PSY1018 - Evaluating Methodologies: Case Studies vs. Comparison Groups

This essay provides a critical evaluation of case study and comparison group methodologies in researching the consequences of early severe deprivation. It begins by defining deprivation and its potential neuro-cognitive effects on children, highlighting the importance of studying this phenomenon. The essay then delves into the strengths and weaknesses of both case study methods, which offer in-depth analysis but may lack generalizability, and comparison group studies, which provide broader data but may face ethical or practical challenges. Specific examples, such as the English and Romanian Adoptee studies, are used to illustrate these points. The essay concludes that while both methods have limitations, they complement each other in providing a comprehensive understanding of the complex effects of early severe deprivation, emphasizing the necessity of using both approaches for future research in this area.

Running head: PSYCHOLOGY
Psychology
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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It is a well-known fact that there can be no accurate definition of the term ‘Deprivation’ in
social context. There are some limitations in accessing the social world due to specific lacks in
socio-economic status or even due to poor educational background (Posavac, 2015). The
deprived population experiences a deprivation of the fundamental capabilities because of lack of
freedom more than due to only low income rate. The phrase lack of freedom means reduction in
various career or social opportunities, dignity and most importantly political voice. In childhood,
if the children experience social deprivation, it may cause neuro-cognitive difficulties in the
brain. They might experience inability to articulate properly (Yin, 2013). It is seen that due to
severe deprivation, the individuals might experience instability regarding the functioning of the
brain and they might experience numerous mental illness for that. There are various measures of
deprivation used commonly and out of all the ways, the most common methods are Jarman
Underprivileged Area Score, The Carstairs Index, The Townsend Index and many more (Schulte,
Bartels & Barrera, 2014). The essay explores the fact that how a researcher can get to know the
effects of early severe deprivation by case study method and comparison group method. The
essay further explores the disadvantages and advantages of each method and finally determines
how these two methods complement each other to get to know the effects of severe deprivation.
Thus in order to find out the effects of deprivation, this essay sheds light on the fact case study
method and comparison group studies are the two key devices (Olsavsky et al., 2013). Both of
these techniques are vital to judge the effects of deprivation and the essay also explore how in
several ways these two techniques complement each other.
This essay particularly focuses on the strengths and weaknesses of case study method
versus the studies using comparison groups to research the effects of early severe deprivation
among individuals (Posavac, 2015). It is seen that to determine the effects of severe

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deprivation, case study method and comparison group study method are two most popular
tools. It is seen that both the tools have a few advantages and disadvantages and on the other
hand both methods complement each other to determine the effects of early severe deprivation
among people. The essay revolves around these issues and concludes how these two approaches
complement each other in attaining the effects of severe deprivation. In most cases the children
develop typically and in some cases they develop atypically as each child are unique. It is seen
that early severe deprivation actually harms the development of children and that can effectively
delay the developmental procedure.
Case study
In general, a case study can be defined as a phenomenon for which the researchers can
report only a single measure on any relevant variable. Some individuals have a gross
misconception and that is every case study portrays only one observation on the variable that is
dependent but can portray many observations on the independent variables (Olsavsky et al.,
2013). But, it is seen that every case has a huge number of observations regarding the intervening
variables and might allow the various qualitative measures of different dimensions of the
dependent and independent variables. Thus, it can be said that case studies not necessarily suffer
from any types of indeterminacy. Thus it can be said that following a definition of a case study
as an instance of a series of events of interest to the investigator, like an instance of revolution,
sort of economic system and a particular type of governmental regime (Berens & Nelson, 2015).
Thus from this aspect, it can be said that case study can be a well-defined document of historical
happening that the researcher can choose to analyze.

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Advantages:
It can be said that the case studies offer huge details to be gathered by the researchers and
without using the case study method, no researcher can gather so much details about any
particular topic (Loman et al., 2013). The data gathered from the case studies are often accurate
and easy to use in research works.
The case study method is inclined towards conducting regarding the rare cases where large
sampling is not available. As an example, it can be said that, studying a particular case for a
particular topic of research, in-depth data can be attained.
Conducting a research work using case study technique, various scientific experiments
might be conducted by the scholars.
Using case study method can hugely help the research scholars to adapt innovative ideas
and to produce hypothesis for the research work.
Disadvantages
In some particular cases, the case studies are not at all scientific and there are many
instances where the researchers has taken a case study that is not at all accurate and the case
study misguided the whole research work.
In most cases the case studies are based on any particular individual and have a tendency to
allow one researcher to collect the data (Hanus & Fox, 2015). These tendencies can control the
results more than any other designs.
The case study method is much tougher to draw definite effect from the case studies.

