Case Study in Training and Development
Case study
1.
P.V. Young. Case study is a comprehensive study of a
social unit, be it a person, a group of persons, an institution, a community or
a family.
2.
Groode and Hatt. it is a
method of exploring and analyzing the life of a social unit.
3.
C.H. Cooley. Case study depends our perception and gives
clear insight into life directory.
4.
Johoda. Case study is a small inclusive and intensive
study of an individual in which investigators brings to bear their skills and
method.
A case study is a written or
oral miniature description and summary of a real or hypothetical business
situation or problem. When students are given cases to analyse they are asked
to identify the problem and to recommend tentative solutions of it. after
discussions and detailed studies, the trainees prepare a report which contains
an analysis of the situation and their recommendations on the corrective action
to be taken. It promotes analytical thinking and develops a person’s solving
ability.
This method was developed to
help students to learn for themselves by independent thinking and by
discovering in the ever tangled skin of human affair principals and ideas which
have lasting validity and general applicability. A collateral object is to help
them to develop skills in using their knowledge. a case study is written or
oral miniature description and summary of a real hypothetical business
situation a problem. When students are given a case to analyse, they are asked
to identify the problems and to recommend tentative solutions for it. this
method offers to the trainees matter for reflection and brings home to them as
sense of the complexity of life as opposed to theoretical assumptions of a
practices in, the decision making process. It diagnoses and deals with real
life situations.
Types of case studies
1.
Linear,
2.
Process-oriented,
3.
Grounded.
Under the more generalized category of case study
exist several subdivisions, each of which is custom selected for use depending
upon the goals of the investigator. These types of case study include the
following:
·
Illustrative case studies. These
are primarily descriptive studies. They typically utilize one or two instances
of an event to show the existing situation. Illustrative case studies serve
primarily to make the unfamiliar familiar and to give readers a common language
about the topic in question.
·
Exploratory (or pilot) case studies. These
are condensed case studies performed before implementing a large scale
investigation. Their basic function is to help identify questions and select
types of measurement prior to the main investigation. The primary pitfall of
this type of study is that initial findings may seem convincing enough to be
released prematurely as conclusions.
·
Cumulative case studies. These
serve to aggregate information from several sites collected at different times.
The idea behind these studies is that the collection of past studies will allow
for greater generalization without additional cost or time being expended on
new, possibly repetitive studies.
·
Critical instance case studies. These
examine one or more sites either for the purpose of examining a situation of
unique interest with little to no interest in generalization, or to call into
question a highly generalized or universal assertion. This method is useful for
answering cause and effect questions.
Merits
It promotes analytical
thinking and develops a person’s ability
It encourages open mindedness
and serve as a means of integrating the knowledge obtained from different basic
disciplines.
Although, Students quickly
learn that there is no single answer to arrive at useful, generalisations, and
principles.
Since case are usually based
upon real problem situation the students interest in them tends to be very
great.
The method is accepted by everyone,
for it deals with details by the uncertainties they encounter in their business
careers and the need for remedial action.
Demerits
It may degenerate into a more
dreary demonstration of dusty museam pieces, if it is taught only from book at
developing centres of learning.
Instructions in the methods of
analysis may not be given due importance. It may suppress the critical
facilities of mediocre trainees, and the habit of banking by analogies may
develop.
The cases become permanent
precedents in their minds and may be used indiscriminately.
The preparation of cases is
difficult, for it needs money and time it is not quite certain that the outcome
of this method would be worth the expenditure in money and man incurred on it.
Case
studies are in-depth investigations of a single person, group, event or
community. Typically, data are gathered from a variety of sources and by using
several different methods (e.g. observations & interviews).
The research may also continue for an extended period of time, so processes and
developments can be studied as they happen.
The
case study research method originated in clinical medicine (the case history,
i.e. the patient’s personal history).
The
case study method often involves simply observing what happens to, or
reconstructing ‘the case history’ of a single participant or group of
individuals (such as a school class or a specific social group), i.e. the idiographic approach. Case studies allow a researcher to
investigate a topic in far more detail than might be possible if they were
trying to deal with a large number of research participants (nomothetic
approach) with the aim of ‘averaging’.
