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Subject PSYCHOLOGY

Paper No and Title Paper No 3: Qualitative Methods

Module No and Title Module No 35: Analysis of Qualitative Data (Part 2)
Module Tag PSY_P3_M35

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Learning Outcomes
2. Introduction
3. Part One: Alternatives in Qualitative Data Analysis
3.1 Ethnography
3.2 Netnography
3.3 Ethnomethodology
3.4 Conversation Analysis
3.5 Narrative Analysis
3.6 Grounded Theory
3.7 Qualitative comparison analysis
3.8 Case oriented understanding
4. Part Two: Mixed Methods
4.1 Combining qualitative methods
4.2 Combining qualitative and quantitative methods
5. Part Three: Computer Assisted Qualitative Analysis
6. Summary

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1. Learning Outcomes
After studying this module, you shall be able to

 Know the basic idea of what are the alternatives in qualitative analysis
 Explain in brief various alternatives
 Evaluate mixed methods in qualitative research.

2. Introduction
Analysis of qualitative data (part 2)

There are two main parts in this module:

Part One: Alternatives in Qualitative Data Analysis - This section outlines various alternative
approaches to analysis of qualitative data. It covers Case oriented understanding, Ethnography, Grounded
Theory Netnography, Ethnomethodology, Narrative Analysis, Qualitative comparison analysis and
Conversation Analysis

Part Two: Mixed Methods – It deals with combining qualitative and quantitative methods

Part Three: Computer Assisted Qualitative Analysis- This section explains the technological
advancements in analysis of qualitative data

3. Part One: Alternatives in Qualitative Data Analysis

3.1 Ethnography

Ethnography uses participant observation either partially or fully to study a specific community or society
where the researcher is a part of the group being studied and records his/her observations based on the
events in field notes.

Hammersley (1992) emphasized on some general features of the ethnographic research approach:

♦ Societies’ behavior is observed in their natural setting and not under experimental settings.

♦ Data is collected with the help of diverse sources like observation and informal conversation which are
the crucial ones.

♦ Its focus is on a single setting or group.

♦ Analysis includes interpreting the meaning

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Denzin & Lincoln (1998) also replicated the above features.
They noted ethnographic techniques involves collection of a small number of cases, relatively
unstructured empirical materials and involves descriptions of phenomenon and a writing style of analysis
that are primarily interpretive.

According to Armstrong (2008), “a good ethnographer is one who can learn about the delicacies of
expressions used in a group and the multiple meanings that can be assigned to statements or acts” (p.60–
62). According to Madden 2010, good ethnographers use self- reflection of their own background on the
research plans, and the impact of the research in the situation (p.22–23).

3.2 Netnography

With the advances in technology and development in social networking online communities is a new
emerging trend. They may emerge in individuals who have similar interests and environment, in order to
promote emerging social relationships which could not work out due to a particular setting or location, or
to enhance relationships that are formed in work or other events. According to Kozinets 2010, groups of
individuals who communicate directly, online groups can form a culture and become sources of
identification and attachment (p.14–15). And like physical societies, researchers can study online
societies through involvement in the group for an extended period. Netnography, (also referred to as
cyberethnography and virtual ethnography) by James & Busher 2009, (p.34–35), uses ethnographic
procedures to analyze online societies.

The researcher begins his/her research only after getting acquainted with the language and societal norms
of the online societies, framing an exploratory research enquiry about social processes or attitudes that
take place in a particular environment, choosing an accurate community to study. Netnographies focuses
on communities whose members are physically restrained and scattered. According to Kozinets (2010),
the community selected must be suitable to answer the research question, should be able to engage with
the active members, and should be able to generate a rich body of textual data (p.89).

A netnographer must make him/her friendly. Unlike a traditional ethnographer, a netnographer has the
access to the original data produced. They can then code, interpret and compare the data with new data to
keep up with the altering social patterns and develop a theory from it. Both observational and reflective
field notes can be used for this.

