If you go and see your doctor or a therapist, you'll become a case to them. They'll want to know a lot more about you. Similarly, sociological case studies involve putting a social group, an event, or a place 'under the microscope'. This film looks at a classic sociological study, the Spiritual revolution, to show why case studies are used in sociology, what they provide for the sociologist and the extent to which findings can be generalised.

How do school students negotiate the pressures to perform well academically alongside the pressure to be popular and cool? Carolyn Jackson combined questionnaires and interviews to research this question and this film uses her study, Lads and Ladettes, to illustrate why these methods are chosen, their respective strengths and limitations and how the strengths of cone can be used to offset the limitations of the other.