- Case history (report)
- The psychiatrist’s medical report
- Observational report
a) CASE HISTORY (REPORT):
This is a method in which the participant’s background is considered. To perform this experiment, the experimenter has to go back in time. Hence, the criminal’s past is going to be checked upon. The experimenter will get all the possible information about the criminal and about what he did previously. His police records will be part of the experiment’s report. All the activities done by the criminal will be recorded and analyzed accordingly so that the judgment can be done without any biasness.
Some of the advantages of using case history report are:
In relation to experimenter development:
- Cases allow experimenters to learn by doing. They allow experimenters to step into the shoes of decision-makers in real organizations, and deal with the issues managers face, with no risk to themselves or the organization involved in this case into the shoes of the criminal.
- Case studies expose testers to a wide range of industries, organizations, functions and responsibility levels. This provides experimenters the flexibility and confidence to deal with a variety of tasks and responsibilities in their careers. It also helps students to make more informed decisions about their career choices.
- Cases improve the experimenter’s ability to ask the right questions, in a given problem situation. Their ability to identify and understand the underlying problems rather than the symptoms of the problems is also enhanced.
- Case studies reflect the reality of managerial decision-making in the real world, in that experimenters must make decisions based on insufficient information. Cases reflect the ambiguity and complexity that accompany most management issues.
In relation to the investigation:
- It enables the experimenter to experience what exactly the criminal is going through. His various emotions and feelings are exposed to the experimenter.
- It enables one to get the precise reason behind the crime. Once the experimenter is aware of the criminal’s background he can predict as to why the crime was committed.
- This process involves the experimenter fully in order to be able to get valuable records about the criminal.
- It provides the experimenter with the criminal’s police records to see whether the criminal has attempted any crime before and if so, what his motives were.
- It gives a variety of information about the criminal that helps the investigator to be able to declare a fairly precise verdict.
Some of the disadvantages of using this method are:
- Experimenter may not see relevance to own situation hence predictions made could be in favor of one side rather than it being equal and fair.
- Insufficient information can lead to inappropriate results as the experimenter may not wait to see the actual reaction of the criminal at that particular time.
b) PSYCHIATRIST’S MEDICAL REPORT.
This is a complete test based report. It involves a number of mental tests that help a psychiatrist to arrive to one conclusion about a person’s mental state. In this process psychiatrist carries out different tests on the criminal and his mind to study his mental state. This report is then used as evidence for the experiment. The experimenter analysis this report to obtain detailed results which is then used to disembark at a conclusion about the criminal’s mental state.
Some of the advantages of this method are:
- It can contain detailed information such as figures hence experimenter can get to know the different percentages of various things that function in the criminal’s mind.
- Visual information can be used e.g., tables, charts etc this gives a clear idea to the experimenter as to what the criminal feels ad thinks about.
- A written record of the mental state is kept at a particular moment in time hence; it can be referred to in the future.
- Shows exactly what the criminal requires for his well being of the mind which then has to be fulfilled by the experimenter.
The disadvantages to this are:
- A report is a formal method of communication and is therefore time consuming to prepare.
- If an experimenter of the report wanted to give feedback, then the process for this would be long causing the barriers of communication to occur.
- This has to be repeated often as the criminal’s mental conditions may vary i.e. they may become better or get worse.
c) OBSERVATIONAL REPORT:
This is when the experimenter observes the criminal without the criminal knowing about it. This helps the experimenter to be able to record each and every move that the criminal makes in order to be able to analyze him and write a reasonable judgment on the relationship between the degree of punishment given to the criminal and his mental condition.
The advantages of this are:
- The experimental set up is naturalistic and not artificial hence it enables the experimenter to observe keenly all the actions and behaviors of the criminal without the criminal’s knowledge.
- Ca observes things that may cause the behavior that you cannot observe in a laboratory situation. It gives the experimenter space to be able to work on the study of the criminal’s behavior
- Some of the observances are different from those that can be taken in an experiment. This generally provides a bigger picture to the experimenter about the subject.
The disadvantages are:
- The experimenter can distort the information hence there can be a mis-conceptualization in the mental status of the criminal that may lead to wrong results.
- The observations can change if the criminal gets to know that he is being studied on hence gives a totally wrong impression of results.
- This method is not very accurate thus cannot be reliable as the only way of investigation and that the results obtained are 100% true.
- It can be physically dangerous to the experimenter as the criminal can do any thing that could be fatal.
CONCLUSION
Triangulation offers a balance between logic and stories.
Qualititative research, which emphasizes exploration, understanding, contextualizing, introspection, and theory construction, provides a strong base for wider quantitative measures, scaling, and generalization.
Quantitative research, which emphasizes large samples, can provide an overview of an area that can reveal patterns, inconsistencies, and so forth, that can be further investigated with qualitative methods
Benefits of Triangulation
Advantages of each complement the other
- resulting in a stronger research design, and
- More valid and reliable findings.
Inadequacies of individual methods are minimized
- threats to Internal Validity are realized and addressed
Disadvantages of triangulation:
- people in involved in the experiment may lie
- Questions asked may be biased leading to biased results.
- Its very time consuming as three methodologies has to be used instead of one to prove a single statement.
- Its very costly as the 3 methodologies’ requirements differs hence makes it expensive for the experimenter to carry it out.
- Difficulty in accessing information on various matters as some institutions may disagree to use their resources.
- Experiments such as natural observing method has many ethical constraints as the participants have no idea that they are being tested on.
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