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Case study as a research method to study life histories of elderly people: Some ideas and a case study of a case study
CASE STUDY AS A RESEARCH METHOD TO STUDY LIFE HISTORIES OF ELDERLY PEOPLE: Some Ideas and a Case Study of a Case Study
MATVEY SOKOLOVSKY* University of Connecticut
The article explores conditions under which ltfe history interviewing, based on case study research, may become a valuable research instrument. Validity and reliability of case study as a form of qualitative research are discussed. It is shown that neither tn’angulation nor internal consistency methods can guarantee a single interpretation. As an example a case study of Zina, an immigrantfrom Russia, is used, and two explanations of her behavior are proposed. The choice between them is made through construction of a holistic image of Zina, which essentially means introduction of a new dimension-theory, worldview-as a criterion of validity and reliability of case studies. Relations of a case study to a theory are discussed, and the conclusion is made that a case study enables a researcher to utilize the most the diversity of ltfe histories of elderly people. ABSTRACT:
Reminiscence, telling one’s life history, is considered to be an important part of personal development. This article explores a different dimension of reminiscence-conditions under which life history interviewing may become a valuable research instrument. There are two reasons why life history interviewing deserves attention as a research tool for gerontological research. First of all, its accent on in-depth understanding coincides with the increasing popularity of interpretation of psychology, sociology and social sciences in
*Direct all correspondence to: Matvey Sokolovsky. School of Family Studies, University of Connecticut, U-58, Storrs. CT 06268. JOURNAL OF AGING STUDIES, Volume 10, Number 4, pages 281-294. Copyright 0 1996 by JAI Press Inc. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. ISSN: 08904065.
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general as sciences of understanding of human nature, when “access to the facts is provided by the understanding of meaning, not observation” (Habermas 1972, p. 309). Secondly, using life history interview as a research tool may become one of the ways to eliminate the young adulthood bias from gerontology. Why? Because it is reasonable to assume that an average elderly person has had a much richer life experience than a 20 year old one. This difference may be either ignored in research, or special attention may be paid to it. The latter, I think, is an essential trait of the gerontological research (Sokolovsky 1994b). The problem, however, is that personal experience is not a regular unidimensional variable that may be taken into account among other variables; it is more than a set of biographical facts. Personal experience incorporates system of meanings and wisdom a person has acquired by living through events of his or her life. Life history interviewing specifically focuses on how people make meaning of their lives; consequently it may be considered to be one of the specifically gerontological research methods. Life history interview is not based on gathering information from a large number of respondents and trying to get reliable and valid results through averaging the data. It works differently. The core element of life history interview is understanding a particular person. Consequently, life history interview is underlain by case study research; it is literally a case study of one’s life (or some aspect of one’s life). Even if a research includes several subjects, a case study of each person remains its basic unit. Following Orum, Feagin and Sjoberg’s (1991) definition of a case study “as an in-depth, multifaceted investigation [p. 2]“, and Stake’s (1994) definition of a case study as a study of a specific (as a philosophical term), I conclude that understanding of uniqueness of each person is the goal of a life history interview. “The advantage of case studies . . is that researchers who unitize them can deal with the reality behind appearances, with contradictions and dialectical nature of social life, as well as with a whole that is more than the sum of its parts” (Sjoberg et al., 1991, p. 39). I want to stress that I am talking about case study as a method of obtaining data and not about a specific language to express an idea or a theory. An example of the latter may be the following. Say, Mrs. A. believes that elderly people should live with their children in the same house. I think that this position may be questioned by many people. So, what could Mrs. A. do if she wants to present her position in a more persuasive way? She may give an example of Mrs. B., an elderly person whom she knows. Mrs. A. will tell how lonely Mrs. B. feels, how difficult housekeeping has become for her, how powerless and hurt she feels when unknown people come to help her. “They come to earn money, and for them I’m simply an object that interferes with housecleaning,” Mrs. A. would quote Mrs. B. and so on. Is this a case study of Mrs. B.? I don’t think so. The biased selection of Mrs. B., provided she truly exists and has made those comments, is the minor problem. Suspicions in validity and reliability of interpretations of Mrs. B.‘s desires are important but also are not the main reason I do not characterize Mrs. A.‘s presentation a case study. My point is that Mrs. B. is used as an example which is a way to present an opinion, a special language to persuade, and not as a result of a scientific research. Why? Because both an example and a pure opinion are not bases of generalization. Of course, an example in comparison to an opinion contains data that there exists a person who meets some criteria. This difference, however, is very slim, because, (a) it is impossible to prove that a person who matches some criteria described in a pure opinion does not exist (unless all
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people are examined, which is impossible); and (b) taking into consideration the diversity of people, cultures, social organizations, etc. of modem life, it is unreasonable to assume that a person who matches the criteria of any reasonable hypothesis does not exist (an opinion that there are people 25,000 feet tall I perceive as unreasonable. I also question that it is an opinion related to social sciences).
RELIABILITY
OF CASE STUDIES
Problems of validity and reliability are central to the discussion about the role of qualitative research in modem science. I will begin with two main approaches to increasing reliability of qualitative research. The first approach is usually called “triangulation”. It is based on independent actions with the ultimate comparison of results. The second approach can be called “internal consistency”. Triangulation is based on the idea that if several independent different (Ryder 1994) actions give similar results, the results have higher reliability. There are several types of triangulation (Denzin 1970; Duffy 1987): theoretical triangulation, when different theoretical frameworks are used; data triangulation based on using different sources of data; investigator triangulation, when research is conducted by several independent researchers; and methodological triangulation based on the utilization of different methods of research. Stake (1994) confirms triangulation as a method of increasing reliability of case study. It has been used by several researchers. For instance, Abramson, 1992 used investigator triangulation to study the personal journals of his grandfather-a Jewish immigrant from Russia. Two independent researchers interpreted the dairies and compared their results. However, the characteristic trait of case studies-an accent on deep, rather than broad understanding-places not triangulation but internal consistency at the prime place among methods of increasing reliability of case study. The idea of this approach is to analyze parts of the whole amount of data and compare the results of the analysis of different fragments of data with each other. Usually it’s done in sequential order when a researcher, in a way similar to grounded theory (Strauss and Corbin 1990) develops hypotheses based on previous data and verifies it through following up data. This approach has different names: reconstructive analysis (Rosenthal 1993), critical sequential examination (Runyan 1981). Kvale’s (1988) idea that an ideal interview should include loops of interpretation and verification of interpretations (“Put strongly, the ideal interview is already analyzed when the tape recorder is shut of.” [p. 921) is an illustration of the same approach. Nevertheless, as it was shown by Runyan, 1981, all these and other possible methods cannot guarantee uniqueness of interpretation. Whatever text (life history interview) is taken, several, frequently mutually exclusive interpretations are possible. Before asking how to distinguish between (and is it really possible to distinguish between?) different interpretations, let’s look at one example of a case study with two different lines of interpretation.
A CASE OF ZINA I’ll use a secondary analysis of the three interviews with Zina, an elderly Jewish immigrant from the former Soviet Union. The interviews were done by Thomas (1993b) in his study
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of life transitions. I tried to develop an explanation moving story as a basic example of it.
