Explain case study method and its characteristics, advantages and limitations.
Explain case study method and its characteristics, advantages and limitations.
Ans.
Case Study Method
The case study method is a very popular form of qualitative analysis and involves a careful and complete observation of a social unit, be that unit a person, a family, an institution, a cultural group or even the entire community. It is a method of study in depth rather than breadth. The case study places more emphasis on the full analysis of a limited number of events or conditions and their interrelations. The case study deals with the processes that take place and their interrelationship. Thus, case study is essentially an intensive investigation of the particular unit under consideration. The object of the case study method is to locate the factors that account for the behaviour-patterns of the given unit as an integrated totality.
Characteristics: The important characteristics of the case study method are as under:
1. Under this method the researcher can take one single social unit or more of such units for his study purpose; he may even take a situation to study the same comprehensively.
2. Here the selected unit is studied intensively i.e., it is studied in minute details. Generally, the study extends over a long period of time to ascertain the natural history of the unit so as to obtain enough information for drawing correct inferences.
3. In the context of this method we make complete study of the social unit covering all facets. Through this method we try to understand the complex of factors that are operative within a social unit as an integrated totality.
4. Under this method the approach happens to be qualitative and not quantitative. Mere quantitative information is not collected. Every possible effort is made to collect information/ concerning all aspects of life. As such, case study deepens our perception and gives us a clear insight into life. For instance, under this method we not only study how many crimes a man has done but shall peep into the factors that forced him to commit crimes when we are making a case study of a man as a criminal. The objective of the study may be to suggest ways to reform the criminal.
5. In respect of the case study method an effort is made to know the mutual inter-relationship of causal factors.
6. Under case study method the behaviour pattern of the concerning unit is studied directly and not by an indirect and abstract approach.
Advantages: There are several advantages of the case study method that follow from the various characteristics outlined above. Mention may be made here of the important advantages.
(i) Being an exhaustive study of a social unit, the case study method enables us to understand fully the behaviour pattern of the concerned unit. In the words of Charles Horton Cooley, “case study deepens our perception and gives us a clearer insight into life…. It gets at behaviour directly and not by an indirect and abstract approach.”
(ii) Through case study a researcher can obtain a real and enlightened record of personal experiences which would reveal man’s inner strivings, tensions and motivations that drive him to action along with the forces that direct him to adopt a certain pattern of behaviour.
(iii) This method enables the researcher to trace out the natural history of the social unit and its relationship with the social factors and the forces involved in its surrounding environment.
(iv) It helps in formulating relevant hypotheses along with the data which may be helpful in testing them. Case studies, thus, enable the generalised knowledge to get richer and richer.
(v) The method facilitates intensive study of social units which is generally not possible if we use either the observation method or the method of collecting information through schedules. This is the reason why case study method is being frequently used, particularly in social researches.
(vi) Information collected under the case study method helps a lot to the researcher in the task of constructing the appropriate questionnaire or schedule for the said task requires thorough knowledge of the concerning universe.
(vii) The researcher can use one or more of the several research methods under the case study method depending upon the prevalent circumstances. In other words, the use of different methods such depth interviews, questionnaires, as documents, study reports of individuals, letters, and the like is possible under case study method.
Limitations: Important limitations of the case study method may as well be highlighted.
(1) Case situations are seldom comparable and as such the information gathered in case studies is often not comparable. Since the subject under case study tells history in his own words, logical concepts and units of scientific classification have to be read into it or out of it by the investigator.
(ii) Read Bain does not consider the case data as significant scientific data since they do not provide knowledge of the “impersonal, universal, non-ethical, non-practical, repetitive aspects of phenomena.” Real information is often not collected because the subjectivity of the researcher does enter in the collection of information in a case study.
(iii) The danger of false generalisation is always there in view of the fact that no set rules are followed in collection of the information and only few units are studied.
(iv) It consumes more time and requires lot of expenditure. More time is needed under case study method since one studies the natural history cycles of social units and that too minutely.
(v) The case data are often vitiated because the subject, according to Read Bain, may write what he thinks the investigator wants; and the greater the rapport, the more subjective the whole process is.
