DEVELOPMENTAL CRISIS IN EARLY ADULTHOOD: A ...

7.
Study 2: Rescuing the Hijacked Self – A Case Study
7. 1 Aims
There were three aims in conducting Study 2. The first aim was to gain rich
and detailed information on one single case of early adult crisis, which would
complement the between-cases presentation of Study 1 with within-case wholeness
and thick description. The second aim was to explore in more depth the issues of
persona, moratorium, intrinsic and extrinsic motives that had emerged from Study 1,
particularly in relation to developmental changes. The third aim was to actively
develop new insights, possible themes and avenues for further exploration in Study 3.
7.2 Method
Design and Sample
This study employed a single participant case-study design. The goal of this
case study was to dig down into existing results, rather than to start searching in a new
sample area, so the initial recruitment pool for the case study was provided by the
men who participated in Study 1. It was decided that the participant should be a man
rather than a woman, simply for originality’s sake; there is more literature on early
adulthood amongst women (e.g. Sugarman, 1982; Reinke, Holmes & Harris, 1985)
than on men. Selection of the single participant from the men was conducted using a
“random purposeful” design (Miles and Huberman, 1994). This strategy involves
selecting an informant rich subgroup of participants and then selecting randomly
within that. From the 8 men interviewed in Study 1, a subgroup of 4 were selected for
giving high quality accounts of the inner and outer dimensions of a crisis episode, and
therefore most likely to give the kind of in-depth information that was required in this
case study. From the 4 men considered appropriate, the individual was then selected
randomly. The first random selection was Neil. He was asked if he would be happy
to participate in further interviewing, and declined. The second selection, Guy, was
happy to participate, and so was selected.
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