content analysis and case studies

case study

in-depth investigation, description and analysis of a single individual, group, institution or event

key features of case studies

analysis of unusual individuals or events, qualitative data, can create case history using interviews, observations, questionnaires, longitudinal

strengths of case studies

rich detailed insights which may shed light on atypical behaviour, contributes to our understanding of typical functioning e.g. HM, can generate hypotheses for future studies

limitations of case studies

cannot generalise beyond sample, researcher bias due to subjective selection and interpretation of data, personal accounts may be subject to memory decay which lowers validity of study

content analysis

observational research technique that enables indirect study of behaviour by examining communications that people produce e.g. texts, films emails, aim is to summarise and describe communication in systematic way so overall conclusions can be drawn

coding (content analysis)

communication to be studied is analysed by identifying each instance of chosen categories, info categorised into meaningful units - quantitative e.g. number of times a word appears

thematic analysis (content analysis)

inductive and qualitative approach to analysis that involves identifying recurring implicit or explicit ideas within the data, themes will often emerge once data is coded, may collect new set of data to test validity of themes - qualitative

strengths of content analysis

circumnavigates ethical issues as media already exists in public domain, high external validity, flexible because both quantitative and qualitative data can be collected depending on nature of research

limitations of content analysis

communications analysed outside of context so risk of misinterpretation, lack of objectivity (although most researchers have begun to implement reflexivity)