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of Zina’s behavior taking the following
Zina:I had the only memorable thing from my childhood. I’ll tell you this story. It’s related to my whole life. Religion had been strongly suppressed in the Soviet Union, any religion, not only Judaism. We had mesozoa [special case with a part of Torah that is placed on the door]. I told my grandmother [what is unclear] and hid it because they wanted to throw it away to the garbage. When she died I was 15. Interviewer:Uh-huh. Zina:She gave it me. I was hiding it for my whole life. It was a serious thing. First I placed it between handkerchiefs, later I hid it in the phial from valid01 [a popular heart drug in Russia]. It was written “Validol” on it, everybody would think that I used it for heart problems. When I left to America, a long time had passed, I left it with my elder daughter who stayed there. And told her: “If you hold this in your hands you will come to me, if you lose this, you will not come. God will not help you.” And in every letter I wrote to her: “Take validol.” Interviewer:Uh-huh. Zina:She came here and brought it. And I kept it. When my daughter went to Israel with my grandson, I gave it them. She brought it to the synagogue. They [her daughter and her grandson] could do whatever they want with it. They [people in that synagogue] said: “Give it to a museum. You’ll gain good money. This is antique.” My daughter responded: “This is a holy thing, I don’t want to gain money for it”. And they called my 13 year old grandson, took him to the depository [in the synagogue], and showed where such antique things are placed. 1nterviewer:And
so he left it there then?
Zina:Yes. Now my heart is calmed. 1nterviewer:So
you no longer have the mesozoa?
Zina:I don’t have and will never have. I gave it to a holy place. Interviewer:Uh-huh. Zina:I haven’t given it to my fist daughter, to the second one, to my grandson, to
anybody. Where are the roots of Zina’s generous behavior (I use the word “generous” because there is no presence of any selfish motives in her behavior. The term is not important though. We can simply speak about Zina’s behavior in the described episode)? To answer this question I used a two step analysis. First, I looked through all three interviews and picked out all episodes that can be related to the research question. Then I proposed two explanations of Zina’s behaviors (generosity as a result of repression, and generosity as a part of free action) and organized three files: the first one contained all episodes supporting the first explanation, the second contained everything supporting the second explanation, the content of the third file was not related directly to either explana-
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tion. Using the data organized in this way I was able to correct both explanations by bringing them in accordance with all the facts mentioned in the interviews with Zina Here are both explanations in their final form.
GENEROSITY
AS A RESULT OF REPRESSION
Zina’s life can be characterized as containing a large number of traumatic events. I distinguish three types of traumatic events in her life. They are: (1) a threat to her personal life from childhood through late adulthood: Zina:Then, I remember ourselves hiding near the river and my mouth was shut up to prevent me crying. I remember this. Flies, no, mosquitoes bit me. 1nterviewer:How
old would you be then, very small?
Zina:I was, maybe three or four, I don’t know. At age 15 she was taken to the KGB for investigation. I was called in the morning. There was one investigator from KGB sitting in front of the table with the Browning laying on the table. “What were you doing yesterday in the night?’ [laughs]. I was 15.
And later she was also not safe. Interviewer:Now, were there a lot of spies that you had to be very careful that you wouldn’t say something and be arrested? Zina:Oh, I’ll tell you. It’s a separate story. It’s a terrible story.
(2) she was surrounded by fears. Not only personally-she said about her life: “All my life have I lived under fear.“-but people around her were also fearful. She gave the following example from her childhood memories: . it was approximately 1918. Two officers stayed in our apartment and . . . I remember them tearing away their shoulder straps. They were afraid. “We don’t know ourselves what is happening around. I have a sister Zina, like you are, but probably I will not ever see her, because I’ll die.” (3) abnormal environment with a very low value of human life. She describes how her grandfather was beaten to death, how she saw how a frontier solder killed a man. Death surrounded her, and the following real story is able to express it metaphorically. Zina:Three people were hanged just near our windows. And they ordered that if they were taken down earlier than in three days, then three of our neighbors would be killed. Interviewer:Uh-huh.
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Zina: So we guarded them. These were traits of revolution.
How was she able to deal with all the traumatic events of her life? She didn’t give a clear answer to this question but we can hypothesize a connection of her traumatic history with her generous behavior. One of the ways to make this connection is to assume that in order to be able to survive in such a life-threatening situation a person may develop a special strategy of alienation from life, paying little attention to what is actually happening to his or her body and real life, but to escape from reality to different spheres. And we can find support of this hypothesis in the Zina’s words where she clearly ignores her own primary needs. I always told my children, believe me or not, to make the cheapest possible funeral for me. The cheapest, but Jewish. Nothing more. I didn’t need more. I’ve never had luxuries during my life.. .
So the first explanation of Zina’s generosity can be based on her philosophy that she needs nothing in this world, which in turn can be explained as a way of self protection (mental and physical) from the conditions of Soviet life. By repressing her needs she was able to adjust demands that were left to the surrounding reality.
GENEROSITY
AS A PART OF FREE ACTION
The previous line of explanation of Zina’s generosity cannot be disproved. But there is a different explanation that can also be traced from her very childhood. This line of explanation contains two characteristics: hierarchy of values and specific definition of human actions. Through her whole life we can trace the theme of the value of education. This is how she characterized her father: “He was a talented man. From him I inherited a very big love for books and study [laughs].” Zina studied extensively, graduated from several universities. Education is not simply a value among other values for her, but a higher value from her early childhood. It can be seen in the following example when education for Zina is higher in her hierarchy of values than personal security: Zina: I remember, it’s interesting.. . My uncle loved books very much. He had a lot of books. Tolstoy, Pushkin. They ordered him to throw them away. Interviewer:
Uh-huh.
Zina: And he, risking to his own life, hid them on the garret and covered them with firewood.
In Zina’s worldview higher values are characterized by personal spiritual devotion. Even personal life can be sacrificed serving the higher values. Zina gives an example of her uncle who died serving other people (a very valuable contribution from a Russian cultural point of view): .in 1920, we had severe typhus. My uncle took care of those who were ill and died himself. From typhus.
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We see that Zina’s proactive life position can be traced from her early memories. Three components can be distinguished in her understanding of human action: (1) being devoted: Zina:During the night we called for a rabbi and he married us. This is the ring, I carry it the whole life. [showing the ring on her finger]. Interviewer:
It is a beautiful ring.
Zina:It’s not beautiful, but it’s my heart [cries]. My destiny. And don’t think I’m performing here, exaggerating. I really love him so much.
(2) following her destiny. Zina’s life contains a lot of changes and unpredictable events. But whatever happened, she did what she was able to do “here and now”. The following story from her life illustrates this: Zina:
. Just after we took the train, one woman from Proskurov began to deliver a child. We were going not in a passenger but in a freight train. I asked everybody to move aside. And I delivered the baby.
1nterviewer:Delivered
the baby?
Zina:Yes. And what could I do? She would have died otherwise. And only in a half an hour or an hour we reached water. We couldn’t even clean her. I even had nothing to cut the umbilical cord. 1nterviewer:Had
you ever delivered a baby before?
Zina:No, never. My experience had been only on the level of kittens. I was a biologist. I knew how animals do it. But what could I do? 1nterviewer:So
you were a brave woman then, weren’t you?
Zina:What could I do?
(3) altruistic motivation. In the following quote we are able to distinguish altruistic motivation on two levels: Zina not only rejected awards for doing what she perceived important, but also perceives the importance to act higher than personal risk: Zina:During the typhus he [her husband] had a temperature 4O”C-41°C [=102’F106”F]. And the Chief Doctor told me. “Zina, if you will not bring leeches.. .” I announced to all the students that I’m going to study leeches. I was a biologist. Many of the parents were guessing why but they [classmates] brought leeches to me. At that time Soviet authorities had already forbidden to apply leeches. Interviewer:Uh-huh. Zina:From 1931 till 1941 this was forbidden. During the night I brought leeches there, the doctor applied leeches during the night to my husband. I promised myself, I’m very religious, that I would help [treat] people with leeches.
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During the night, at 11 p.m., they frequently sent someone from the hospital to me. [knocking at the table]. “Dear Zina, give us leeches, please.” Interviewer:Uh-huh. Zina:At eleven I gave leeches, at 1-2 a.m. they brought them back. I have never taken a penny for this. Never, Never. It was my prayer to God.
In this line of explanation, Zina’s generosity represents her valuing of altruistic motivation, which in turn, is for her an essential part of human action.
