Single Case Study for Cognitive and Physical Impairments Research

Researchers and clinical professionals use single case research designs when they want to learn more from a disorder, problem, or phenomenon affecting one person. Single case designs can be ideal to use to study one person in depth, such as when creating a specific intervention for a specific patient, or to use when studying a rare phenomenon. For example, a clinician might want to conduct in depth, individualized research on a patient’s response to intervention after a stroke. As another example, it could be rare for a patient to present with late stage untreated syphilis. If this patient consents to be part of a single case research study, information about late stage untreated syphilis could be gained without violating ethical standards or placing someone at risk by denying treatment.
Think of a topic or scenario you would want to research using a case study, and please respond to the following:
Discuss a hypothetical person that you would focus your study on. Why did you choose this person?
State your research question and hypothesis.
Explain briefly what data you might collect to study your research question with the identified participant.
What are strengths to using a single case study for this study?
Discuss the possible limitations to your study.