Case study help: Five different types of case study given to students
The case study is recognized as a research methodology, typically seen in the social and life sciences. A case study can simply be defined as an intensive study about a person, a unit, or a group of people, which aims to generalize different units. It can also be described as a systematic and intensive investigation of an individual, group, or community in which the researcher examines in-depth data.
Students at their academic level have to do the case study papers, and in most of the situations, they find it difficult to complete them. Therefore, they move towards the online platform seeking case study help from experts. These days there are many different websites offering case study help services, so students should be well aware of the authentic and original site that can help them. Students should know how to select the best writing service provider because their paper needs to be perfect to score top grades.
Before surfing the internet on how to write a case study, students should first be familiar with its concept and categories.
Take a look at some of the types of case study we have mentioned below as this will help you to simplify the concept and choose the correct type of case study to get the best case study help.
Five different types of case studies
- Instrumental case study
This type of case study involves the phenomenon of careful observation that helps to gain knowledge about a particular issue or concern. One can even build and structure a theory around it to draw inferences. This further helps in re-drawing generalizations.
Take for an example, a researcher who is interested enough to know about child obesity rates might set up a study with the middle school students and would perform an exercise program within it. Though in this case, the children and exercise program undertaken by the researcher is not the main focus. The focus here gets on to the relationship between children and the exercise program, and what are the reasons behind children getting obese. Therefore, we could say that an instrumental case study uses a case to gain insights about a phenomenon.
- Intrinsic case study
Coming towards the other type of case study, where the prime interest of the researcher revolves around a specific subject or object. This could be a person, an organization, a department, or even a group of people. The findings we get under this case study are represented in terms of attitudes, values, beliefs, and perspectives. For this case study, the subject itself holds the primary interest.
We could take the example of ‘Genie’ here. This study wasn’t so much about psychology, but about Genie and herself, and how her experiences played a huge role in shaping her as to what she was. Genie becomes the topic here. Genie is what interests the researcher, and what their readers would be interested in. During the initial stages of this study, the researcher wasn’t aware about what they would find.
- Critical instance case study
Under this study, the researcher studies an association with some event that is unique because here he tries to find what has happened. He seeks to challenge those aspects that might be faulty, which comes out as a result of lack of understanding in a critical aspect.
It also examines one or more situations at different times to criticize a more generalized and universal assumption. This method is commonly employed under the cause and effect situations. It is an attempt that helps to decipher and focus on a single occurrence instead of just generalizing the situation. It is also sometimes referred to as critical incident technique that is primarily used for exploratory research.
- Cumulative case study
Cumulative case studies are also called as collective case study or multiple case study. The main focus of this study is to collect information from different sources that are essential for our research. The collected pieces of this information are then compiled together and designed in a manner for a new study. The information taken from several instances of a situation is then used to make generalized conclusions out of it.
The idea behind collecting information under this study is the collection of data of past studies that will allow the researcher for higher generalization without adding any additional cost or time being expended on new, possibly as repetitive studies.
- Exploratory case study
A different name also calls exploratory case studies as pilot case studies. This type of case study is generally considered to be a compact case study which is usually employed as a prototype case study for a research project or say large-scale investigation.
They are also referred to as condensed case studies which are performed before implementing a large scale investigation. The basic function under this case study is to help identify questions and then select types of measurement before the main investigation. However, the primary drawback for this study is that the initial findings may seem convincing enough to the researcher to be released prematurely in the form of conclusions.
An exploratory case study is a quite new topic for an assignment, so most of the students find it difficult to complete. The tasks involved in this study include thorough analysis and research of the topic and the ability to prove a deep understanding and knowledge about the subject.
These are the different types of case studies, which the students need to write for their papers depending upon the subject and the topic.