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Comparison group study
To be able to perceive the effects of deprivation Comparison group study might be useful
for the researcher. In this way, the individual who is conducting the social research will get
adequate data from the participants of the comparison group (McLaughlin, Sheridan & Lambert,
2014). The researcher will get to know about various incidents regarding the effects of
deprivation from various sources of the group and the general idea will get clearer as he or she
will be having knowledge of various cases. The basic difference between case study approach
and the comparison group study is that in case study approach, the researcher will get the
information about any particular case and the exposure will be very limited (Loman et al., 2013).
Whereas when the research scholar will be conducting a comparison group study, he will get
information regarding many incidents and the picture will be much clearer to him and that would
help him to analyze the situation more accurately. It can also be said that Comparison group is a
bit like an experimental group and the participants of this group gets exposed to the similar
conditions than the experimental where the control groups do not get exposed and only the
researcher can observe it (Klenke, 2016). The particular term comparison group is often used in
experimental studies in order to experiment the integrity of a particular research study. There are
several advantages and disadvantages of using comparison study to determine the effects of the
deprivation in individuals.
Advantages
There are some factors behind the comparison group study becoming highly regarded
(Hanus & Fox, 2015). In the comparison group study the researcher will get to know about
multiple cases from the participants of the comparison group.

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It is seen that in case study method the focus remains on a single plot or case, where as in
the comparison group the social researcher attains a wider knowledge from the participants of the
group (Hancock & Algozzine, 2016).
Disadvantage
The comparison group approaches at times can be seen as difficult or unethical, but these
shortcomings can surely be overcome. It can also be said that a good comparison group can be
very similar to a group of service users who are receiving an intervention, as it would allow the
researcher to be confident regarding the various outcomes among the members of the
comparison group.
It can be said that case study method generally takes a qualitative approach and in that
approach, the case study method offers an in depth analysis of a small number of units or
participants. On the other hand the comparison group study takes a quantitative approach in
studying the effects of severe deprivation (Klenke, 2016). Thus, it can be said that these both
approaches comparison group study and case study method complement each other to find the
consequences of the early severe deprivation.
Thus to conclude, it can be said that in today’s world, severe deprivation is harming the life
of the children and others majorly and these effects are generally long lasting. Thus it has
become a popular topic of research. Thus to find out the effects of deprivation, case study
method and comparison group studies are two major tools. Both of these methods are important
to judge the effects of deprivation and in many ways these two methods complement each other.
Thus it can be said that without using both these techniques it would be impossible for the social
researcher to determine the effects of early deprivation accurately. As determining the effects of

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deprivation have become a must in today’s context, none can defy the importance of both these
methodologies. Thus, it can be said that to determine the effects of early severe deprivation in
future, one should make use of the case study method along with the comparison group study in
order to achieve success as these two methods complement each other.

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References and bibliography
Berens, A. E., & Nelson, C. A. (2015). The science of early adversity: is there a role for large
institutions in the care of vulnerable children?. The Lancet, 386(9991), 388-398.
Hancock, D. R., & Algozzine, B. (2016). Doing case study research: A practical guide for
beginning researchers. Teachers College Press.
Hanus, M. D., & Fox, J. (2015). Assessing the effects of gamification in the classroom: A
longitudinal study on intrinsic motivation, social comparison, satisfaction, effort, and academic
performance. Computers & Education, 80, 152-161.
Klenke, K. (Ed.). (2016). Qualitative research in the study of leadership. Emerald Group
Publishing Limited.
Loman, M. M., Johnson, A. E., Westerlund, A., Pollak, S. D., Nelson, C. A., & Gunnar, M. R.
(2013). The effect of early deprivation on executive attention in middle childhood. Journal of
Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 54(1), 37-45.
McLaughlin, K. A., Sheridan, M. A., & Lambert, H. K. (2014). Childhood adversity and neural
development: deprivation and threat as distinct dimensions of early experience. Neuroscience &
Biobehavioral Reviews, 47, 578-591.
McLaughlin, K. A., Sheridan, M. A., Winter, W., Fox, N. A., Zeanah, C. H., & Nelson, C. A.
(2014). Widespread reductions in cortical thickness following severe early-life deprivation: a
neurodevelopmental pathway to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Biological
psychiatry, 76(8), 629-638.

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Olsavsky, A. K., Telzer, E. H., Shapiro, M., Humphreys, K. L., Flannery, J., Goff, B., &
Tottenham, N. (2013). Indiscriminate amygdala response to mothers and strangers after early
maternal deprivation. Biological psychiatry, 74(11), 853-860.
Posavac, E. (2015). Program evaluation: Methods and case studies. Routledge.
Schulte, F., Bartels, U., & Barrera, M. (2014). A pilot study evaluating the efficacy of a group
social skills program for survivors of childhood central nervous system tumors using a
comparison group and teacher reports. Psycho
‐Oncology, 23(5), 597-600.
Yin, R. K. (2013). Case study research: Design and methods. Sage publications.