Case studies

There are potential answers to each of these, but it may be a better learning experience for students and/or their tutors to do some wrangling.

You have a selection of different measures derived from studies of bullying at school. Are there different types of bully?

You are interested in the views of members of the public on trafficked persons. The data has been derived from a large number of questionnaire items.

You have a wealth of quantitative data on attitudes to migrants. You believe that people have specific ideas about the impact of migrants on the labour market, their role in the sex industry and the nature of victimhood.

Do people who suffer severe psychological stress after loss of a loved one have different psychological characteristics from those bereaved people who do not require treatment? You believe that age, ethnicity and gender may also affect the classification.

Is a type of counselling likely to differ in its effectiveness depending on the type of presenting problem? For example, if we used cognitive-behavioural therapy, would it have very different effects on people whose main symptoms were alcoholism, gambling addiction and panic attacks? Age, ethnicity and gender may affect the classification.

You are interested in the willingness of people to leave money to charities. Which psychological attributes lead to large, medium and small bequests? You may wish to consider attributes such as the number of close relatives with a related condition or experience, the age and social class of the respondents.

Which characteristics typify different levels of police officer? Include gender and other demographic data as well as measurable attributes.

You are interested in the effects of caste reforms in India, particularly in its effects on long-term unemployment. How would you contrast different castes, or areas with different ways of doing things?

We are interested in longevity among Russian males. What might be the simplest way of examining this?

Are schoolchildren in ability groupings more likely to perform academically than those in mixed ability groupings. Does gender have a part to play?

Recruiters were shown functional resumes (Brits: cv's) and asked to rate them in terms of employability. The documents had different skills levels, with photographs of differing levels of attractiveness and differing age groups.

Students in a state's police academy have over the years found certain statutes on domestic violence to be very difficult to understand. Over the year, two sessions with somewhat different teaching methods are tried: one focuses most on case studies, while one pays more attention to the legal principles involved. The sessions are in fact held four times, so that half the students get to use the case studies first while the other half do legal underpinnings first, each attending the other session later.

Statistics without Mathematics series - General Editor: Cole Davis

ISBN numbers: Hardback - 978-1-915500-01-4 Paperback - 978-1-915500-00-7
                         Ebook - 978-1-915500-02-1