FIRST (ORDER) REFLECTIONS Let’s look at the study I’ve done. What are the results? Speaking about Zina, I have distinguished several themes in her story that enabled me to create several interpretations of her behavior. These themes are: a threat to her persona1 life; being surrounded with fears; abnormal environment with a very low price of human life; value of education; persona1 devotion; following destiny; importance of altruistic motivation. This was not the whole list of themes that emerged from the interviews with Zina but those related to the origin of Zina’s generosity. On the abstract level, I had a text and interpreted it. I came up with two different interpretations. Actually, there are many more interpretations possible. For instance, Thomas (1993a) has suggested that Zina probably had had some enlightening experience that made her a spiritual person. On the contrary, 1 foresee someone interpreting interviews with Zina as an example of rigid following of religious norms. And, furthermore, someone may point out that the story about mesozoa and the interviews as a whole are not sufficient data for interpretation, because they are essentialiy biased by Zina picturing herself. Ryder (1994), for instance, proposed that there might be (or were) other persons who would portray her very differently and would select different episodes to characterize her life.
VALIDITY OF CASE STUDIES Let’s look again on the results of my study. We have two different explanations of Zina’s generosity: one as a symptom of the work of her defense mechanisms enabling her to survive all the hardships; the other explanation perceives generosity as an essential component of serving higher goals. Which explanation is correct? “Correct” is a rampant but inapprop~ate word in this context. As I’ve said already, each explanation is correct because neither can be disproved. The correct question would be which explanation is more valid? This brings us to the question of the validity of qualitative research, since, according to Kvale (1987), validity for qualitative research is an expanded concept and is not aimed at the verification of facts but rather validation of meanings. Polkinghome (1983) suggests three basic ways of validation of qualitative research: “through innate and universal reasonableness, through a universal trial-and-error learning, and through the use of pluralistic epistemologies” [p. 2441. In case studies, reasonableness, or from my point of view, persuasiveness, is the most important way to validate
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interpretations. It includes meaningful agreement with all the data in general and broader context. I want to mention that, in my opinion, there is a significant difference between universal reasonableness and data triangulation (and also internal consistency). If the latter simply stresses consistency of data, the former places meaningful relations between data in the center of attention. But “meaningful” is meaningful for someone. This narrows the difference between universal reasonableness and pluralistic epistemologies, because the latter states that valid means valid for a group of people who share close views.
MY OWN CHOICE BETWEEN THE TWO EXPLANATIONS To increase the persuasiveness
of each of the lines of explanations of her generosity, other materials from the interviews are to be taken into consideration, e.g., the third of my prepared files, which contains episodes not related directly to either hypothesis. For instance, Zina is definitely a brave woman. Here are two episodes of life threatening courageous actions of hers: Zina:
. . They asked me: “What had Mendel said? Why is he so bad?’ [genetics was forbidden and called pseudo-science in the last years of Stalin’s era] “Okay, stay after the class, I’ll tell you.” And I explained the whole theory of genes and chromosomes. Why a boy or a girl. Then I got frightened. [laughs] “But all this is not true.” [And I] Cleared the board [laughs].
Interviewer:[laughs]. Zina:“All this is not true.” One of these officers came to me, from these KGB officers. They also studied there. He was older than I. He embraced me and wished me all the best. [laughs].
Zina: You [addressing interpreter] can understand what it meant to hide a person in 1943 who had escaped from prison, if you didn’t know this person at all. It was a Polish woman who traded things. If it were discovered, I would be also imprisoned.
Zina also becomes happy very easily: Zina:I have from time to time heart pain. Always at 4-5 a.m. I don’t know why. So when I wake up, I feel as if something presses me.. Then I go to sleep again. I’m so happy that I’m still alive. [laughs].
Zina:. [laughs] Happiness easily reaches me.. . [laughs] Something.. because of the short mind, because [laughs].
Maybe,
These traits and also her energy (It’s hard simply to imagine how she was able to achieve everything she has achieved in her life. And even now she is a very energetic woman who helps neighbors in different ways) suggest to me that her generosity is a part
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of her positive world view, a sign of maturity rather than a sign of unresolved inner conflict. I have consciously abbreviated the previous paragraph and didn’t try to persuade the reader in my choice between two proposed explanations. I want to stay passive (not to substitute sermon or propagation for science) and analyze conditions under which research data is valid. In this article I want to avoid the question how to persuade someone in my point of view; I prefer to concentrate on the question of to whom and why my case study may be meaningful. It can be said that my analysis of Zina’s motivation may be valid for a social group with a worldview close to mine. The second explanation may turn out valid for other people, especially after they support it with some unused fragments from the interviews which will provide them with a holistic picture of Zina’s behavior. The title of Quine and Ullian’s, 1970, famous book about reasoning, beliefs and logic of science-“The web of belief ‘-is a good metaphor of validity. The key question then is that of a role of a case study in a person’s web of belief. With this respect, I can see two possibilities. The gist of each could be compactly expressed by two opposites: respectively, “the general-the particular” and “the general-the individual”.’
THE GENERAL-THE PARTICULAR, OR THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN LITERATURE AND SCIENCE The relationship between the general and the particular is that of representation. Though a jaw looks very different from a whole animal, it contains enough information to reconstruct the animal’s appearance, lifestyle, etc. Real art is based on this type of relationship: each character, like a drop of water, reflects the whole universe (in its diversity). Is this a reason to conclude that an ideal case study is a piece of really good literature? For instance, a bright life history, like Zina’s one, may be taken by a researcher as “an example” of his or her theory of human development in totalitarian cultures. One line of explanation will be presented, but presented vividly and interestingly. The conclusion will, for instance, be that generosity results from the necessity to suppress personal desires in order to survive repression and throughout state control. The study may become frequently quoted and other researchers may agree that something important has been captured in that study. In my opinion this would be a literary success and not a scientific one. Scientific methods to achieve high validity differ from those in literature. Literature utilizes metaphor, science utilizes data. The scientific point that the particular represents the general is based on the analysis of variability of a given variable in a group of people. A large number of subjects and low dispersion of scores gives the ground for generalization in quantitative research; saturation is the basis for a similar conclusion for qualitative research. In other words, in order to claim that Zina is a typical (in some sense) representative of the cohort of Soviet Jews born in the beginning of the century I was to compare her to someone else. The more subjects-the better. However, that being the case, I will not really be conducting a case study. Consequently, case study is not based on the opposites the particular-the general.
