Purpose of case study method

  The purpose of the case study method is to understand the important aspects of the life cycle of a unit. Case study analyses deeply and interprets the interactions between the different factors that influence the change or growth of unit. Thus, it is a basically a longitudinal approach which studies the units over a period of time. A review of literature in this field suggests that case studies are not confined to the study of individuals and their important behavioural characteristics, rather, case studies have been made of all types of communities and of all types of individuals. Whatever the type of individual or community is, the element of of typicalness, rather than uniqueness, is the focus of attention in case study.

Though case study is a detailed description and analysis of a particular individual’s personality, it is also an immensely important research strategy. A single case-study suggests a deep insight about human behaviour, but usually one case does not provide a firm basis for deriving general principles of behaviour. However, if a number of case studies are accessible for scrutiny, researchers may be able to identify threads of consistency among them and draw some general conclusions.

The case study method may also be used to study the lives of normal individuals. A group led by Henry Murray (Murray et al., 1938) at the Harvard Psychological Clinic provides a rare but compelling model for the intensive study of individual lives over a substantial period of time. The Harvard “personologists” focused on in depth assessments of a small group of college males. The objective was to learn about the basic needs, conflicts, values, attitudes, and patterns of social interaction evident among these young men. The assessment techniques included several self-report personality questionnaires and projective tests administered at different times. In addition to this, assessment of these students involved gathering extensive biographical data and autobiographical sketches, putting them into small-scale experiments, and conducting stress interviews where they were focused to answer embarrassing questions or were challenged to defend some of their deeply held values. Finally, the students were studied in small group settings so that the observers could ascertain their public styles of interpersonal interaction.

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