3.3 Ethnomethodology

Ethnomethodology is the study of construction of the social world of participants. Its focus is on how the
reality is created rather than description of the social world itself. They do not necessarily believe in
finding the objective reality; the way participants produce and endure a reality, are a phenomenon of
concern. According to Jaber F. Gubrium and James A. Holstein (1997), “in ethnomethodology, the focus
shifts from the events of everyday life to the ways with which the world is experienced to be real,
concrete, factual, and “out there”.” An interest in members’ methods of constituting their world replaces
the naturalistic project of describing members’ worlds as they know them. Holstein (1997, p. 41)
Construction of reality can be anything from gender to identity, whatever that is socially normed. This
concern with verbal interaction has led ethnomethodologists to change focus to a formal tactic,
conversation analysis.

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3.4 Conversation Analysis

According to Blackwell encyclopedia of sociology online, Conversation analysis (CA) is a technique for
studying the structure and procedure of social interaction within individuals. Its focus is primarily on the
verbal aspect and the nonverbal aspects of communication in its research design. These studies make use
of audio or video recordings from naturally occurring interaction, as their data. CA studies generate
explanations of recurrent structures and practices of social interaction, as their results. Some of these,
such as turn taking or sequence structure, are involved in every interaction, whereas others have to do
with particular actions and are more specific, i.e., asking questions or delivering and receiving news,
assessments, or complaints. They focus either on ordinary conversation with family members or
acquaintances or on professional encounters where the participants achieve their tasks through their
interaction. CA explains the fundamental aspects of human sociability which exist in talk, and studies the
ways in which specific social institutions elicit and function with the help of talk.

Three premises guide conversation analysis in the words of Gubrium & Holstein (2000, p.492):

1. Talk, a method of social contact, is contextual in nature and forms with the help of contact and
definite social context.
2. All these procedures are involved in social contact.

3. Talk can be examined in reference to the processes used in social interaction as interactions are
sequentially scheduled instead of in terms of social status or motives.

3.5 Narrative Analysis

For human science practitioners, narrative analysis consists of a group of approaches to diverse kinds of
texts, which have a storied form in common. Narratives are constructed in stories of experience and are
preferred as a method of analysis by social movements, organizations, scientists, ethnic/racial groups,
individuals and other professionals. Such varied texts are called “narrative” because of the sequence and
consequence, following which, events are selected, organized, connected, and evaluated as meaningful
and relevant in research for a particular audience. Storytellers describe the world and experience in it and
they often create moral norms as to how the world should be. According to Hinchman and Hinchman,
1997, narratives represent storied ways of knowing and communicating.

One may attend more to the construction of stories than the narrative itself, and make use of documents
and observations (Hyvärinen 2008, p.452). Catherine Kohler Riessman (2008), narrative analyst,
explained how the combined information gathered from interviews, field observations and documents was
used to understand how a group identity was developed by members of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA).

3.6 Grounded Theory

To quote Charmaz & Henwood (2006-7), “Grounded theory also known as GTM encompasses a precise,
inductive, and relative method for carrying out analysis for the purpose of construction of theory”. Data
collection, analysis proceeds together by informing and streamlining each other. Empirical checks are
built into the analytic process by the grounded theory method, whereby it makes the researchers to review
and examine the possible theoretical explanations for the empirical findings of their respective researches.
The process of revision where both empirical data and the emerging analysis are reviewed makes the data

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more focused and the analysis more theoretical. One of the
most popular qualitative research methods, the grounded theory method finds wide application across
disciplines and subject areas. The grounded theory method makes use of four levels of coding and
analysis as shown in the figure below:

3.7 Qualitative comparison analysis

Qualitative Comparison Analysis (QCA) is a method that analyses data by listing all the variable
combinations from the data set and using logical reference to figure out which descriptive inference is
supported by the data set. While selection of the variables combinations, care is taken to define each type
of case by the unique combination of values alone. This process makes researchers aware of all case types
that possibly exist and need to be investigated.

This can be explained with the help of an example. Daniel Cress and David Snow (2000) took an
initiative by studying about homeless Social Movement Organizations (SMOs). They asked a sequence of
explicit questions regarding social movement effects and gathered qualitative data from nearly 15 SMOs
in around 8 cities. They found out that these 8 cities were relatively accessible and also represented a
range of social movement outcomes (as brought out by a content analysis of newspaper articles). Both the
researchers made use of the snowball sampling technique that classifies the destitute SMOs along with
their factions, contenders and bystanders of organizations they socialized with. Data was also gathered
from the agents of these organizations, which included churches, other activist organizations, service

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providers’ mayors’ offices, police departments, the SMOs
themselves and federal agencies (Snow & Cress, 2000).