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THE GENERAL-THE INDIVIDUAL, OR THE PLACE OF CASE STUDY AMONG QUALITATIVE RESEARCH The relationship between the general and the individual is that of difference. It is based on the existence of a consensus (as a total agreement-see Ryder 1987, p. 129) of the nature of some process (e.g. human or family development) which determines the general. The individual-a case study-focuses attention on a rare, atypical event/subject that is not in the mainstream of a theory (Abramson 1992; Stake 1994; Yin 1989). The knowledge about atypical, different people and lives deepens our understanding of human nature, makes our predictions and generalization more careful, our practice more accurate. Sjoberg et al. (199 1) proposed five goals that may be addressed by a case study research. These goals are: (1) furthering scientific analysis by introducing a negative (or deviant) case; (2) investigating what is beyond the boundaries of reasonable by using an extreme case; (3) supplementing reductionism of analytic research by holistic perspective; (4) providing social minorities with a voice; and (5) describes cases that have some special importance, for instance, ones that may be believed to anticipate future social changes. Validity of a case study is based on the relationship between the general and the individual-the nature of the difference between a consensual worldview and the specifics of a case study. Consequently, case study research exists only in relation to a theory. For instance, special manipulations with the data would not validate my analysis of the interviews with Zina. Most important is from what theoretical point of view and why the analysis 1s done. Actually, a theory structures and validates not only data analysis, but subject selection and data collection also. In the case of a life history interview it happens through the interviewer’s role in the interview process.2 An interviewer’s investment is his or her (but essentially theoretical-shared by other researchers and scientists) understanding of what is interesting, important, trustworthy, etc. For instance, through focusing on some issues and switching away from other ones an interviewer is able to control “thickness” of description (Geertz, 1973) of different aspects of the research problem-which represents “the individual” and contributes to the validity and importance of a case study. My study is a secondary analysis of the interviews with Zina. So I avoided the discussion of who and why interviewed her, though I realize that for some researchers these interviews as a whole may seem not worth attention because the interviewer behaved himself “improperly” (not according to their theory). I approached interviews as a given text, and limited myself with the question of under which conditions its analysis may be valid and represent the opposites the general-the individual. For instance, if interviews with Zina were analyzed by a behaviorist, different constructs used by behaviorism (reinforcements, conditioning, etc.) would be distinguished. What happens later? If the result of the study becomes an example of how Zina’s generosity was formed step by step by positive reinforcements, reliability and validity of this result will be low. This study would fall within the mainstream of behaviorism. Mainstream research methods require the possibility of generalization, lacking in case study. However, the results of this study may be valid if generalization is not crucial. This can happen when, for instance, the selected line of facts from interviews with Zina concern her ability to keep and carry through her extremely difficult life an altruistic desire to live doing people good, a desire that contradicted common sense of surrounding reality. From
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this point of view Zina is opposing the surrounding life Presented from this angle, a case study of Zina can enrich behaviorism because more elaborate schemes than simple explain Zina’s behavior. This case study will be valid then behavioral psychologists.
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rather than is formed by it. (or provoke development of) reinforcement are needed to for some group of people-
SECOND (ORDER) REFLECTIONS Jorge Luis Barges in the story Averroes’ Search (195711964) described a man “who, closed within the orb of Islam, could never know the meaning of the terms tragedy and comedy.” In the end, however, Borges turned attention to himself. “I felt that Averroes, wanting to imagine what a drama is without ever having suspected what a theater is, was no more absurd than I, wanting to imagine Averroes with no other sources than a few fragments from...” lp. 155. Italic by Barges. Translated by James E. Irby]. As the title indicates, I’m doing a case study (of a case study). To be consistent I have to apply the ideas presented in the article to myself. Thus 1 have to mention the theory to which my case study is atypical, and to describe why my own study is an atypical example of it. My analysis of the interviews with Zina showed simult~eous existence of mutually exclusive inte~retations of a text. If I interpret it as a result of my analysis, I’ll simply be repeating a commonplace point in the cited literature. My study will become an example of the commonplace, and, being in the mainstream of the theory of qualitative research, I will encounter the problems of validity. However, I’m introducing Kuhn’s (1970) idea that a theory structures the field of following up research (Actually, the origins of this idea can be traced far back; for instance, in 1937 Sorokin argued that meaning of research is related to the broader social context.) Introduction of the new dimension-theory, worldview-into the discussion enabled me to make a choice between two explanations (through reconstructing a holistic image of Zina which is in agreement with my worldview) and enables me to make “a case” statement on the level of the theory of qualitative research (and not on the level of the analysis of Zina’s motivation3}. My ‘“case” statement is that not the thickness of data but a shared theory makes research findings reliable and valid. My case study is, for instance, a case study for the grounded theory (Strauss and Corbin 1990) which claims that a theory can be generated based on data. However, as my analysis of the interviews with Zina has shown, different interpretations of data would always be possible. Because of this, problems with validity and reliability are inherent problems of the grounded theory. I suggest that we accept the idea that a case study is framed by a theory. That will enable us to achieve diverse goals (see above) that may be addressed by case study research. The accent on the uniqueness of every person enables researchers to utilize the most the diversity of life histories of elderly people. I do believe that nothing can be more diverse and rich in data than life histories of elderly people, which creates a valuable opportunity for gerontological research to enhance our understanding of human nature. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: Research was supported by a grant from the University of Connecticut Research Foundation. Earlier drafts of this article were presented at the at the Thirteenth International Human Science Research Conference, June 1994, West Hartford, CT, and at the 47th Annual Scien-
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titic meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, November 1994, Atlanta, GA. The author wishes to thank Eugene Thomas, Robert Ryder, Thomas Blank, Laura White, Inna Kupreeva and her colleague who writes her dissertation on Hegel, Claudia Mersereau, Rebecca Earley and two anonymous reviewers for their enormous help with the manuscript.
NOTES 1. The terms I use are similar to the English translation of the triad Hegel used in the discussion of the notion “The notion” in Science of Logic (see Hegel 18 120969). In comparison to Hegel, my analysis is rooted in the pragmatics of social science research, and I had a temptation to substitute “the unique” for “the individual”. However, I decided not to change the terms to keep Hegel’s analysis of their interrelatedness as a context for this article. 2. The importance to point out the interviewer’s role in research process has been suggested by the anonymous reviewer. I appreciate this thoughtful and really crucial comment. 3. Elsewhere I used the interviews with Zina for case studies of Zina. In one article (Sokolovsky 1994a) I showed that personal maturity can be defined as an aspect of relations as opposed to the traditional interpretation of it as an individual characteristic. In the other article (Sokolovsky 1994b) I used the interviews with Zina to show that traditional approaches for evaluation of complexity of reasoning are not able to grasp the specifics of elderly people, and thus have inevitable young adulthood bias.
REFERENCES Abramson, P.R. 1992. A Case for Case Studies. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. Borges, J.L. 195711964. Labyrinths. Selected Stories and Other Writings. New York: New Directions Publishing Corporation. Denzin, N.K. 1970. The Research Act: A Theoretical Introduction to Sociological Methods. Chicago: Aldine Publishing. Duffy, M.E. 1987. “Methodological Triangulation: A Vehicle for Merging Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods.” Image: Journal of Nursing Scholarship 193(Fall): 130-133. Geertz, C. 1973. The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays. New York: Basic Books. Habermas, J. 1972. Knowledge and Human Interests. London: Heinemann. Hegel, G.W.F. 181211969. Hegel’s Science of Logic. London: George Allen & Unwin and New York: Humanities Press. Kuhn, T.S. 1970. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2nd edition. Chicago, University of Chicago Press. Kvale, S. 1987. “Validity in the Qualitative Research Interview.” Methods 1: 37-72. -. 1988. “The lOOO-Page Question.” Phenomenology + Pedagogy 6(l): 90-106. Orum, A.M., J.R. Feagin, and G. Sjoberg. 1991. “Introduction: The Nature of the Case Study.” Pp. l-26 in A Case for the Case Study, edited by J.R. Feagin, A.M. Orum, and G. Sjoberg. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press. Polkinghome, D. 1983. Methodology for Human Science: Systems of Inquiry. Albany: State University of New York Press. Qume, W.V. and J.S. Ullian. 1970. The Web of Belief New York: Random House. Rosenthal, G. 1993. “Reconstruction of Life Stories. Principles of Selection in Generating Stories for Narrative Biographical Interviews.” Pp. 59-91 in The Narrative Study of Life, Vol. 1, edited by R. Josselson and A. Lieblich. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. Runyan, W. M. 1981. “Why did Van Gogh Cut Off His Ear? The Problem of Alternative Explanations in Psychobiography.” Journal of Personality and Social psychology 40(6): 1070-1077.
