Saturday 16 April 2011

Research Methods RE: Interviews and Case Studies

Interviews
An alternate method of asking questions
Face-to-face, and can provide more detailed information and is a more natural and flexible approach to questioning.

Advantages:
  • Qualitative, as great detail can be harnessed
  • Participant can express themselves as they please
  • Unstructured interviews allows honesty in a participant. This raises the potential of psychological enquiry
Weaknesses:
  • If unstructured, the interview runs the risk of being weak in terms of statistical analysis
  • Interviews take longer than questionnaires
  • Increased risks of investigator effects e.g. interpersonal variables will increase

Case Study
A gathering of detailed information concerning an individual or a group of people
This makes it idiographic- relating to individual cases or events
Case studies can be longitudinal or retrospective

Advantages:
  • Produces descriptive, qualitative data that is rich in detail
  • High realism, therefore high ecological validity
  • Known to challenge new psychological insights
Disadvantages:
  • Reliability of data can be varied as case studies are difficult to replicate
  • Low population validity due to difficulty of generalising the study beyond the individual or group being studied

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