Harvard Summer School, 2013Graduate Research Methods and Scholarly Writing in the Social Sciences: Government and History

Harvard Summer School: SSCI S-100b Section 2 (32761)

Joe BondClass 6

July 10, 2013

Agenda

• Midterm Review• Facilitation: PJ, Yihong, & Federica• Review and Case Studies• In-Class 6

Midterm Review

3

Tonight’s Readings

• Yihong, PJ, Federica

4

Questions

• Why are people uncomfortable applying the nomothetic model (as opposed to idiographic model) to human behavior and attitudes?

• Why are causes that are both necessary and sufficient difficult to identify in the social sciences?

• Why is it ill advised to view the process of measuring variables and as distinct from the process of dtermining associations among variables? 5

More Questions

• GPA is often taken as an indicator of her or his intelligence relative to that of other students. Give some reasons why GPA may NOT be (a Reliable and b) valid as a measure of intelligence.

• Why is it important to consider the levels of measurement of variables in doing research?

6

Group Exercise• Design a field research project to investigate the

differences in friendship patterns in coed and single-sex residence halls. For each situation describe some of the possible indicators that might be relevant to the concept.– How would you determine the strength of

friendships?– How would you determine the quality of friendships?– Which other aspects of friendship patterns would you

expect to differ in the two situations? List three along with possible indicators.

7

8

What is a Case Study?

• A definitional morass– Qualitative method, small-N (Yin, 1994)– Ethnographic, clinical, participant-observation, or

otherwise “in the field” (Yin, 1994)– Characterized by process-tracing (George & Bennett,

2004)– Investigates the properties of a single case (Campbell

& Stanley, 1963)– Investigates a single phenomenon, instance or

example (the most common usage)

9

Definition

• A case study is an intensive study of a single unit for the purpose of understanding a larger class of (similar) units (Gerring, 2004)

• A unit connotes a spatially bounded phenomenon (e.g. a nation-state, revolution, political party, election, or person – observed at a single point in time or over some delimited period of time.

10

Nested Definitions

• A population is comprised of a sample (studied cases), as well as unstudied cases

• A sample is comprised of several units, and each unit is observed at discrete points in time, comprising cases

• A case is comprised of several relevant dimensions (variables), each of which is built upon an observation or observations

11

Case Study as a Dataset• Observations as cells• Variables as columns• Cases as rows• Units as either groups of

cases or individual cases

Cases V1 V2 V3

Case 1 Obs1 Obs2 Obs3

Case 2 Obs1 Obs2 Obs3

Case 3 Obs1 Obs2 Obs3

12

Important!• All terms are definable only by reference to a particular

proposition and a corresponding research design• A country may function as a case, a unit, a population or a

case study• It all depends• In a typical cross-country time series regression analysis, units

are countries, cases are country-years, and observations are collected for each case on a range of variables

13

Three Types of Case Studies

• Type I Case Studies: look at variation in a single unit over time, thus preserving the primary unit of analysis

• Spatial Variation: None (1 unit)• Temporal Variation: Yes

• American Revolution (before, during, after)

14

Three Types of Case Studies, Continued

• Type II Case Studies: break down the primary unit of analysis into subunits, which are the subjected to variation analysis synchronically (i.e. one point in time)

• Spatial Variation: Within-unit• Temporal Variation: No• American Revolution (perspectives of the N. &

S.)

15

Three Types of Case Studies, Continued

• Type III Case Studies: break down the primary unit of analysis into subunits, which are the subjected to variation analysis synchronically & diachronically (i.e. over time)

• Spatial Variation: Within-unit• Temporal Variation: Yes

• American Revolution (perspectives of the S & N before, during and after)

16

Three Types of Case Studies, Continued

• Type I, Type II, and Type III case studies are the three logically conceivable approaches to the study of a single unit where that unit is viewed as an instance of some broader phenomenon

• Consequently, where one refers to the case study method, one is referring to three possible methods, each with a different menu of variational evidence

17

The N Question

• N = number of cases• The number of cases employed by a case

study may be small or large• Consequently, may be evaluated in a

qualitative or quantitative fashion

18

Example: The French Revolution

• N = 1 case (France)• Broaden the analysis to include a second

revolution (e.g. American Revolution), N = 2 cases

• Represents a gross distortion of what is really going on!

• More correct to describe such a study as comprising two units, rather than two cases because a case study of a single event generally examines that event over time

19

Example: The French Revolution

• France is observed before, during, and after the event to see what changed and what remained the same after the revolution

• Creates multiple cases (N) out of a single unit (French Revolution)

• N = 2, at the very least (e.g. before & after a revolution), in a case study of Type I– Spatial Variation: None (1 unit)– Temporal Variation: Yes

20

French Revolution as a Single Point in Time

• No temporal variation – studied at a single point in time – the object of investigation – are there patterns of variation within that unit or a case study of Type II

• Within-unit cases consists of all cases that lie at a lower level of analysis relative to the inference under investigation

21

Important!

• If the primary unit of analysis is the nation-state (e.g. France), then within-unit cases might be constructed from provinces, localities, groups or individuals

• Unit-of-analysis = French Revolution• Cases = sub-national entities, groups or

individuals• The possibilities for within-unit analysis are, in

principle, infinite

22

Relevance• Counterintuitive: Many Type II case studies have a larger N

than cross-sectional time series analysis• Why?• Assume that your time series’ unit-of-analysis is comprised of

country-revolution-years (how many are there?)• Assume that your Type II case study unit-of-analysis is the

French Revolution and your cases represent individuals (a hundred or so)

23

Type III Case Studies

• Type II case studies involve spatial variation (within-unit) but no temporal variation

• Type III cases studies involve both spatial and temporal variation, thus the potential N increases accordingly

• Type III cases studies are probably the most common genre of case study analysis

24

Summary

1. Case studies usually perform a double function; they are studies of the unit itself and they are studies of a broader class of units

25

Strengths of Case Studies1. Case studies are more useful when inferences are

descriptive rather than causal2. When propositional depth is prized over breadth and

boundedness3. When (internal) case comparability is give precedence over

(external) case representativeness4. When the strategy of research is exploratory, rather than

confirmatory5. When the useful variance is available for only a single unit

or smaller number of units

26

Group Exercise

1. Break into 3 groups2. Come up with examples for each of the

three case study types (i.e. I, II, and III)3. For each Type, draw an illustration on the

board representing temporal and spatial variation

27

In-Class Writing Exercise 6