Sociological Research : Designs, Methods

A case study is an intensive type of research that involves a process in which detailed information is collected

A case study involves in-depth research and documentation of one person or more than one person. Researchers gain a large insight into the case when it’s not as many people compared to surveys, which is one of its strengths. The advantages of a case study are a deeper understanding of the patient, and the researcher doesn’t ‘t have to do anything against his or her ethics. The disadvantages of a case study are time consumption, and it’s hard to generalize since case studies are usually unique cases unlike anything else. Case studies, surveys, and naturalistic observations are all descriptive research methods, since they cannot make predictions or determine causality.

A case study is “a method of analysis and a specific research design for examining a problem” (University of Southern California, 2010). It can be used to analyze a person, place, event, or other subjects in order to help discover mitigating issues, misconceptions, failures, trends, or recommendations (USC, 2010). Case studies will be used to gain a better understanding of situations and topics to help others make better policies, procedures, and decisions (USC, 2010).

Longitudinal – several observations over a period of time. We use these types of observation if there appears to be a concern over behaviour or development.

A case study is a puzzle that has to be solved. The first thing to remember about writing a case study is that the case should have a problem for the readers to solve. The case should have enough information in it that readers can understand what the problem is and, after thinking about it and analyzing the information; the readers should be able to come up with a proposed solution. Writing an interesting case study is a bit like writing a detective story. You want to keep your readers very interested in the situation.

| -They produce data on very specific, narrow topic i.e. the relationship between two variables-Experimenting on human beings in care situations raises difficult ethical issues (Moonie, Stretch, et al, 2003).-Participants usually know that they are in an experiment which may affect the behaviour they produce-It may be time consuming(Stanley, Boswell, et al, 2009).

43.Case Study: an observational technique in which one person id studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles.

The first type of research that is used in the field of sociology is experiment research. Experiment research involves creating an experiment based off an hypothesis to answer an question. The scientific method is used to keep the experiment on track and follow a set of guidelines. This experiment is done in a controlled setting in which the design of the experiment is to answer the hypothesis. Data is gathered based on what the participants do or act during the experiment. The data gathered is quantitative, in which the data gathered is expressed in numbers. There are both benefits and limitations of

An in-depth study of a particular situation rather than a sweeping statistical survey. Case study research is a method that was used to narrow down a very broad field of research into one easily researchable topic.

In Neil Postman’s short essay, “Social Science as Moral Theology,” he describes the social sciences, such as sociology and psychology, not as sciences, but rather as “moral theology” and as “storytelling.” The authors of the textbook Sociology the Essentials would dispute these claims by arguing that social scientists are doing science with their work. In the third chapter labeled, “Doing Sociological Research” there is a section called “The Tools of Sociological Research” that goes into detail of all the different ways sociologists can gather research.

* Repeated measure = A repeated measures design is a longitudinal study, usually a controlled experiment but sometimes an observational study

Now, case studies are considered to be more of an in-depth study that uses many approaches and data sources of a solo case. Percy, Kostere, & Kostere, (2015, p. 19) stated that when we do a single case study, we do not mean a case study of one person, but instead we mean a study of a solo research/topic questions. From time to time there is a quantity of cases that are reported and studied together. The cases in a

A longitudinal design is a research method in which one group of people is studied over a long length of time in order to observe the changes. One example is that we might want to study how television viewing affects human development over time. To conduct such a study, we would choose one large group of people, such as 3 year olds, conduct a series of tests and asks a series of questions to see how television viewing is currently affecting the 3 year olds, collect their contact information, and then invite the participants to return for another study after a certain length of time, such as a year or two. When the participants return, more tests are conducted and more questions are asked with the purpose of determining if any changes in the

A case study is a specific instance that is frequently designed to illustrate a more general principle (Nisbet and Watt, 1984). Hitchock and Hughes (1995) further suggest that the case study approach is particularly valuable when the researcher has little control over evens. Case studies strives to portray ‘what it like’ to be a particular situation, to catch up reality and ‘thick description’ (Geertz, 1973) of participants’ lives experiences of, thoughts about and feelings for a situation. They involve looking at a case or phenomenon in its real-life context, usually employing many types of data (Robson, 2002). It is important in case studies for events and situations to be allowed to speak for themselves, rather than to be largely interpreted, evaluated or judged by the researcher. In this respect the case study is akin to the television documentary. Case studies can make theoretical statements, but, like other forms of research and human sciences, these must be supported by the evidence presented.

The drawback to cross-sectional studies is the inability to express cause and effect relationships between the variables being tested. Or to make a convincing observation in regards to the course of the connection between variables.It is because of the concept of the snapshot at the single moment, that prevents the consideration of before and after that specific moment is analyzed (What researchers mean by cross-sectional vs. longitudinal studies.,2009). As it relates to longitudinal studies, they are observational as well. However, it is over an extended period. Like cross-sectional studies, the researchers are not entering with the participants or respondents. This method studies the same subjects several times over a period of years. This technique gives the scholar the ability to measure the change of data to be collected over time. Longitudinal studies come in three prominent types panel, cohort, and retrospective. The panel study is a representative sample of participants, and the retroactive study utilizes historical data that is sometimes compared to improved