3.8 Case oriented understanding

Case oriented understanding views an occurrence from the participants’ perspective. The interpretative
philosophy behind this method does not include the identification of causes of social phenomena, but
provides a different explanation for the same. Constance Fischer and Frederick Wertz (2002) for instance,
explained the effects of being criminally victimized.

They began with detecting the common themes in crime victim’s stories. They explained by
describing what they meant by the procedure of “living routinely” prior to the crime: “he/she . . . feels that
the defended against crime could never happen to him/her.” “ . . . I said, ‘nah, you’ve got to be kidding’”
(Fischer & Wertz, 2002, pp. 288–289).

As said by Fischer & Wertz (2002), “In a second stage, “being disrupted,” the victim copes with the
discovered crime and fears worse outcomes: “You imagine the worst when it’s happening . . . I just kept
thinking my baby’s upstairs.” In a later stage, “reintegrating,” the victim begins to assimilate the violation
by taking some protective action: “But I clean out my purse now since then and I leave very little of that
kind of stuff in there.” (p. 289)

This is followed by the victims reflections on the effects produced by the crime, such as, “I don’t think it
made me stronger. It made me smarter.” (p. 290).

This was the way both the researchers attempted to explain the effects of crime on its victims by means of
such an analysis, by responding to their experiences.

4. Part Two: Mixed Methods

4.1 Combining qualitative methods

Two or more than two methods are often used in a qualitative research. A particular research by Elif
Kale-Lostuvali (2007) regarding the encounters between the citizens and their state after the İzmit
earthquake was enriched by the use of participant observation and intensive interviewing, combination of
qualitative methodologies.

These observations and interviews brought out the distinction between a depremzade (son of the
earthquake) and a magˇdur (sufferer). To quote Lostuvali (2007), “This was a critical distinction, because
a magˇdur was seen as deserving of government assistance, while a depremzade was considered to be
taking advantage of the situation for personal gain”. The researcher also depended on both participant
observation and interviews to develop an in-depth understanding.

“A prominent narrative that was told and retold in various versions all the time in the disaster area
elaborated the contrast between magˇdur (sufferer; that is, the truly needy) and depremzades (sons
of the earthquake) on the other. The magˇdur (sufferers) were the deserving recipients of the aid
that was being distributed. However, they

(1) Were in great pain and could not pursue what they needed; or

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(2) were proud and could not speak of their need; or

(3) were humble, always grateful for the little they got, and were certainly not after material gains;
or

(4) Were characterized by a combination of the preceding.

And because of these characteristics, they had not been receiving their rightful share of the aid and
resources. In contrast, depremzades (sons of the earthquake) were people who took advantage of
the situation”

(Lostuvali, 2007, p. 755).

Moore et al., 2004, in their research showed how information gathered from participant observation
and focused groups with relief workers were interwoven, regarding the social response to Hurricane
Floyd. To quote Moore et al., (2004), “reports of heroic acts by rescuers, innumerable accounts of
“neighbours helping neighbours,” and the comments of HWATF [task force] participants suggest that
residents, stranded motorists, relief workers, and rescuers worked and came together in remarkable ways
during the relief and response phases of the disaster”. An example from the data gathered from one of the
focus groups (#4) says, “Like people get along better . . . they can talk to each other. People who hadn’t
talked before, they talk now, a lot closer. That goes, not only for the neighbourhood, job-wise,
organization-wise, and all that. . . . [Our] union sent some stuff for some of the families that were flooded
out (Moore et al., 2004, pp. 210–211).

4.2 Combining qualitative and quantitative methods

Incorporating data from qualitative interviews has the potential of enriching a research design that mainly
employs quantitative measurement techniques. Qualitative methods come handy when one has to know
about the value of standardised quantitative survey methods used and the case records obtained. Similarly,
certain fixed responses can be made sense of by qualitative data.

As said by Dannefer & Schutt, (1982), “It makes sense to use official records to study the treatment of
juveniles accused of illegal acts because these records document the critical decisions to arrest, to convict,
or to release”. However, “research based on official records can be only as good as the records
themselves” (Dannefer & Schutt 1982). Unlike the controlled interviews, such official acts and decisions
however are not reliable as there is little evidence as to whether they were recorded carefully, without
bias.