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Ryder, R.G. 1987. The Realistic Therapist. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. -. 1994. Comments on the first draft of this article. Sjoberg, G., N. Williams, T.R. Vaugham, and A.F. Sjoberg. 1991. “The Case Study Approach in Social Research: Basic Methodological Issues.” Pp. 27-79 in A Cusefor the Case Study, edited by J.R. Feagin, A.M. Orum, and G. Sjoberg. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press. Sokolovsky, M. 1994a. “Psychological Maturity in Elderhood: Content, Form or Position in Relations? A Study of Life Stories of Elderly Immigrants from Russia.” Paper presented at the Fifth Annual Research Fellows in Gerontology Symposium. University of Connecticut, Storm, Connecticut, May 23. -. 1994b. “Complexity of Reasoning in Elderhood.” Paper presented on the Ninth Annual Adult Development Symposium, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, June 24-26. Sorokin, P.A. 1937. Social and Cultural Dynamics, Vol. 1. New York: American Books. Strauss, A. and J. Corbin. 1990. Basics of Qualitative Research: Grounded Theory Procedures and Techniques. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Stake, R.E. 1994. “Case Studies.” Pp. 236-248 in Handbook of Qualitative Research, edited by N.K. Denzin, and Y.S. Lincoln. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Thomas, E.L. 1993a. Comments on the first draft of this article. -. 1993b. “University of Connecticut Life Transitions Research Project.” Unpublished raw data, University of Connecticut, School of Family Studies. Yin, R.K. 1989. Case Study Research: Design and Methods. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
MATVEY SOKOLOVSKY* University of Connecticut
The article explores conditions under which ltfe history interviewing, based on case study research, may become a valuable research instrument. Validity and reliability of case study as a form of qualitative research are discussed. It is shown that neither tn’angulation nor internal consistency methods can guarantee a single interpretation. As an example a case study of Zina, an immigrantfrom Russia, is used, and two explanations of her behavior are proposed. The choice between them is made through construction of a holistic image of Zina, which essentially means introduction of a new dimension-theory, worldview-as a criterion of validity and reliability of case studies. Relations of a case study to a theory are discussed, and the conclusion is made that a case study enables a researcher to utilize the most the diversity of ltfe histories of elderly people. ABSTRACT:
Reminiscence, telling one’s life history, is considered to be an important part of personal development. This article explores a different dimension of reminiscence-conditions under which life history interviewing may become a valuable research instrument. There are two reasons why life history interviewing deserves attention as a research tool for gerontological research. First of all, its accent on in-depth understanding coincides with the increasing popularity of interpretation of psychology, sociology and social sciences in
*Direct all correspondence to: Matvey Sokolovsky. School of Family Studies, University of Connecticut, U-58, Storrs. CT 06268. JOURNAL OF AGING STUDIES, Volume 10, Number 4, pages 281-294. Copyright 0 1996 by JAI Press Inc. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. ISSN: 08904065.
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general as sciences of understanding of human nature, when “access to the facts is provided by the understanding of meaning, not observation” (Habermas 1972, p. 309). Secondly, using life history interview as a research tool may become one of the ways to eliminate the young adulthood bias from gerontology. Why? Because it is reasonable to assume that an average elderly person has had a much richer life experience than a 20 year old one. This difference may be either ignored in research, or special attention may be paid to it. The latter, I think, is an essential trait of the gerontological research (Sokolovsky 1994b). The problem, however, is that personal experience is not a regular unidimensional variable that may be taken into account among other variables; it is more than a set of biographical facts. Personal experience incorporates system of meanings and wisdom a person has acquired by living through events of his or her life. Life history interviewing specifically focuses on how people make meaning of their lives; consequently it may be considered to be one of the specifically gerontological research methods. Life history interview is not based on gathering information from a large number of respondents and trying to get reliable and valid results through averaging the data. It works differently. The core element of life history interview is understanding a particular person. Consequently, life history interview is underlain by case study research; it is literally a case study of one’s life (or some aspect of one’s life). Even if a research includes several subjects, a case study of each person remains its basic unit. Following Orum, Feagin and Sjoberg’s (1991) definition of a case study “as an in-depth, multifaceted investigation [p. 2]“, and Stake’s (1994) definition of a case study as a study of a specific (as a philosophical term), I conclude that understanding of uniqueness of each person is the goal of a life history interview. “The advantage of case studies . . is that researchers who unitize them can deal with the reality behind appearances, with contradictions and dialectical nature of social life, as well as with a whole that is more than the sum of its parts” (Sjoberg et al., 1991, p. 39). I want to stress that I am talking about case study as a method of obtaining data and not about a specific language to express an idea or a theory. An example of the latter may be the following. Say, Mrs. A. believes that elderly people should live with their children in the same house. I think that this position may be questioned by many people. So, what could Mrs. A. do if she wants to present her position in a more persuasive way? She may give an example of Mrs. B., an elderly person whom she knows. Mrs. A. will tell how lonely Mrs. B. feels, how difficult housekeeping has become for her, how powerless and hurt she feels when unknown people come to help her. “They come to earn money, and for them I’m simply an object that interferes with housecleaning,” Mrs. A. would quote Mrs. B. and so on. Is this a case study of Mrs. B.? I don’t think so. The biased selection of Mrs. B., provided she truly exists and has made those comments, is the minor problem. Suspicions in validity and reliability of interpretations of Mrs. B.‘s desires are important but also are not the main reason I do not characterize Mrs. A.‘s presentation a case study. My point is that Mrs. B. is used as an example which is a way to present an opinion, a special language to persuade, and not as a result of a scientific research. Why? Because both an example and a pure opinion are not bases of generalization. Of course, an example in comparison to an opinion contains data that there exists a person who meets some criteria. This difference, however, is very slim, because, (a) it is impossible to prove that a person who matches some criteria described in a pure opinion does not exist (unless all
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people are examined, which is impossible); and (b) taking into consideration the diversity of people, cultures, social organizations, etc. of modem life, it is unreasonable to assume that a person who matches the criteria of any reasonable hypothesis does not exist (an opinion that there are people 25,000 feet tall I perceive as unreasonable. I also question that it is an opinion related to social sciences).
RELIABILITY
OF CASE STUDIES
Problems of validity and reliability are central to the discussion about the role of qualitative research in modem science. I will begin with two main approaches to increasing reliability of qualitative research. The first approach is usually called “triangulation”. It is based on independent actions with the ultimate comparison of results. The second approach can be called “internal consistency”. Triangulation is based on the idea that if several independent different (Ryder 1994) actions give similar results, the results have higher reliability. There are several types of triangulation (Denzin 1970; Duffy 1987): theoretical triangulation, when different theoretical frameworks are used; data triangulation based on using different sources of data; investigator triangulation, when research is conducted by several independent researchers; and methodological triangulation based on the utilization of different methods of research. Stake (1994) confirms triangulation as a method of increasing reliability of case study. It has been used by several researchers. For instance, Abramson, 1992 used investigator triangulation to study the personal journals of his grandfather-a Jewish immigrant from Russia. Two independent researchers interpreted the dairies and compared their results. However, the characteristic trait of case studies-an accent on deep, rather than broad understanding-places not triangulation but internal consistency at the prime place among methods of increasing reliability of case study. The idea of this approach is to analyze parts of the whole amount of data and compare the results of the analysis of different fragments of data with each other. Usually it’s done in sequential order when a researcher, in a way similar to grounded theory (Strauss and Corbin 1990) develops hypotheses based on previous data and verifies it through following up data. This approach has different names: reconstructive analysis (Rosenthal 1993), critical sequential examination (Runyan 1981). Kvale’s (1988) idea that an ideal interview should include loops of interpretation and verification of interpretations (“Put strongly, the ideal interview is already analyzed when the tape recorder is shut of.” [p. 921) is an illustration of the same approach. Nevertheless, as it was shown by Runyan, 1981, all these and other possible methods cannot guarantee uniqueness of interpretation. Whatever text (life history interview) is taken, several, frequently mutually exclusive interpretations are possible. Before asking how to distinguish between (and is it really possible to distinguish between?) different interpretations, let’s look at one example of a case study with two different lines of interpretation.
