Learning Through Case Study: The Door to Understanding
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2011
Originally Published In
The refractive thinker®: Volume II: research methodology (2nd ed.) Las Vegas, NV: The Refractive Thinker Press®
Page Numbers
1-13
Abstract
Sigmund Freud was one of the first to pioneer and exploit the benefits of case study research by documenting his observations in detail about his patient Anna O., which led to his development of psychoanalytical theory of personality development . In the early twenty-first century, case studies are a common research design used in social science in general, in business and management studies, in particular. The case study is an important research design to use for both master’s and doctoral-level research. According to Cooper and Schindler (2006), case study research provides understanding about the how and why of a situation. A case study is a “mostly qualitative research approach that studies one or several cases (people, organizations, processes) holistically and in their social, economic, and cultural contexts” (Eriksson & Kovalainen, 2008, p. 303).
