17-Mar-21

Topic-12
I welcome all of you to the session on data

analysis method in qualitative research. Today I

will particularly discuss content analysis

method.

Outline of the session

Recapitulation of Topic - 11
 Content Analysis Method
discussion of major steps/tasks
Reference for this session
Sample question from this session

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Recapitulation of Class - 11
 In previous few classes we have discussed 3 (three) methods of
data collection in qualitative research. These are Interview,
Observation and Focus Group Discussion (FGD). Along with
advantages and disadvantages of those methods we have discussed
other details of those methods.

Continued; Interview
We have discussed personal, one-to-one, face-to-face
interview.

Interview is a good technique for researchers less interested in

variables and more interested in how individuals subjectively
see the world and make sense of their lives.

Generally, of two types; unstructured or in-depth and

structured from the structural point of view.

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Continued; Observation
Knowledge/understandings are drawn through the use of sense
organs

Traditionally used by the anthropologist and sociologist

Is concerned with neither what a respondent places on paper nor

with what he says in an interview

Deals with the overt behavior of persons in appropriate

situations, sometimes in normal living or sometimes in
conditioned environment

Continued; Focus Group Discussion (FGD)

•FGD is focused on theme or issue, not on participants
•Conducted to discuss one or more than one topic
•Allows interactions among moderator and participants
•It helps to crystallize the participants’ opinions
•Generally, it does not use in isolation, use with other methods
•Provide useful info. to know various procedures, systems, …

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Content Analysis Method

Now, I welcome all of you to the session on
Content Analysis Method. Generally, it is used in
qualitative research to analyze text data, when
possibility of highly technical method or software
use are impossible or unattainable or unavailable.

Continued
•The most popular and prominent method of data
analysis in qualitative research is Content
Analysis.

•It starts from the transcription of the data and

ends while completing analysis.

•It has various sequential steps and is a systematic

process.

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Major Steps/Tasks of Content Analysis Method

1. Transcribing
2. Translating
3. Organizing - Analytic memo writing
4. Conceptualization
5. Coding - open, axial, selective
6. Analysis strategies - the narrative, ideal types, successive
approximation, and the illustrative method

First Step; Transcription of data

• For the purpose of this class we assume that you have
collected primary data using Interview as data collection
method. However, if you use observation or FGD or a
combination of these methods it will remain same.

• In all cases you need to transcribe your data first.

• It means may be you have some notes, respondent-wise

incomplete interview materials, official records, tape
recording, video clipping, photographs, etc.

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Continued
• Those can be in standard national language (Bengali) and/or can
be in any regional/local dialect (let’s say in Chakma language of
Chattogram Hill Tracts) or a mix.

• In all those cases you need to carefully memorize, read, hear, see,
and interact with some other people (if applicable) and write full
complete and detail transcription in proper language (e.g.
Bengali) following your questions.

• If you want to keep some verbatim quotation, you can keep

original text aside with standard language.

Second step; Translation of data

• In most cases, we need to do the research in international
language (i.e. English) for wider readership or
standardization.

• Also in most cases you get data (transcription) in national

language (i.e. Bengali).

• Hence, in second step you need to translate (from Bengali

to English) all the transcriptions and relevant materials
(including any relevant literature and reports, you need
very much).

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Continued
•In this case, if you are able and getting scope,
you yourself will do the translation. Otherwise,
you will engage the right person to do it for you.

•In both cases if it is possible to get the support of

any internet base software (e.g. google
translator), you can take.

Third step; organizing data - analytic memo writing

•The analytic memo is a special type of note

•It is a memo or discussion of thoughts and ideas

about the coding process that a researcher writes
to himself or herself

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Continued
•Each coded theme or concept forms the basis of
a separate memo

•The memo contains a discussion of the concept

or theme

•Each memo later can form as a chapter of the

report or thesis

Fourth step; Conceptualization

•Concept formation is integral to data analysis and
begins during data collection.

•Conceptualization is how a qualitative researcher

organizes and makes sense of the data.

•A qualitative researcher organizes data into

categories on the basis of themes, concepts, or
similar features.

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Continued
• He or she develops new concepts, formulates conceptual
definitions, and examines the relationships among
concepts.

• Eventually, he or she links concepts to each other in terms

of a sequence, as oppositional sets (X is the opposite of
Y) or as sets of similar categories that he or she
interweaves into theoretical statements.

• Qualitative researcher conceptualize or form concepts as

they read through and ask critical questions of data

Fifth step; coding

•Third and fourth steps can be interchangeably
and/or simultaneously go on

•However, coding is the toughest step of data

analysis in qualitative research

•Because coding has clear links with concepts,

constructs, and theoretical framework of the
research

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Continued
•Coding depends on those and those also depend
on coding

•Coding data is the hard work of reducing

mountains of raw data into manageable piles

•In addition to making a large mass of data

manageable, it is how a researcher imposes order
on the data

Continued
• Coding is two simultaneous activities: mechanical
data reduction and analytic data categorization

• A researcher codes by organizing the raw data into

conceptual categories and creates themes or
concepts

• Instead of a simple clerical task, coding is an

integral part of data analysis guided by the research
question

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Types of coding
• In the data analysis of qualitative research codings are
mostly three types. These are Open; Axial, and Selective

• These types are not such type that you can use alternatively.

