CODING AND DATA REDUCTION

DATA REDUCTION

- consists of coding the data, often to make them suitable for computer analysis.
- Coding for computer analysis generally consists of assigning a code number to
answer each answer to a category so that the answers may be stored in the
computer.
- involves reducing the raw data of research into a much smaller number of
categories to make the research data more comprehensible.
- Data reduction techniques help you see the pattern for you to draw conclusions.

DATA ANALYSIS

- consists of running various statistical procedures and tests on the data.

1970s

- Main tasks of data reduction was to code data and transmit them physically from
questionnaires to computer cards.

80 column ‘cards’

- Also known as computer-coding sheet or data transfer sheet.

- This tin piece of cardboard, with 80 columns of tiny rectangle holes made the
world quantifiable. It allowed data to be recorded, stored, and analyzed.

ADVANTAGE OF 80 COLUMN ‘CARDS’

- Eliminate the need to carry the cards physically to a card reader for entry into the
terminal.
- Allows easy correction of entry errors.
- Errors on terminals are generally easily rectified.

CLOSE-ENDED QUESTIONS

- Response categories are provided.

OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS

- Codes that paraphrase the meaning of the verbal responses are typically
constructed after the data are acquired.

RECODING

- A process by which such letters must be changed to numbers.

DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS

- Summarizes complex data, shows how the data vary, and how people in different
groups of people vary in the same way.

3 TYPES OF DATA
 1. UNIVARIATE DATA
- Frequency of responses to one variable.
2. BIVARIATE DATA
- Comparing responses between two variables.

(relationships)
3. MULTIVARIATE DATA
- Comparing responses across three or more variables. (interactions)

UNIVARIATE DATA BIVARIATE DATA MULTIVARIATE

DATA

Frequency Analysis Cross Tabulation (Chi- Multiple Regression

Squares)

Measures of Central Means Comparison (t-tests, Factor Analysis

Tendency (Mean, Median, ANOVA, correlation)
Mode)

Measures of Dispersion MANOVA

(range, minimum,
maximum)
(standard deviation,
variance, z-score)

PRECODING

- Numerical coding can be conducted either when the questionnaire itself is being
written or after the questionnaire has been administered and the questions
answered.
- Limited chiefly to questions whose answer categories are known in advance.
These are primarily close-ended questions or questions whose answer is already
a number and thus does not need to be converted. In open-ended questions, the
researcher is often not sure exactly what answers or how many different answer
categories will be given, and so he or she often cannot establish codes until he or
she has analyzed the data.

CODING is a two-part procedure

1. Choice of a different number for each and every possible answer category.
2. Choice of the appropriate column or columns on the computer card that are to
contain the code numbers for that variable.

2 DISTINCT ADVANTAGES:

1. It saves a tremendous amount of labor because the respondent can indicate a

numerical code at the time he or she is answering the question.
2. With precoding the actual questionnaire can serve as a code book that defines
the meaning of each code number, making a separate code book (usually with
the postcoding) unnecessary.

POSTCODING

- Refers to coding of responses after the questionnaires have been answered by

the respondents.
 - It is unnecessary and disadvantageous for simple questions for which precoding
can easily be done.
- It is as straightforward as precoding.
- Allows the researcher to code multiple answers to a single variable by writing a
different code number for each combination of answers given.

ADVANTAGE:

- It allows the coder to ascertain which answers are actually given by respondents
before beginning coding. This can lead to great simplification
- It allows the researcher to code multiple answers to a single variable by writing a
different code number for each combination of answers given.

CODE-BOOK CONSTRUCTION

- The purpose of the code book is to define the meaning of the numerical code and
to tell the location of the variable on the computer card.

CODING NON RESPONSES

- If nonresponses are received, researchers must devise some scheme for coding
them, preferably standard so that the same code can be used for nonresponse
regardless of the particular question.
- Numbers most often used for nonresponse are 9 or 0.

Note: Any numerical code is satisfactory for response as long as it is a number that
could