The
case study is not itself a research method, but researchers select methods of
data collection and analysis that will generate material suitable for case
studies. Amongst the sources of data the psychologist is likely to turn to when
carrying out a case study are observations of a person’s daily routine, unstructured interviews with the participant herself (and
with people who know her), diaries, personal notes (e.g. letters, photographs,
notes) or official document (e.g. case notes, clinical notes, appraisal
reports). Most of this information is likely to be qualitative (i.e. verbal description rather
than measurement) but the psychologist might collect numerical data as well.
The
data collected can be analyzed using different theories (e.g. grounded theory,
interpretative phenomenological analysis, text interpretation, e.g. thematic
coding) etc. All the approaches mentioned here use preconceived categories in
the analysis and they are ideographic in their approach, i.e. they focus on the
individual case without reference to a comparison group.
Case
studies are widely used in psychology and amongst the best known were the ones
carried out by Sigmund Freud. He conducted very detailed
investigations into the private lives of his patients in an attempt to both
understand and help them overcome their illnesses.
Freud's
most famous case studies include Little Hans (1909a) and The Rat Man (1909b). Even
today case histories are one of the main methods of investigation in abnormal psychology and psychiatry. For students of
these disciplines they can give a vivid insight into what those who suffer from
mental illness often have to endure.
Case
studies are often conducted in clinical medicine and involve collecting and
reporting descriptive information about a particular person or specific
environment, such as a school. In psychology, case studies are often confined
to the study of a particular individual. The information is mainly biographical
and relates to events in the individual's past (i.e. retrospective), as well as
to significant events which are currently occurring in his or her everyday
life.
In
order to produce a fairly detailed and comprehensive profile of the person, the
psychologist may use various types of accessible data, such as medical records,
employer's reports, school reports or psychological test results. The interview is
also an extremely effective procedure for obtaining information about an
individual, and it may be used to collect comments from the person's friends,
parents, employer, work mates and others who have a good knowledge of the
person, as well as to obtain facts from the person him or herself.
This
makes it clear that the case study is a method that should only be used by a
psychologist, therapist or psychiatrist, i.e. someone with a professional
qualification. There is an ethical issue of competence. Only someone qualified
to diagnose and treat a person can conduct a formal case study relating to
atypical (i.e. abnormal) behavior or atypical development.
The
procedure used in a case study means that the researcher provides a description
of the behavior. This comes from interviews and other sources, such as
observation. The client also reports detail of events from his or her point of
view. The researcher then writes up the information from both sources above as
the case study, and interprets the information.
Interpreting
the information means the researcher decides what to include or leave out. A
good case study should always make clear which information is factual
description and which is an inference or the opinion of the researcher.
Strengths of Case Studies
- Provides detailed (rich qualitative) information.
- Provides insight for further research.
- Permitting investigation of otherwise impractical (or unethical) situations.
Because
of their in-depth, multi-sided approach case studies often shed light on
aspects of human thinking and behavior that would be unethical or impractical
to study in other ways. Research which only looks into the measurable aspects
of human behavior is not likely to give us insights into the subjective
dimension to experience which is so important to psychoanalytic and humanistic psychologists.
Case
studies are often used in exploratory research. They can help us generate new
ideas (that might be tested by other methods). They are an important way of
illustrating theories and can help show how different aspects of a person's
life are related to each other. The method is therefore important for
psychologists who adopt a holistic point of view (i.e. humanistic psychologists).
Limitations of Case Studies
- Can’t generalize the results to the wider population.
- Researchers' own subjective feeling may influence the case study (researcher bias).
- Difficult to replicate.
- Time consuming.
Because
a case study deals with only one person/event/group we can never be sure
whether the conclusions drawn from this particular case apply elsewhere. The
results of the study are not generalizable because we can never know whether
the case we have investigated is representative of the wider body of
"similar" instances
Because
they are based on the analysis of qualitative (i.e. descriptive) data a lot
depends on the interpretation the psychologist places on the information she has
acquired. This means that there is a lot of scope for observer bias and it
could be that the subjective opinions of the psychologist intrude in the
assessment of what the data means.
For
example, Freud has been criticized for producing case studies in which the
information was sometimes distorted to fit the particular theories about
behavior (e.g. Little Hans). This is also true of Money’s
interpretation of the Bruce/Brenda case study (Diamond, 1997) when he
ignored evidence that went against his theory.
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