• Rather, these are organized in sequential order. You need to

use all three in one research one after another.

• I am going to discuss all these three one by one.

Open coding
•Open coding is performed during a first pass
through recently collected data

•The researcher locates themes and assigns initial

codes or labels in a first attempt to condense the
mass of data into categories

•Slowly reads notes, looking for critical terms,

key events, or themes, which are then noted

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Continued
•Next, writes a preliminary concept or label

•The researcher is open to creating new themes

and to changing these initial codes in subsequent
analysis

•Open coding brings themes to the surface from

deep inside the data

Axial coding
•This is a second pass through the data. During open coding, a
researcher focuses on the actual data and assigns code labels for
themes.

•There is no concern about making connections among themes or

elaborating the concepts that the themes represent.

•By contrast, in axial coding the researcher begins with an organized

set of initial codes or preliminary concepts.

•In this second pass, he or she focuses on the initial coded themes
more than on the data.

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Continued
•Additional codes or new ideas may emerge during this pass, and
the researcher notes them; but his or her primary task is to review
and examine initial codes.

•He or she moves toward organizing ideas or themes and identifies

the axis of key concepts in analysis.

•During axial coding, a researcher asks about causes and

consequences, conditions and interactions, strategies and
processes, and looks for categories or concepts that cluster
together.

Selective coding
•By the time a researcher is ready for this last pass
through the data

•He or she has identified the major themes of the

research project

•Selective coding involves scanning data and

previous codes

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Continued
•Researcher look selectively for cases that
illustrate themes and make comparisons and
contrasts after most or all data collection is
complete

•They begin after they have well-developed

concepts and have started to organize their
overall analysis around several core
generalizations or ideas

Analysis strategies
•Compared to the analysis of quantitative data, strategies
for qualitative data are more diverse, less standardized, and
less explicitly outlined by researchers.

•Only in the past decade have researchers started to explain

and outline exactly how they analyze qualitative data.

•In general, data analysis means a search for patterns in

data-recurrent behaviors, objects, or a body of knowledge.

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Continued
•Once a pattern is identified, it is interpreted in
terms of a social theory or the setting in which it
occurred.

•The qualitative researcher moves from the

description of a historical event or social setting
to a more general interpretation of its meaning.

Types of analysis strategies

•Four strategies researchers use to analyze
qualitative data:
the narrative, ideal types, successive
approximation, and the illustrative method.
I am going explain all those one after another.

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The Narrative
• It is also called a natural history or realist tale
approach.

• The narrative is a largely atheoretical description.

• The researcher-author “disappears” from the analysis

and presents the concrete details in chronological order
as if they were the product of a unique and “naturally
unfolding” sequence of events.

Continued
•He or she simply “tells a story” of what occurred.

•A researcher assembles the data into a descriptive

picture or account of what occurred, but he or
she largely leaves the data to “speak for
themselves”

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Ideal Types
•Max Weber's ideal type is used by many qualitative researchers.

•Ideal types are models or mental abstractions of social relations

or processes.

•They are pure standards against which the data or “reality” can
be compared.

•An ideal type is a device used for comparison, because no reality

ever fits an ideal type

Continued
• Qualitativer esearchers have used ideal types in two ways: to
contrast the impact of contexts and as analogy.

• Contrast Contexts. Researchers who adopt a strongly

interpretive approach may use ideal types to interpret data in
a way that is sensitive to the context and cultural meanings
of members.

• They do not test hypotheses or create a generalizable theory,

but use the ideal type to bring out the specifics of each case
and to emphasize the impact of the unique context.

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Continued
• Analogies transmit information about patterns in data by
referring to something that is already known or an
experience familiar to the reader.

• They can describe relationships buried deep within many

details and are a shorthand method for seeing patterns in a
maze of specific events.

• They also make it easier to compare social processes

across different cases or settings.

Successive Approximation
• Successive approximation involves repeated iterations or
cycling through steps, moving toward a final analysis.

• The researcher completes the first pass in the first round.

• The researcher then collects additional evidence to

address unresolved issues that appeared in the first stage,
and repeats the process.

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Continued
•At each stage, the evidence and the theory shape
each other.

•This is called successive approximation because

the modified concepts and the model
approximate the full evidence and are modified
over and over to become successively more
accurate.

The Illustrative Method

• With the illustrative method, a researcher applies theory to a
concrete historical situation or social setting, or organizes
data on the basis of prior theory.

• Preexisting theory provides the empty boxes. The researcher

sees whether evidence can be gathered to fill them.

• The evidence in the boxes confirms or rejects the theory,

which he or she treats as a useful device for interpreting the
social world.

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Continued
• There are two variations of the illustrative method.

• One is to show that the theoretical model illuminates or

clarifies a specific case or single situation.

• A second is the parallel demonstration of a model in

which a researcher juxtaposes multiple cases (i.e., units or
time periods) to show that the theory can be applied in
multiple cases.

Reference for this session

Neuman, W. Lawrence, Basics of Social Research:

Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches, Pearson
Education Inc, Boston, 2007, PP 329-342.

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Sample question from this session

1)What is the most popular and prominent method

of data analysis in qualitative research?
Elaborate that process with taking a research
example.

Thanks 

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