrinsic case study is not performed for those reasons.
Instrumental case studies

• Provide insights into an issue or refine a theoretical explanation, making it more

generalizable
• The researcher focuses on a single issue or concern and identifies a single case to
illustrate this item of focus or concern.
• In these situations, the case actually becomes of secondary importance, playing a
supportive role
• The details of the case provide a background against which the larger research
interests will play out.
Instrumental case studies

• Are often investigated in depth, and all aspects and activities are detailed but not
simply to elaborate the case per se.
• Instead, the intention is to help the researcher better understand some external
theoretical question, issue, or problem.
• The choice of a particular case for study is made because the investigator believes that
his or her understanding about some other research interest will be advanced.
 Case example: Genie (feral child)

Genie (born 1957) is the pseudonym of an American feral child who was a victim of
severe abuse, neglect, and social isolation.

Her circumstances are prominently recorded in the annals of linguistics and abnormal child
psychology.

Part of the reason why genie's case fascinated psychologists and linguists so deeply was that it
presented a unique opportunity to study
• Does genetics or environment play a greater role in developing language?
• To gain further insight into the processes controlling language acquisition skills and to test
theories and
• Hypotheses identifying critical periods during which humans learn to understand and use
language.
 Case example: Genie (feral child)

When genie was between 14 and 20 months of age and was just beginning to learn speech,

• A doctor told her family that she seemed to be developmentally delayed and possibly
mildly retarded,

Her father began keeping her in a locked room.

• During this period, he almost always strapped her into a child's toilet or
• Bound her in a crib with her arms and legs immobilized,
• Forbade anyone from interacting with her,
• Provided her with almost no stimulation of any kind, and
• Left her severely malnourished.
 Case example: Genie (feral child)

The extent of her isolation prevented her from being exposed to any significant amount of
speech, and as a result she did not acquire language during her childhood.

Genie was discovered at the age of 13 when her mother left her husband and took Genie
with her.
• Could not stand erect and had a vocabulary of about 20 words.
• She scored as low as a normal one year old on a social maturity scale.
• She could only understand her own name.
• Didn’t socialize, didn’t know how to chew, salivated constantly, and was not toilet trained.
 Case example: Genie (feral child)

Within a few months of therapy, she had advanced to one-word answers and had learned to
dress herself.

But Genie didn’t progress the way normal children would do as in

• she never asked questions,

• did not understand grammar, and
• had no advancements in vocabulary.

After considerable therapy from doctors,

• Genie later learned to vocalize and express herself through sign language.
• Her demeanor changed considerably, and she became social with adults she was
familiar with.
• Genie had a strange "bunny walk", in which she held her hands up in front, like paws.
• However, she never reached any sort of normal cognitive or emotional development.
Case example: Genie (feral child)
Collective case studies

• Are also known as multiple-case studies, cross-case studies, comparative case studies,
and contrasting case studies
• Involve extensive study of several instrumental cases,
• Intended to allow better understanding, insight, or perhaps improved ability to
theorize about a broader context.
• Multiple cases may be selected in order to try replicating insights found in individual
cases or to represent contrasting situations.
Issues related to case study
 Reliability and validity

The issues of reliability and validity are important,

• Because in them the objectivity and credibility of (social scientific) research is at stake

In case study research: the reliability of research result means

• Whether or not (or under what conditions) the researcher would expect to obtain the
same finding if he or she tried again in the same way
Reliability is closely related to
• Development and refinement of case study protocol (design)
• The quality of the field notes of observation,
• Comprehensible set of questions for interview,
• Quality of the audio recordings and transcripts
Objectivity

• Objectivity is actually closely linked with reproducibility (replication).

• The question is whether other researchers working with the same basic design or
data would arrive at basically the same conclusions. This is called intersubjective
reliability.
• Inter-subjective understanding is generally accepted as the basis for the objectivity
of judgements and claims made in research

Validity

• A crucial dimension of validity of case study (and any other) research concerns the
generalizability of the research findings
• How Widely can the results, derived from relatively small samples, be generalized?
Generalizability

• When case studies are properly undertaken, they should not only fit the specific
individual, group, or event studied but also generally provide understanding about
comparable individuals, groups, and events
• There are limits to how far we can generalize our findings from case studies.
• Human behavior is also somewhat idiosyncratic

External validity

• External validity is the validity of applying the conclusions of a scientific study outside
the context of that study.
• For instance, do the findings apply to other people, settings, situations, and time
periods?
Factors That Improve External Validity

• Make sure the participant is not giving socially desirable answers or not taking the
process seriously or distracted
• Make sure that the case is as comparable or representative of the population
• Carry out multiple case study
• Ensure Situational factors such as Time of day, location, noise, researcher
characteristics, are same for all the participants
 Triangulation
• Using more than one source of information so as to increase the confidence in
the findings of the research
• Triangulation can overcome the potential bias resulting from the use of a
single method or single source of data in a study.
• Helps in arriving at unique findings
• Triangulation can, therefore, increase the validity and reliability of the research

Observation

Semi-structured interview Questionnaire

 Types of Triangulation

Data triangulation
• using different data sources and methods in the study of the same phenomena
• Mixed-method qualitative and quantitative
• Ex: interviews, questionnaires and data from newspapers and government reports

Investigator triangulation
• Where different researchers each conduct separate analysis of the data, and their
different interpretations are reconciled or compared.

Theoretical triangulation
• Researchers might compare participants’ own accounts with “alternative theoretical
schemes”
• Psychoanalytical, humanistic, etc.
Reflexivity

• As a process is introspection on the role of subjectivity in the research process.

• It is a continuous process of reflection by researchers on their values

Recognizing, examining, and understanding how their “social background, location and
assumptions affect their research practice”
• Our positionality (i.e., Position based on class, sex, ethnicity, race, etc.) And
• Who we are as persons (shaped by the socio-economic and political environment)
play a fundamental role in the research process, in the field as well as in the final text.
Advantages and Disadvantages
Advantages

• Involves detailed, holistic investigation .

• By including both quantitative and qualitative data, case study helps explain both
the process and outcome of a phenomenon
• Case studies examine the operation of causal mechanisms in individual cases in
detail.
• Case study can sometimes highlight extraordinary behaviour, which can stimulate
new research.
• They catch unique features that may otherwise be lost in larger scale data (e.g.
Surveys)
• The case study is most useful for generating hypotheses
Advantages

• They provide insights into other, similar situations and cases, thereby assisting
interpretation of other similar cases.
• They can embrace and build in unanticipated events and uncontrolled variables.

Disadvantages

• The results may not be generalizable except where other readers/researchers see
their application.
• They are not easily open to cross-checking, hence they may be selective, biased,
personal and subjective.
Disadvantages

• They are prone to problems of observer bias

• The heavy reliance on memory when reconstructing the case history means that the
information about past experiences and events may be notoriously subject to distortion
• Case studies are often labelled as being too long, difficult to conduct and producing a
massive amount of documentation