Question

what are the different types of case studies in psychology fully explained.

Answer 1

A case study is the in-depth study of an individual, group or an event. There are different types of case studies depending upon the subject of the study it can be 1. Explanatory and exploratory case studies, 2. Descriptive case studies 3.Intrinsic case studies, 4.Collective case studies, 5.and Instrumental case studies

1. The researchers may look into the factors of the case in explanatory case studies and if further in-depth studies are required then they would develop questions and hypotheses to explore the case

2. In a descriptive case study, a descriptive theory is prepared by observing the subject and more information is gathered and compared with the pre-existing theory.

3. In the intrinsic case studies, the researcher has his own personal interest the best example is Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development and human intelligence.

4. The collective case study is the study of an individual or a group of people in a certain setting or studying of the whole community.

5. Instrumental case study: This is an important part of the study where the individual or the group allows the researchers to study further in-depth to understand more than what was initially understood.

There can be different methods of studying a case it can be,

1. Direct observation, where the researchers observe the people, their activities and make a note of his observations analyze it and come to a conclusion,

2. Interview; The researcher can take face to face interviews of his subjects, or through a questionnaire, or over a telephonic conversation,

3. Physical artifacts: There are various tools, instrument, objects, and other artifacts are studied in direct observation,

4. Participant observation: the researcher himself serves as a participant and observes the outcome and actions.

The data collected can be analyzed using different theories depending on the facts, for example, Sigmund Freud, he conducted his investigation of his subject in detailed and looked into private lives of his subject to find out the and the root cause of the illness and its remedy and gave the result that the personalities are developed through conflicts among the three basic structure of human mind.

The researchers after collecting the data and analyzing it can prepare a report of his findings with the topic of his research, the method he had used in collecting the information, describe his subject, and prepare the data in a systematic way, analyze and interpret the data collected summarizing the major points of the research, giving lights on future directions depending upon the findings.