Designing a Single Case Study - Help

Essentially, in single case design, you want to compare measures across several different conditions within the same individual. The conditions might be:

-         Baseline and intervention if you are interested in determining the effectiveness of a specific intervention,

-         A series of different treatments if you are interested in either the relative effectiveness of the interventions or perhaps whether the individual has a preference (more acceptable treatment) for one treatment over another,

-         A series of different situations, if you are interested in assessing in-depth some aspect of an individual’s circumstances. This is frequently termed ‘functional analysis’ and repeated observations of individuals in different situations are used to understand and identify different factors which might shape or determine specific behaviors. A good example is Iwata’s analysis of setting conditions (e.g. educational demands, negative reinforcement) on challenging behaviour and self harm (see below for reference).

There are several different design options and these generally depend on the purpose of the study, the nature of the measures/ data to be collected, and the individual concerned. WhichTest can help with choosing a design for a single case study and also for deciding how to analyze your data.

For help with selecting a design, go back to the previous page and click “Design a single case study”.

Reference:

Iwata, B.A, et al. (1982). Towards a functional analysis of self-injury. Analysis and Intervention in Developmental Disabilities, 2, 3-20.

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