Chapter 15 - Analysis of Qualitative Data

Question 1

What is the difference between qualitative and quantitative analysis?

Answer 1

• qual is less standardized
• different starting points for analysis (quant researchers done start until all data has been collected, qual researchers begin as soon as collection begins)
• different relationships between data and social theory
• different degrees of abstraction or distance from the details of social life

Question 2

What are the steps in the analysis process?

Answer 2

1. open coding
2. axial coding
3. selective coding
4. memos
5. explanation

Question 3

What is involved in coding and concept formation?

Answer 3

Concept formation
- begins during data collection
Conceptualization
- a qual researcher organizes and makes sense of the data

• organizes data into categories
• develops new concepts and formulates conceptual definitions

Question 4

What is open coding?

Answer 4

performed during a first pass through recently collected data
- consists of 2 processes
1. mechanical data reduction: reducing volumes of data into smaller manageable units
2. analytical data categorization: how the researcher imposes order on the data

Question 5

What is axial coding?

Answer 5

researcher develops links between codes and discovers key analytical categories

Question 6

What is selective coding?

Answer 6

a final pass through the qualitative data in which a researcher examines previous codes to identify a core theme around which the remaining codes will fit

Question 7

What are analytical memos?

Answer 7

• Special notes that aid researchers in interpreting their data
• forges links between the concrete data or raw evidence and more abstract, theoretical thinking.

Question 8

What are the 4 strategies researchers use to analyze qual data

Answer 8

1. the narrative
   - author disappears from the analysis
   - criticism: argue that it is the presentation of data without analysis
2. ideal types
   - models or mental abstractions of social relations or processes
   - pure standards against which the data or reality can be compared
   - analogies
3. successive approximation
   - involves repeated iterations or cycling through steps, moving toward a final analysis
4. illustrative model
   - a researcher applies theory to a concrete historical situation or social setting or organizes data on the basis of prior theory
   - empty boxes: a name for conceptual categories in an explanation that a researcher uses as part of the illustrative method of qualitative data analysis

Question 9

What is data analysis?

Answer 9

searching for patterns in data – recurrent behaviours, objects, or a body of knowledge