Professor Cay notes that respondent Mary Ginger is a 54 year old grandmother who has two grandchildren living in her household. Neither of the grandchildren’s parents live with them although Mary is the maternal grandmother. Cay also learns that Ginger had to quit her job in order to stay home with the young grandchildren because Ginger feared leaving the two youngsters with a baby-sitter or in child care. Two of Ginger’s friends were dealing with similar situations and a third friend was considering whether to obtain custody of her grandchild. Thus, Cay learned that Ginger wasn’t feeling "alone" in caring for her grandchildren. Using this information alone, it sounds like Professor Cay is doing
A. A case-oriented nomothetic analysis
B. A case-oriented idiographic analysis
C. A variable-oriented nomothetic analysis
D. A variable-oriented idiographic analysis
E. A cross-case analysis

In the first place, this is a case-oriented analysis because it focuses in one specific situation, and seeks to understand the effect that all the factors involved have on the outcome.

Secondly, it's idiographic because it investigates the qualities of a single individual. The word idiographic comes from Greek idios, meaning "own" or "private".

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