A CASE OF ZINA I’ll use a secondary analysis of the three interviews with Zina, an elderly Jewish immigrant from the former Soviet Union. The interviews were done by Thomas (1993b) in his study
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of life transitions. I tried to develop an explanation moving story as a basic example of it.
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of Zina’s behavior taking the following
Zina:I had the only memorable thing from my childhood. I’ll tell you this story. It’s related to my whole life. Religion had been strongly suppressed in the Soviet Union, any religion, not only Judaism. We had mesozoa [special case with a part of Torah that is placed on the door]. I told my grandmother [what is unclear] and hid it because they wanted to throw it away to the garbage. When she died I was 15. Interviewer:Uh-huh. Zina:She gave it me. I was hiding it for my whole life. It was a serious thing. First I placed it between handkerchiefs, later I hid it in the phial from valid01 [a popular heart drug in Russia]. It was written “Validol” on it, everybody would think that I used it for heart problems. When I left to America, a long time had passed, I left it with my elder daughter who stayed there. And told her: “If you hold this in your hands you will come to me, if you lose this, you will not come. God will not help you.” And in every letter I wrote to her: “Take validol.” Interviewer:Uh-huh. Zina:She came here and brought it. And I kept it. When my daughter went to Israel with my grandson, I gave it them. She brought it to the synagogue. They [her daughter and her grandson] could do whatever they want with it. They [people in that synagogue] said: “Give it to a museum. You’ll gain good money. This is antique.” My daughter responded: “This is a holy thing, I don’t want to gain money for it”. And they called my 13 year old grandson, took him to the depository [in the synagogue], and showed where such antique things are placed. 1nterviewer:And
so he left it there then?
Zina:Yes. Now my heart is calmed. 1nterviewer:So
you no longer have the mesozoa?
Zina:I don’t have and will never have. I gave it to a holy place. Interviewer:Uh-huh. Zina:I haven’t given it to my fist daughter, to the second one, to my grandson, to
anybody. Where are the roots of Zina’s generous behavior (I use the word “generous” because there is no presence of any selfish motives in her behavior. The term is not important though. We can simply speak about Zina’s behavior in the described episode)? To answer this question I used a two step analysis. First, I looked through all three interviews and picked out all episodes that can be related to the research question. Then I proposed two explanations of Zina’s behaviors (generosity as a result of repression, and generosity as a part of free action) and organized three files: the first one contained all episodes supporting the first explanation, the second contained everything supporting the second explanation, the content of the third file was not related directly to either explana-
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tion. Using the data organized in this way I was able to correct both explanations by bringing them in accordance with all the facts mentioned in the interviews with Zina Here are both explanations in their final form.
GENEROSITY
AS A RESULT OF REPRESSION
Zina’s life can be characterized as containing a large number of traumatic events. I distinguish three types of traumatic events in her life. They are: (1) a threat to her personal life from childhood through late adulthood: Zina:Then, I remember ourselves hiding near the river and my mouth was shut up to prevent me crying. I remember this. Flies, no, mosquitoes bit me. 1nterviewer:How
old would you be then, very small?
Zina:I was, maybe three or four, I don’t know. At age 15 she was taken to the KGB for investigation. I was called in the morning. There was one investigator from KGB sitting in front of the table with the Browning laying on the table. “What were you doing yesterday in the night?’ [laughs]. I was 15.
And later she was also not safe. Interviewer:Now, were there a lot of spies that you had to be very careful that you wouldn’t say something and be arrested? Zina:Oh, I’ll tell you. It’s a separate story. It’s a terrible story.
(2) she was surrounded by fears. Not only personally-she said about her life: “All my life have I lived under fear.“-but people around her were also fearful. She gave the following example from her childhood memories: . it was approximately 1918. Two officers stayed in our apartment and . . . I remember them tearing away their shoulder straps. They were afraid. “We don’t know ourselves what is happening around. I have a sister Zina, like you are, but probably I will not ever see her, because I’ll die.” (3) abnormal environment with a very low value of human life. She describes how her grandfather was beaten to death, how she saw how a frontier solder killed a man. Death surrounded her, and the following real story is able to express it metaphorically. Zina:Three people were hanged just near our windows. And they ordered that if they were taken down earlier than in three days, then three of our neighbors would be killed. Interviewer:Uh-huh.
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Zina: So we guarded them. These were traits of revolution.
How was she able to deal with all the traumatic events of her life? She didn’t give a clear answer to this question but we can hypothesize a connection of her traumatic history with her generous behavior. One of the ways to make this connection is to assume that in order to be able to survive in such a life-threatening situation a person may develop a special strategy of alienation from life, paying little attention to what is actually happening to his or her body and real life, but to escape from reality to different spheres. And we can find support of this hypothesis in the Zina’s words where she clearly ignores her own primary needs. I always told my children, believe me or not, to make the cheapest possible funeral for me. The cheapest, but Jewish. Nothing more. I didn’t need more. I’ve never had luxuries during my life.. .
So the first explanation of Zina’s generosity can be based on her philosophy that she needs nothing in this world, which in turn can be explained as a way of self protection (mental and physical) from the conditions of Soviet life. By repressing her needs she was able to adjust demands that were left to the surrounding reality.
GENEROSITY
AS A PART OF FREE ACTION
The previous line of explanation of Zina’s generosity cannot be disproved. But there is a different explanation that can also be traced from her very childhood. This line of explanation contains two characteristics: hierarchy of values and specific definition of human actions. Through her whole life we can trace the theme of the value of education. This is how she characterized her father: “He was a talented man. From him I inherited a very big love for books and study [laughs].” Zina studied extensively, graduated from several universities. Education is not simply a value among other values for her, but a higher value from her early childhood. It can be seen in the following example when education for Zina is higher in her hierarchy of values than personal security: Zina: I remember, it’s interesting.. . My uncle loved books very much. He had a lot of books. Tolstoy, Pushkin. They ordered him to throw them away. Interviewer:
Uh-huh.
Zina: And he, risking to his own life, hid them on the garret and covered them with firewood.
In Zina’s worldview higher values are characterized by personal spiritual devotion. Even personal life can be sacrificed serving the higher values. Zina gives an example of her uncle who died serving other people (a very valuable contribution from a Russian cultural point of view): .in 1920, we had severe typhus. My uncle took care of those who were ill and died himself. From typhus.
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We see that Zina’s proactive life position can be traced from her early memories. Three components can be distinguished in her understanding of human action: (1) being devoted: Zina:During the night we called for a rabbi and he married us. This is the ring, I carry it the whole life. [showing the ring on her finger]. Interviewer:
It is a beautiful ring.
Zina:It’s not beautiful, but it’s my heart [cries]. My destiny. And don’t think I’m performing here, exaggerating. I really love him so much.
(2) following her destiny. Zina’s life contains a lot of changes and unpredictable events. But whatever happened, she did what she was able to do “here and now”. The following story from her life illustrates this: Zina:
. Just after we took the train, one woman from Proskurov began to deliver a child. We were going not in a passenger but in a freight train. I asked everybody to move aside. And I delivered the baby.
1nterviewer:Delivered
the baby?
Zina:Yes. And what could I do? She would have died otherwise. And only in a half an hour or an hour we reached water. We couldn’t even clean her. I even had nothing to cut the umbilical cord. 1nterviewer:Had
you ever delivered a baby before?
Zina:No, never. My experience had been only on the level of kittens. I was a biologist. I knew how animals do it. But what could I do? 1nterviewer:So
you were a brave woman then, weren’t you?
Zina:What could I do?
