An in-depth analysis of one person or group
May involve looking at past records of a person (e.g medical records, educational records)
S: Provides detailed (rich qualitative) information
S: Permitting investigation of otherwise impractical (or unethical) situations
L: Can’t generalize the results to the wider population
L: Difficult to replicate
Collecting two sets of data, which are analysed to find an association between them
Positive, Negative or Zero
S: Clear and easy relationships are seen between variables
S: Researcher can investigate relationships between naturally occurring variables
L: Results cannot be taken to imply causation
L: Does not allow researchers to go beyond the data that is given
Data are collected at a single point in time to examine the relationship of the data
Sample: Different groups of people who differ in the variable of interest but share characteristics
S: Relatively quick and easy to conduct
S: Data on all variables is only collected once
L: Difficult to determine if the outcome was due to exposure or resulted in exposure.
L: Associations identified may be difficult to interpret
This method is used to collect data over a long period of time
This method is useful for studying psychological development through recording changes
S: Ability to show patterns of a variable over time
S: Learn about cause-and-effect relationships
