What happened to the clinical approach to case study in psychological research? A clinical psychological analysis of scientific articles in high impact-factor journals

Abstract

The paper aims at investigating the incidence of case studies in high impact factor psychological journals and at creating a paradigm model which may conceptualize and explain the different uses and purposes of case study as research method. Overall, 6,393 articles from 16 psychological journals published in the 5-year period 2007-2011 were examined. Results show the low incidence of case studies (n=16) equal to about 0.25% out of the total. In addition, grounded theory allows the detection of two main thematic area: neuroscience and psychosocial risk. In neuroscientific research, case study seems mainly to serve as critical case in testing well-formulated theories. Instead, with regard to psychosocial risk, case study is regarded as useful for psychological intervention in both exceptional events management and best practices-related innovation in atypical fields.