QUALITATIVE DATA

ANALYSIS
QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS
Qualitative data take the form
of such narrative materials as
verbatim dialogue between an
interviewer and a respondent
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INTRODUCTION
the frame!

OF QUALITATIVE
ANALYSIS
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The purpose of data analysis is to organize,
provide structure to, and elicit meaning from
data

The search for important themes and concepts

begins from the moment data collections gets
underway.

Qualitative analysis is a labor-intensive activity

that requires creativity, conceptual sensivity and
sheer hard work.

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 QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS
CHALLENGES

• There are no universal rules for analyzing qualitative data.

• A second challenge of qualitative analysis is the enormous
amount of work required.
• A final challenge comes in reducing data for reporting
purposes.

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THE QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS
PROCESS

• The analysis of qualitative data is an active and interactive

process. Qualitative research typically scrutinize their data
carefully and deliberatively, often reading the data over
and over in search of meaning and understanding.

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 QUALITATIVE DATA MANAGEMENT
AND ORGANIZATION
Qualitative analysis is supported by several tasks that help to manage
the mass of narrative data.

Transcribing Qualitative Data

Audiotaped interviews and field notes are major data sources in qualitative
studies. Verbatim transcription of the tapes is a critical step in preparing for
data analysis, and researchers need to ensure that transcriptions are
accurate and that they validly reflect the interview experience.
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Transcription errors are almost inevitable,

3 CATEGORIES OF ERROR
• Deliberate alterations of the data. Transcribers may intentionally
“fix” data to make the transcriptions look more like what they
“should” look like.
• Accidental alterations of the data. One pervasive problem
concerns proper punctuation.
• Unavoidable alterations. Data are unavoidably altered by the fact
that transcriptions capture only a portion of an interview
experience.

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TIP: When checking the
accuracy of transcribed data,
it is critical to listen to the
taped interview while doing
the cross-check.

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Researchers should begin data
analysis with the best possible
quality data, which requires
careful training of transcribers,
ongoing feedback, and
continuous efforts to verify
accuracy.
q Notation preferences for inaudible
sections (e.g,. cannot hear, poor tape
quality too much background noise)
and provide transcriptionists with list of
terms and acronyms that might be
unfamiliar.

q Transcriptionists also need to be

prepared for emotionally difficult
material. Transcribing emotional-laden
interviews can result in inaccuracies if
transcriptionists deny or “mis-hear” the
words.
q Lapadat (2000) offered other strategies to
enhance transcription rigor. She suggested
keeping a long of decision points while
transcribing.

q Lapadat also suggested developing a

codebook to record transcription
conventions that were adopted or newly
created for the project.
DEVELOPING A CATEGORY SCHEME
Qualitative analysis begins with data
organization that is, by classifying and indexing
the data.

This phase of data analysis is essentially

reductionist-data must be converted to smaller,
more manageable units that can be retrieved
and reviewed.

The most widely used procedure is to develop a

category scheme and then to code data
according to the categories.
DEVELOPING A CATEGORY SCHEME

Developing a high-quality category scheme

involves a careful reading of the data, with
an eye to inderlying concepts and clusters of
concepts.

Research whose aims are primarily

descriptive tend to use categories that are
fairly concrete.
q In creating conceptual categories
researchers must break
q the data into segments, closely examine
them, and compare them to other
segments for similarities and
dissimilarities to determine what the
meaning if those phenomena are.
 The researcher ask questions such as
the following about discrete events,
incidents or statements:
What is this?
What is going on?
What does it stand for?
What else is like this?
What id this distinct from?

Important concepts that emerge from

close examination of the data are the
given a label that forms the basis for a
category.
 TIPS: A good category scheme is
critical to a thoughtful analysis, so
a substantial sample of the data
should be read before the
scheme is drafted.
CODING QUALITATIVE DATA

• Once a category scheme has been developed, the data are

read in their entirety and code for correspondence to the
categories.
• It may take a second or third reading of the material to
gasp its nuances.
• it is sometimes recommended that a single person code
the entire data set to ensure the highest possible coding
consistency across interviews or observations.

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 TIPS:
It is wise to develop a
codebook-written
documentation describing
the exact definition of the
various categories used to
code the data. Good
qualitative codebooks usually
include one or more actual
excerpts that typify materials
coded in each category.
MANUAL METHODS OF ORGANIZING QUALITATIVE DATA

• When category system is simple,

researchers sometimes used colored
paper clips or post-it notes to code
narrative content.

• Phenomenological researchers
sometimes use a file card system, placing
significant statements from interviews
on a file card of its own.
MANUAL METHODS OF ORGANIZING QUALITATIVE DATA

• Researchers first go through all the

data writing relevant codes in the
margins, then they cut up a copy of
the material by category area, and
place the excerpts into the file for
that category. All the content on a
particular topic then can be
retrieved by going to the applicable
file folder.
SAMPLE INITIAL CODING AND INTERPRETATION
SAMPLE INITIAL CODING AND INTERPRETATION