Entry
Entries A-Z
Case Study Research (Psychology)
A type of descriptive research that involves in-depth observation of one or more individuals or cases. Instead of using large samples of individuals, case studies are based on the premise that in-depth examination of one individual can result in meaningful information about many individuals. Psychologists can use many tools to obtain information about one case, such as interviews, behavioral observations, biographical or historical material, or psychological tests. Case studies have played a very important role in psychology, and Sigmund Freud, for instance, based his psychoanalytic theories of personality on case studies done with individual patients. One of the main criticisms of the case study method is that it can have limited generalizability, especially when the cases are particularly atypical.