Case Study, Nat. Observation, Survey, Correlational Studies - Pro's & Cons

7/27/2019 Case Study, Nat. Observation, Survey, Correlational Studies - Pro's & Cons

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Descriptive & Correlational Designs These designs allow us to fulfill the first goal of science, and to isolate possible causes forexperiments to then assess. Remember only experiments can assess cause and effect.No matter how convincing data from descriptive and correlational studies may sound,because they have less control over the variables and the environments that they study,non-experimental designs cannot rule out extraneous variables as the cause of what is

being observed.There are many types of non-experimental methods. We will focus on three approaches:

Case StudyNaturalistic ObservationSurveyCorrelational Studies

CASE STUDIES involve in-depth examination of a single person or a few people. Thisapproach is frequently employed in clinical psychology. Typically the individual or smallgroup of individuals being examined possess some skill, or have some problem that isunusual.STRENGTH: Such cases can expand our knowledge about the variations in humanbehavior. While most researchers are interested in what is the "general" trend in behaviorthose using a case study approach highlight individuality. Considerable information isgathered. Thus, the conclusions drawn are based on a more complete set of informationabout the subjects.WEAKNESS: Despite their strengths, case studies have some very big drawbacks. First,

like all non-experimental approaches, they are merely describing what is occurring, butcannot tell us "why" it is occurring. Second, there is considerable room in case studiesfor "researcher bias" to creep in. While no approach, including the experiment, is immunefrom researcher bias when in the hands of an incompetent or poorly trained researcher,some approaches are at greater risk for this problem even when conducted by capablepeople.

Why is the case study more at risk? The case study method involves considerably more interaction between the researcherand the subjects than most other research methods. In addition, it is from the

researcher's journals of his or her subjects that the data comes from. While this mightalso be supplemented by test scores and more objective measures, it is the researcherthat brings all this together in the form of a descriptive "case study" of the individual(s) inquestion.

A final problem with case studies is that the small number of cases examined make itunlikely that they represent those who may have similar problems or abilities as thosestudied. This problem means we might not be able to generalize (apply) the study's


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findings to other people with similar problems. Thus, a case study of a single person withschizophrenia is unlikely to be representative of all people who suffer from this disorder.

NATURALISTIC OBSERVATION studies as their name implies observe organisms intheir natural settings. A researcher who wants to examine aggressive behavior in maleand female youngsters may watch children in the school playground, and record thenumber of aggressive acts boys and girls display.STRENGTH: The behavior of the subjects is likely to reflect their true behavior as it takesplace in a natural setting, where they do not realize that they are being observed. WEAKNESS: The researcher has no control over the setting. For example, in ourplayground study, more than a child's gender may be affecting the child's aggressivebehavior. In addition, subjects may not have an opportunity to display the behavior theresearcher is trying to observe because of factors beyond the researcher's control. Forexample, some of the children who are usually the most aggressive may not be at schoolthat day or in detention because of previous misconduct, thus they are not in the sampleof children on the playground. Finally, the topics of study are limited to only people'sovert behavior. A researcher cannot study topics like attitudes or thoughts using anaturalistic observation study.

SURVEY studies ask large numbers of people questions about their behaviors, attitudes,and opinions. Some surveys merely describe what people say they think and do. Othersurvey studies attempt to find relationships between the characteristics of therespondents and their reported behaviors and opinions. For example, is there arelationship between gender and people's attitudes about some social issue? Whensurveys have this second purpose we refer to them as CORRELATIONAL STUDIES.STRENGTH: Surveys allow us to gather information from large groups of people. Surveysalso allow us to assess a wider variety of behaviors than can be studied in a naturalisticobservation study.WEAKNESS: Surveys require that the subjects understand the language. Thus, somemembers of the population may be excluded from survey research. Surveys also relyheavily on subjects' memory and honesty.

CORRELATIONAL STUDIES

Correlational studies look for relationships between variables. Do people who experiencedivorce have more psychological problems? Do children who come from economicallyadvantaged families perform better academically? In each case we are asking is there arelationship between variable X and variable Y?Correlational studies only tell us that there is a relationship between the two variables.They do not tell us which variable "caused" the other.


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For example, a researcher measures people's marital status and their psychologicaladjustment and finds that there is a correlation between the two variables. More peoplewho are no longer married report experiencing psychological problems. It might betempting to conclude that the stress of experiencing a divorce causes depression andanxiety. However, it is also likely that people who suffer from psychological problems areharder for partners to live with, and thus more likely to have their marriage end in divorce.The researcher would need to determine which variable came first, the marital breakup orthe psychological problems.

Establishing CausalityIn order to establish causality we need three things. That there is a correlation between the two variablesTime order. That the presumed cause came before the presumed effectRule out alternative explanationsCorrelational studies give us the first thing. Certain studies if they follow subjects over aperiod of time may provide us with the second. But correlational studies have less control

over the subjects' environment and thus have difficulty ruling out alternative explanations.

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Case Study, Nat. Observation, Survey, Correlational Studies - Pro's & Cons