Criteria and misconceptions of case studies
NATURE OF CASE STUDY
Case study provides a systematic and scientific way of perceiving or examining
events, collect data, analyse information, and prepare a report. As a result the
researcher may gain a sharpened understanding of why the instance happened
as it did, and what might become important to look at more extensively in
future research. Case studies lend themselves to both generating and testing
hypotheses. In other words, case study should be defined as a research
strategy, an empirical inquiry that investigates a phenomenon within its
real-life context. Case study research means single and multiple case studies,
can include quantitative evidence, relies on multiple sources of evidence and
benefits from the prior development of theoretical propositions. Case studies
based on any evidence of quantitative and qualitative research. Single
subject-research provides the statistical framework for making inferences from
quantitative case-study data. According to Lamnek (2005) “The case study is a
research approach, situated between concrete data taking techniques and
methodologic paradigms.” In the past years, case study method was used in the
field of clinical psychology to examine the patient’s previous history regarding
the person’s mental health status. To know about the patient’s physical and
mental health, and to make an accurate diagnosis, it is very important to know
about the patient’s past and present health related and environmental
problems and issues. Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud used case study method to
assist his subjects in solving personality problems. The detailed accounts of
interviews with subjects and his interpretations of their thoughts, dreams and
action provide excellent examples of case studies. Guidance counselors, social
workers and other practitioners conduct case studies for diagnosing particular
condition or problem and recommending remedial measures. They collect data
from a particular individual and confine their interest to the individual as a
unique case or collect data from a small group of individuals, which form a unit
for depth study. The case study approach is based on reality. Some of these
studies have been conducted in school environment, which have mostly
centered on behavioural problems of children. Observation, interviews,
psychological tests and inventories have been used for collecting relevant data
about the case or cases. However, subjective bias is a constant threat to
objective data gathering and analysis techniques. The researcher must be
thoroughly familiar with the skills which are associated with the conduct of
case-studies
CRITERIA FOR SELECTION OF CASE STUDY
For selection of cases for the case study, we often use information oriented
sampling. Our cases are based on this only information, which is mostly based
on the extreme cases or typical cases. The average case is often not the richest
in information. Extreme or a typical case reveals more information because
they activate more basic mechanisms and more actors in the situation studied.
In addition, from both understanding oriented and action oriented
perspectives, it is often more important to clarify the deeper causes behind a
given problem and its consequences, than to describe the symptoms of the
problem and how frequently they occur, etc. Random samples emphasising
representativeness will seldom be able to produce this kind of insight. It is
more appropriate to select a few cases for their validity, but this is not always
the case. Three types of information oriented cases may be distinguished:
• Critical cases
• Extreme or deviant cases
• Paradigmatic cases
MISCONCEPTION ABOUT CASE STUDY
There is little misconception about the case study for using in research work.
Flyvbjerg (2006) define five misconceptions about case study research: 1)
Generally, theoretical knowledge is more valuable than concrete, practical
knowledge, because one cannot generalise on the basis of an individual case
and, therefore, the case study cannot contribute to scientific development. 2)
The case study is most useful for generating hypotheses, whereas other
methods are more suitable for hypotheses testing and theory building. 3) The
case study may affect the bias tendency toward verification, i.e., a tendency to
confirm the researcher’s preconceived notions. 4) Some time it is difficult to
summarise and develop general propositions and theories on the basis of
specific case studies
