Y2: Psychology: Clinical Methodology: Case Studies and Luk and Agoha (2014)

To provide detailed insight into a unique situation.

Focusing in detail on a topic and on individuals.

Looking for general rules in behaviour by drawing on data gathered that focuses on large numbers.

Cross verification of data from two or more sources to provide validity in findings and conclusions.

1) Single ppt/small group
2) Psychometric testing, observations, interviews that are then triangulated
3) Carried out over a long period of time
4) Gathering mainly qualitative data
5) Idiographic in clinical

• To gather info on different disorders

• Takes an idiographic approach as focus on individual

• In-depth analysis of experiences and influences of psychological processes

• This is often done through methods such as diagnostic interviews, ppt observation, medical records, diaries

• Methods to analyse such data are often thematic analysis, grounded theory, and other text interpretation

• Most of the material and data collected is qualitative

1) High reliability in the use of triangulation as it allows to show how data is consistent
2) High validity due to triangulation of data allowing for a range of measures to verify each other making conclusions more credible
3) High ecological validity due to ppts being assessed in environments natural to them therefore their behaviour will also be natural
4) High application as they provide insight in to disorders and how they affect people and their real life behaviour which can lead to new treatments to help
5) High ethics in clinical case studies as psychologists take care to follow HCPC guidelines to ensure protection from harm for the vulnerable groups being studied

1) Low generalisability due to studying a single ppt or small group with unique circumstances or details of their disorder that is hard to generalise to a wider population
2) Low reliability due to a unique case that is not likely to occur again and so data found cannot be compared easily due to lack of other data
3) Low validity due to studying patients closely in which researchers would likely form a bond with them therefore they may be subjective in their interpretations of behaviours so hard to avoid researcher bias
4) Low validity due to clinical interviews used providing descriptions of symptoms of the disorders in which a patient may not disclose all info and so their diagnosis may not be accurate

Luk and Agoha (2014)

To describe the experience of a Chinese-American adolescent girl with anorexia nervosa from multiple perspectives of theories, with a focus on cultural.

• Case study using retrospective data of chart reviews from when Amywas 15 and admitted to the Inpatient Child Psychiatric unit for further care with a BMI of 11.8

• She suffered body dysmorphia, amenorrhea, and cold intolerance

• She underwent individual therapy, group therapy, daily weigh-ins, and monitoring of meals

• She was discharged 3 months later but got readmitted 2 more times in 6 months due to not maintaining body weight

• On her 3rd admission Amy was assigned a in-home therapist of the same culture who visited regularly to help with tension during fmaily meals

• Visited China 10 months post-discharge and discontinued the fluoxetine while there

• Found that the main cause of the eating disorder was due to an overbearing mother who wouldn’t cater to Amy’s dietary preferances

• With the therapists help of balancing food options for Amy and reducing tension at family meals she started to gain more weight

• After visiting China Amy remained asymptomatic but still refused meals with her family

• Amy’s anorexia was a result of rejecting her parents and their different culture not the desire to be thin

• Visit to China improved her autonomy and relationship with parents who gave her more freedom that allowed her to develop her sense of identity

P - Low
E - Small narrow sample of a single female ppt who was 15 years old of Chinese-American ethnicity
E - This cannot represent males with AN, those older than adolescence, or of other cultures

P - High
E - There were objective measures such as Amy’s BMI before admission, during, and after that went from 11.8 to 18.5
E - Therefore improvements were objectively analysed
P - Low
E - Amy’s case was unique due to not having a desire to be thin instead begin a rejection of her mother’s meals
E - This therefore cannot be replicated as it would be unethical to cause problems in a family relationship to test for consistency

P - Yes
E - This study showed that people can recover from AN
E - Therefore may encourage people to seek help or complete treatment

P - Low
E - Amy new the researchers were looking at her disorder with causes and improvements
E - Therefore she may show DCs in improving physically however not psychologically
P - Low
E - Researchers will have spent a long time with Amy gathering data on her disorder, the cause, and details of her family life
E - Therefore there may be subjectivity in looking for improvements lending itself to researcher bias

P - Unethical
E - Amy may have felt distressed due to the intense research on her disorder, causes of admission and development
E - This therefore will have caused psychological harm breaking the ethical guideline of harm to ppts