(3) altruistic motivation. In the following quote we are able to distinguish altruistic motivation on two levels: Zina not only rejected awards for doing what she perceived important, but also perceives the importance to act higher than personal risk: Zina:During the typhus he [her husband] had a temperature 4O”C-41°C [=102’F106”F]. And the Chief Doctor told me. “Zina, if you will not bring leeches.. .” I announced to all the students that I’m going to study leeches. I was a biologist. Many of the parents were guessing why but they [classmates] brought leeches to me. At that time Soviet authorities had already forbidden to apply leeches. Interviewer:Uh-huh. Zina:From 1931 till 1941 this was forbidden. During the night I brought leeches there, the doctor applied leeches during the night to my husband. I promised myself, I’m very religious, that I would help [treat] people with leeches.
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During the night, at 11 p.m., they frequently sent someone from the hospital to me. [knocking at the table]. “Dear Zina, give us leeches, please.” Interviewer:Uh-huh. Zina:At eleven I gave leeches, at 1-2 a.m. they brought them back. I have never taken a penny for this. Never, Never. It was my prayer to God.
In this line of explanation, Zina’s generosity represents her valuing of altruistic motivation, which in turn, is for her an essential part of human action.
FIRST (ORDER) REFLECTIONS Let’s look at the study I’ve done. What are the results? Speaking about Zina, I have distinguished several themes in her story that enabled me to create several interpretations of her behavior. These themes are: a threat to her persona1 life; being surrounded with fears; abnormal environment with a very low price of human life; value of education; persona1 devotion; following destiny; importance of altruistic motivation. This was not the whole list of themes that emerged from the interviews with Zina but those related to the origin of Zina’s generosity. On the abstract level, I had a text and interpreted it. I came up with two different interpretations. Actually, there are many more interpretations possible. For instance, Thomas (1993a) has suggested that Zina probably had had some enlightening experience that made her a spiritual person. On the contrary, 1 foresee someone interpreting interviews with Zina as an example of rigid following of religious norms. And, furthermore, someone may point out that the story about mesozoa and the interviews as a whole are not sufficient data for interpretation, because they are essentialiy biased by Zina picturing herself. Ryder (1994), for instance, proposed that there might be (or were) other persons who would portray her very differently and would select different episodes to characterize her life.
VALIDITY OF CASE STUDIES Let’s look again on the results of my study. We have two different explanations of Zina’s generosity: one as a symptom of the work of her defense mechanisms enabling her to survive all the hardships; the other explanation perceives generosity as an essential component of serving higher goals. Which explanation is correct? “Correct” is a rampant but inapprop~ate word in this context. As I’ve said already, each explanation is correct because neither can be disproved. The correct question would be which explanation is more valid? This brings us to the question of the validity of qualitative research, since, according to Kvale (1987), validity for qualitative research is an expanded concept and is not aimed at the verification of facts but rather validation of meanings. Polkinghome (1983) suggests three basic ways of validation of qualitative research: “through innate and universal reasonableness, through a universal trial-and-error learning, and through the use of pluralistic epistemologies” [p. 2441. In case studies, reasonableness, or from my point of view, persuasiveness, is the most important way to validate
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interpretations. It includes meaningful agreement with all the data in general and broader context. I want to mention that, in my opinion, there is a significant difference between universal reasonableness and data triangulation (and also internal consistency). If the latter simply stresses consistency of data, the former places meaningful relations between data in the center of attention. But “meaningful” is meaningful for someone. This narrows the difference between universal reasonableness and pluralistic epistemologies, because the latter states that valid means valid for a group of people who share close views.
MY OWN CHOICE BETWEEN THE TWO EXPLANATIONS To increase the persuasiveness
of each of the lines of explanations of her generosity, other materials from the interviews are to be taken into consideration, e.g., the third of my prepared files, which contains episodes not related directly to either hypothesis. For instance, Zina is definitely a brave woman. Here are two episodes of life threatening courageous actions of hers: Zina:
. . They asked me: “What had Mendel said? Why is he so bad?’ [genetics was forbidden and called pseudo-science in the last years of Stalin’s era] “Okay, stay after the class, I’ll tell you.” And I explained the whole theory of genes and chromosomes. Why a boy or a girl. Then I got frightened. [laughs] “But all this is not true.” [And I] Cleared the board [laughs].
Interviewer:[laughs]. Zina:“All this is not true.” One of these officers came to me, from these KGB officers. They also studied there. He was older than I. He embraced me and wished me all the best. [laughs].
Zina: You [addressing interpreter] can understand what it meant to hide a person in 1943 who had escaped from prison, if you didn’t know this person at all. It was a Polish woman who traded things. If it were discovered, I would be also imprisoned.
Zina also becomes happy very easily: Zina:I have from time to time heart pain. Always at 4-5 a.m. I don’t know why. So when I wake up, I feel as if something presses me.. Then I go to sleep again. I’m so happy that I’m still alive. [laughs].
Zina:. [laughs] Happiness easily reaches me.. . [laughs] Something.. because of the short mind, because [laughs].
Maybe,
These traits and also her energy (It’s hard simply to imagine how she was able to achieve everything she has achieved in her life. And even now she is a very energetic woman who helps neighbors in different ways) suggest to me that her generosity is a part
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of her positive world view, a sign of maturity rather than a sign of unresolved inner conflict. I have consciously abbreviated the previous paragraph and didn’t try to persuade the reader in my choice between two proposed explanations. I want to stay passive (not to substitute sermon or propagation for science) and analyze conditions under which research data is valid. In this article I want to avoid the question how to persuade someone in my point of view; I prefer to concentrate on the question of to whom and why my case study may be meaningful. It can be said that my analysis of Zina’s motivation may be valid for a social group with a worldview close to mine. The second explanation may turn out valid for other people, especially after they support it with some unused fragments from the interviews which will provide them with a holistic picture of Zina’s behavior. The title of Quine and Ullian’s, 1970, famous book about reasoning, beliefs and logic of science-“The web of belief ‘-is a good metaphor of validity. The key question then is that of a role of a case study in a person’s web of belief. With this respect, I can see two possibilities. The gist of each could be compactly expressed by two opposites: respectively, “the general-the particular” and “the general-the individual”.’
THE GENERAL-THE PARTICULAR, OR THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN LITERATURE AND SCIENCE The relationship between the general and the particular is that of representation. Though a jaw looks very different from a whole animal, it contains enough information to reconstruct the animal’s appearance, lifestyle, etc. Real art is based on this type of relationship: each character, like a drop of water, reflects the whole universe (in its diversity). Is this a reason to conclude that an ideal case study is a piece of really good literature? For instance, a bright life history, like Zina’s one, may be taken by a researcher as “an example” of his or her theory of human development in totalitarian cultures. One line of explanation will be presented, but presented vividly and interestingly. The conclusion will, for instance, be that generosity results from the necessity to suppress personal desires in order to survive repression and throughout state control. The study may become frequently quoted and other researchers may agree that something important has been captured in that study. In my opinion this would be a literary success and not a scientific one. Scientific methods to achieve high validity differ from those in literature. Literature utilizes metaphor, science utilizes data. The scientific point that the particular represents the general is based on the analysis of variability of a given variable in a group of people. A large number of subjects and low dispersion of scores gives the ground for generalization in quantitative research; saturation is the basis for a similar conclusion for qualitative research. In other words, in order to claim that Zina is a typical (in some sense) representative of the cohort of Soviet Jews born in the beginning of the century I was to compare her to someone else. The more subjects-the better. However, that being the case, I will not really be conducting a case study. Consequently, case study is not based on the opposites the particular-the general.
