1. Case Studies
Case Studies

2. Starter… Who might this be? Can you work out his story?
What happened to him?
Why is it important to Psychology?

3. Phineas Gage ‘The man with a hole in his head’
One of the most famous Case Studies in Psychology
A tamping iron went through his head when he was at work on a railroad track (in the 1800’s). He lived for 12 years after this accident. Psychologists who studied him have claimed his personality was very different after the accident – although there are conflicting accounts.

4. Phineas Gage ‘The man with a hole in his head’
Read through the article and try to answer these questions:
How can a case study be defined?
What do they involve?
Why are they important in psychology?
Do you think Drs/Psychologists can build up a ‘before the accident’/after… picture?

5. Features of Case Studies
They focus on either one individual, group or organisation.
They study that sample in-depth
They involve interviews, observations, experiments and surveys which are all conducted over a long period of time. They also make use of historical records, medical records etc (looking back retrospectively).
They use information from a wide range of sources such as friends or family.

6. Uses of Case Studies:
Atypical Behaviour/Conditions: Autism, brain damage, obsessive compulsive disorder etc.
Unusual Situations
Usually small samples as not many people/ organisations are affected.
Give insight into how to help, what’s going on ‘normally’ and prevention.
Give in-depth insight, so may choose to do a case study despite large target population available.

7. Case Studies How useful are they in Psychology?
Think about the use of case studies in psychology.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of studying one individual or group?
What about the methods they use?
Mr Good has a positive outlook on life and sees advantages in everything.
Mr Worry is always worrying about the potential issues, disadvantages.

8. Advantages Disadvantages
Offer high levels of validity as they go into depth and give insight.
They allow researchers to study events or complex psychological areas they could not practically or ethically manipulate.
Useful If large numbers of people are unavailable or don’t exist.
Learn about issues not yet understood.
Offer rich, in depth information which might be overlooked using alternative methods.
Small samples make it difficult to generalise to other people.
Bias: researchers can become too involved and lose their objectivity: misinterpreting or influencing outcomes.
Case studied often happen after an event and are retrospective.
Lack of control: extraneous variables can effect outcome.
May require recollection of past events or historical records which may be unavailable.
Ethical issues – confidentiality. Most case studies are easily recognisable.

9. If you want to push yourself…
Optional additional work
It might be useful for you to listen to this clip on Radio 4.
Radio 4 Mind Changers
Case Study: HM - The Man Who Couldn't Remember
Copy down the link.