assignment by third semester students

Assignment on - CASE STUDY AND BIOGRAPHICAL METHODS
Submitted by - GROUP 2

CASE HISTORY involves reconstructing the past of the child right from the pre-natal period. Case history gives a complete picture of a child. The information about the child is collected mainly by interviewing the child’s parents, friends, relatives etc.

CASE STUDY :-
Is an outgrowth of psychoanalytic theory, that brings together a wide range of information on one child, including interviews, observations, test scores and sometimes psycho physiological measures. The aim is to obtain as complete a picture as possible of the child’s psychological functioning and the experiences that led up to it. Studying the particular child in depth once we get to know its history becomes case study. Details like the health of the child, its family relationship, pleasant/unpleasant experiences, fears, hopes, anxieties are all taken in account.




BIOGRAPHICAL METHOD
It is a systematic method that allows extended study of the child. The biographer here is generally a parent. All the first time events/experiences of the child are recorded. As the child grows the parents take a record of the minute details during the developmental period. It is a baby diary, a biography of the child right from the day of its birth also involving its status, complications of birth, doctors who treated, baby’s schedule, health, when did the baby smile, behaviour of the child, feeding habits, sleeping habits, when did child roll over, crawl, reaction to certain sounds and reflexes etc.
The advantage is that each time the child reaches a milestone the parents keep a record of it. We get a systematic information about the child’s development.
The biographical method has limitations:
1) The experimenter (either the mother/father) cannot always keep an exact record of the development taking place in the child.
2) The writer may not perceive correctly. The biographer may be biased. The biographer may note down only those references that interest him/her.
3) Sometimes the biographer’s interest may wane leading to incomplete record taking. Therefore, it may not be effective.
4) Since it takes a lot of time the researcher may lose interest.