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THE GENERAL-THE INDIVIDUAL, OR THE PLACE OF CASE STUDY AMONG QUALITATIVE RESEARCH The relationship between the general and the individual is that of difference. It is based on the existence of a consensus (as a total agreement-see Ryder 1987, p. 129) of the nature of some process (e.g. human or family development) which determines the general. The individual-a case study-focuses attention on a rare, atypical event/subject that is not in the mainstream of a theory (Abramson 1992; Stake 1994; Yin 1989). The knowledge about atypical, different people and lives deepens our understanding of human nature, makes our predictions and generalization more careful, our practice more accurate. Sjoberg et al. (199 1) proposed five goals that may be addressed by a case study research. These goals are: (1) furthering scientific analysis by introducing a negative (or deviant) case; (2) investigating what is beyond the boundaries of reasonable by using an extreme case; (3) supplementing reductionism of analytic research by holistic perspective; (4) providing social minorities with a voice; and (5) describes cases that have some special importance, for instance, ones that may be believed to anticipate future social changes. Validity of a case study is based on the relationship between the general and the individual-the nature of the difference between a consensual worldview and the specifics of a case study. Consequently, case study research exists only in relation to a theory. For instance, special manipulations with the data would not validate my analysis of the interviews with Zina. Most important is from what theoretical point of view and why the analysis 1s done. Actually, a theory structures and validates not only data analysis, but subject selection and data collection also. In the case of a life history interview it happens through the interviewer’s role in the interview process.2 An interviewer’s investment is his or her (but essentially theoretical-shared by other researchers and scientists) understanding of what is interesting, important, trustworthy, etc. For instance, through focusing on some issues and switching away from other ones an interviewer is able to control “thickness” of description (Geertz, 1973) of different aspects of the research problem-which represents “the individual” and contributes to the validity and importance of a case study. My study is a secondary analysis of the interviews with Zina. So I avoided the discussion of who and why interviewed her, though I realize that for some researchers these interviews as a whole may seem not worth attention because the interviewer behaved himself “improperly” (not according to their theory). I approached interviews as a given text, and limited myself with the question of under which conditions its analysis may be valid and represent the opposites the general-the individual. For instance, if interviews with Zina were analyzed by a behaviorist, different constructs used by behaviorism (reinforcements, conditioning, etc.) would be distinguished. What happens later? If the result of the study becomes an example of how Zina’s generosity was formed step by step by positive reinforcements, reliability and validity of this result will be low. This study would fall within the mainstream of behaviorism. Mainstream research methods require the possibility of generalization, lacking in case study. However, the results of this study may be valid if generalization is not crucial. This can happen when, for instance, the selected line of facts from interviews with Zina concern her ability to keep and carry through her extremely difficult life an altruistic desire to live doing people good, a desire that contradicted common sense of surrounding reality. From
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this point of view Zina is opposing the surrounding life Presented from this angle, a case study of Zina can enrich behaviorism because more elaborate schemes than simple explain Zina’s behavior. This case study will be valid then behavioral psychologists.
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rather than is formed by it. (or provoke development of) reinforcement are needed to for some group of people-
SECOND (ORDER) REFLECTIONS Jorge Luis Barges in the story Averroes’ Search (195711964) described a man “who, closed within the orb of Islam, could never know the meaning of the terms tragedy and comedy.” In the end, however, Borges turned attention to himself. “I felt that Averroes, wanting to imagine what a drama is without ever having suspected what a theater is, was no more absurd than I, wanting to imagine Averroes with no other sources than a few fragments from...” lp. 155. Italic by Barges. Translated by James E. Irby]. As the title indicates, I’m doing a case study (of a case study). To be consistent I have to apply the ideas presented in the article to myself. Thus 1 have to mention the theory to which my case study is atypical, and to describe why my own study is an atypical example of it. My analysis of the interviews with Zina showed simult~eous existence of mutually exclusive inte~retations of a text. If I interpret it as a result of my analysis, I’ll simply be repeating a commonplace point in the cited literature. My study will become an example of the commonplace, and, being in the mainstream of the theory of qualitative research, I will encounter the problems of validity. However, I’m introducing Kuhn’s (1970) idea that a theory structures the field of following up research (Actually, the origins of this idea can be traced far back; for instance, in 1937 Sorokin argued that meaning of research is related to the broader social context.) Introduction of the new dimension-theory, worldview-into the discussion enabled me to make a choice between two explanations (through reconstructing a holistic image of Zina which is in agreement with my worldview) and enables me to make “a case” statement on the level of the theory of qualitative research (and not on the level of the analysis of Zina’s motivation3}. My ‘“case” statement is that not the thickness of data but a shared theory makes research findings reliable and valid. My case study is, for instance, a case study for the grounded theory (Strauss and Corbin 1990) which claims that a theory can be generated based on data. However, as my analysis of the interviews with Zina has shown, different interpretations of data would always be possible. Because of this, problems with validity and reliability are inherent problems of the grounded theory. I suggest that we accept the idea that a case study is framed by a theory. That will enable us to achieve diverse goals (see above) that may be addressed by case study research. The accent on the uniqueness of every person enables researchers to utilize the most the diversity of life histories of elderly people. I do believe that nothing can be more diverse and rich in data than life histories of elderly people, which creates a valuable opportunity for gerontological research to enhance our understanding of human nature. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: Research was supported by a grant from the University of Connecticut Research Foundation. Earlier drafts of this article were presented at the at the Thirteenth International Human Science Research Conference, June 1994, West Hartford, CT, and at the 47th Annual Scien-
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titic meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, November 1994, Atlanta, GA. The author wishes to thank Eugene Thomas, Robert Ryder, Thomas Blank, Laura White, Inna Kupreeva and her colleague who writes her dissertation on Hegel, Claudia Mersereau, Rebecca Earley and two anonymous reviewers for their enormous help with the manuscript.
NOTES 1. The terms I use are similar to the English translation of the triad Hegel used in the discussion of the notion “The notion” in Science of Logic (see Hegel 18 120969). In comparison to Hegel, my analysis is rooted in the pragmatics of social science research, and I had a temptation to substitute “the unique” for “the individual”. However, I decided not to change the terms to keep Hegel’s analysis of their interrelatedness as a context for this article. 2. The importance to point out the interviewer’s role in research process has been suggested by the anonymous reviewer. I appreciate this thoughtful and really crucial comment. 3. Elsewhere I used the interviews with Zina for case studies of Zina. In one article (Sokolovsky 1994a) I showed that personal maturity can be defined as an aspect of relations as opposed to the traditional interpretation of it as an individual characteristic. In the other article (Sokolovsky 1994b) I used the interviews with Zina to show that traditional approaches for evaluation of complexity of reasoning are not able to grasp the specifics of elderly people, and thus have inevitable young adulthood bias.
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Ryder, R.G. 1987. The Realistic Therapist. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. -. 1994. Comments on the first draft of this article. Sjoberg, G., N. Williams, T.R. Vaugham, and A.F. Sjoberg. 1991. “The Case Study Approach in Social Research: Basic Methodological Issues.” Pp. 27-79 in A Cusefor the Case Study, edited by J.R. Feagin, A.M. Orum, and G. Sjoberg. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press. Sokolovsky, M. 1994a. “Psychological Maturity in Elderhood: Content, Form or Position in Relations? A Study of Life Stories of Elderly Immigrants from Russia.” Paper presented at the Fifth Annual Research Fellows in Gerontology Symposium. University of Connecticut, Storm, Connecticut, May 23. -. 1994b. “Complexity of Reasoning in Elderhood.” Paper presented on the Ninth Annual Adult Development Symposium, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, June 24-26. Sorokin, P.A. 1937. Social and Cultural Dynamics, Vol. 1. New York: American Books. Strauss, A. and J. Corbin. 1990. Basics of Qualitative Research: Grounded Theory Procedures and Techniques. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Stake, R.E. 1994. “Case Studies.” Pp. 236-248 in Handbook of Qualitative Research, edited by N.K. Denzin, and Y.S. Lincoln. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Thomas, E.L. 1993a. Comments on the first draft of this article. -. 1993b. “University of Connecticut Life Transitions Research Project.” Unpublished raw data, University of Connecticut, School of Family Studies. Yin, R.K. 1989. Case Study Research: Design and Methods. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.