Statistical research methodology and design

Statistic -- Research methodology

The use of the 'case study:' Strengths and weaknesses

The use of the 'case study:' Strengths and weaknesses

When a researcher presents quantitative data about a population group, one of the most common objections is that such statistics do not allow for 'exceptions to the rule,' and do not paint an accurate portrait of the lived experiences of different individual's perceptions of reality. Case studies allow for a subjective portrait of human life, and allow for the subjects of research to speak for themselves. For example, when analyzing a religious community, doing a case study of a singular community might reveal more complexity of points-of-view than might be initially obvious from the data. The question 'do you believe the Bible to be a literal interpretation of human history' can only be answered with a yes or no, but extended interviews with subjects could suggest far more doubt in the minds of the population group than they were willing to admit when asked a point-blank, quantifiable question.

Case studies also allow for more surprising findings than a researcher anticipates. Quantifiable researchers embark upon studies with a clear hypothesis that must be proved or disproved. But as a case study is anecdotal, going into a community without assumptions can yield unique solutions. When studying the problem of obesity, and its link to poverty, the conventional wisdom might be that people simply need to eat fewer calories and to burn more of them through exercise. But spending time with a poor community could bring to light other important influences, like the association of being overweight with good health amongst immigrants who come from areas of the world stricken by famine or the link between poverty, depression, and self-medicating through over-eating.

Case studies are often seen as more 'ethical' in that they allow human subjects to have a voice in the research. By recording interviews and verbal responses, subjects can help shape the presentation of the data in a manner they often cannot in quantifiable research. But there is also a strong ethical objection to case studies for that same reason: the lack of objectivity in accumulating facts may actually allow for greater bias on the part of the researcher. Since the researcher has a higher level of participation amongst his or her study subjects than an individual merely accumulating data, he or she might favor certain personal points-of-view, based upon favoritism of some community members. The intensely subjective nature of research might also yield more of a portrait of the researcher's perceptions, rather than of the population itself.

Advocates of a more experimental approach to research would likely point out that case studies are not inherently 'better' than quantitative data in filtering bias. After all, Margaret Mead's famous anthropological study Coming of Age in Samoa has been widely critiqued because of the anthropologist's relatively filtered contact with the Samoan people. Furthermore, although something might be lost through a statistical approach, case studies may be so highly specific that they yield information that is more intellectually interesting than useful and generalizable to a large population.