Case Studies in Cognitive Psychology
• Involve the in-depth study of one single participant/event because of an unusual
trait or life experience.
• Interviews and questionnaires are used to gather data.
• Often used where it would be impractical or unethical to conduct other forms of
research methods.
• Triangulation- gathering data from a range of methods to create an overall
conclusion.
• Longitudinal- the study follows the same participant over a long period of time.
Differences:
Case Studies Experiments
• More ecological validity • Low ecological validity
• Use qualitative data • More use of quantitative data
• Small sample • Large sample
• Written as a story to give depth and • Reliable as there is great use of
detail standardised procedures
• Not reliable as it cannot be • Inferential statistics
replicated as easily • Low reductionism
• Reductionism (they embrace as much • Nomothetic: universal laws of
data as possible to provide a human behaviour that show
holistic/full view of the situation) what is common in people.
• Idiographic- refers to something
individual and private, so means
looking at what makes people
unique.
Qualitative Data- includes descriptive information, not in numerical form and in-depth
analysis of patient’s brain damage from a range of methods. The use of open questions is
common and lots of description from the patient. However, it is more time consuming and
not in a standardised format so it can be criticised for being subjective and non-scientific.
This doesn’t mean that the findings lack validity but that the researcher has to justify them
using evidence.
Case Study of HM (Scoville and Milner 1957)
• Henry Molaison had epilepsy which was a result of a head injury from the age of 7.
His seizures got worse as he grew older.
• When 27 HM got his hippocampus surgically removed to stop the seizures.
• This surgery led to severe amnesia (retrograde and anterograde) and Milner wanted
to investigate his case.
Amnesia- the loss of memories, facts information etc
• Involve the in-depth study of one single participant/event because of an unusual
trait or life experience.
• Interviews and questionnaires are used to gather data.
• Often used where it would be impractical or unethical to conduct other forms of
research methods.
• Triangulation- gathering data from a range of methods to create an overall
conclusion.
• Longitudinal- the study follows the same participant over a long period of time.
Differences:
Case Studies Experiments
• More ecological validity • Low ecological validity
• Use qualitative data • More use of quantitative data
• Small sample • Large sample
• Written as a story to give depth and • Reliable as there is great use of
detail standardised procedures
• Not reliable as it cannot be • Inferential statistics
replicated as easily • Low reductionism
• Reductionism (they embrace as much • Nomothetic: universal laws of
data as possible to provide a human behaviour that show
holistic/full view of the situation) what is common in people.
• Idiographic- refers to something
individual and private, so means
looking at what makes people
unique.
Qualitative Data- includes descriptive information, not in numerical form and in-depth
analysis of patient’s brain damage from a range of methods. The use of open questions is
common and lots of description from the patient. However, it is more time consuming and
not in a standardised format so it can be criticised for being subjective and non-scientific.
This doesn’t mean that the findings lack validity but that the researcher has to justify them
using evidence.
Case Study of HM (Scoville and Milner 1957)
• Henry Molaison had epilepsy which was a result of a head injury from the age of 7.
His seizures got worse as he grew older.
• When 27 HM got his hippocampus surgically removed to stop the seizures.
• This surgery led to severe amnesia (retrograde and anterograde) and Milner wanted
to investigate his case.
Amnesia- the loss of memories, facts information etc
