History of Case Studies

Long before the scientific community began to formalize the procedures associated

with conducting case studies, scientists, philosophers, and physicians

were studying phenomena in their natural contexts by making direct

observations and later systematically recording them. Although it is difficult

to pinpoint how long this method has been used, there are a number of documented

cases dating back to the second and third centuries. Galen, a leading

physician in Rome in the second century, spent five years as a surgeon to

the gladiators in the Roman Colosseum. During this time, he made painstaking

observations correlating head injuries that the gladiators received

with loss of intellectual abilities. In a sense, this was a prelude to the case

study of today.

Psychology has been heavily influenced by the natural sciences. Since the

natural sciences gave birth to the scientific method—a particular technique

for gaining knowledge which includes the testing of hypotheses in ways that

can be verified—it is not surprising that psychology adopted a modified version

of the scientific method that could be applied to the study of people

and other organisms. It soon became apparent, however, that not all situations

lend themselves to study by an experiment. Thus, it was important for

alternative methodologies to be developed and used. The case study is an

outgrowth of this quest to find alternative methods for studying complex

phenomena.