A Case Study on Juvenile Court Records

The interview of officials, who create records, or observing them while they record information, can
strengthen/enrich the research based on official records. A participant observation study on what way
probation officers screen cases in two New York juvenile court intake units shows the importance of such
information (Needleman 1981). Needleman (1981) discovered that most investigators believed that they
are computing the concepts with certified accounts which differed evidently from the meaning that
probation officers attach to these records. It is assumed, by researchers sending a juvenile case to court
shows a more severe nature than retention of a case, but the officers frequently avoided court cases as
they believed the courts are not so strict. They assumed that probation officers examined juveniles as
individuals cases, their decisions was frequently grounded on the existing social situation of juveniles’,
without actually knowing anything about him/her. The officers first decided as to how they will handle
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the juvenile case and went on to create an official record which
was used to justify their decisions which was most troublesome. (Needleman, 1981).

5. Part Three: Computer assisted Qualitative Analysis

Analysis of qualitative data can be enhanced by using a computer as well. According to Coffey &
Atkinson (1996); Richards & Richards (1994), computer programs aimed specifically to analyze the
qualitative data can facilitate the researchers in experimenting with several codes, testing hypotheses
about relationships and construct diagrams of theories and writing research reports, thereby pacing up the
process of analysis.
Computer assisted qualitative data analysis, as compared to traditional ways of analysing text like notes,
documents or interview records, follows the steps mentioned below:
1. Preparation
2. Coding Analysis
3. Reporting.
Three popular programs: HyperRESEARCH, QSR NVivo, and ATLAS.ti are used for an illustration of
the above methods. Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS) may be utilised to
assist researchers with transcription analysis, grounded theory methods, content analysis etc. It must have
tools that are used for searching content, mapping, coding, linking, writing and annotation.
Preparation of the text is done by directly entering or scanning the text in a word processor by directly
feeding it in the NVivo’s rich text editor, which creates the a rich text file. The requirement to use Hyper
RESEARCH is that the text must be saved as text file before transferring it into the analysis program.
Care must be taken (for the use of same) that the data must be stored in different files, where one
interview with a subject is stored as one unique case. These programs also allow pictures and videos to be
inserted into the text.

The coding of text involves the categorization of particular text segments. Each program permits the
researcher to allot a code to a particular portion of the text (in NVivo, by dragging through the characters
to select them; in HyperRESEARCH, clicking on the first and last words to select text is done). One can
make up codes via a document and also assign codes to text portions that have been formerly developed.
For example, if in the coding stage, a particular text (autocode) identifies a word/phrase that must always
be assigned the same code, appears in HyperRESEARCH and NVivo. Both the softwares also let the
researcher examine the coded text in context of its place in the original text document.

However, coding cannot be considered a one-time-only or one-code-only process in qualitative data

analysis. Each of the three programs allows the researcher to be inductive and holistic in coding. The
researcher can review codes as s/he goes along the analysis, assign multiple codes to text portions, and
link his/her own comments to text portions. One can actively work with the coded text in order to change
the coding assigned or create new refined categories. Attaching multimedia files in the research report or
placing hyperlinks to other documents outside it is also allowed.

Interpretation of text takes into account the revision of cases or text segments that have been assigned
similar codes and the examination of relationships among these different codes. One may end up
combining codes to larger concepts. To capture variations among cases, one may also specify additional
codes (if any).Testing hypotheses about relationships among codes and developing more free-form
models are easy. The researcher can also identify combinations of codes that classify cases that are to be
examined.

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Each program can bring out a result which includes text to
explain the cases, codes, and relationships specified by the researcher. The program also allows one to
make counts of code frequencies, followed by importing these counts into a statistical program for quan-
titative analysis of the data. However, these different types of analyses and reports that can be developed
with computerised qualitative analysis software do not bring down the need for a careful examination of
the data quality which conclusions are based on.

One must be cautious, as using a computer program for qualitative data analysis may not be as easy and
straightforward as one may think.

6. Summary
 This module explains various alternative methods of qualitative analysis. Ethnography uses
participant observation either partially or fully to study a specific community or society.
Netnography /virtual ethnography/cyberethnography uses ethnographic approaches to study
online communities. Ethnomethodology primarily focuses on the methods used by the
participants to create the social world they reside in—how they “create reality”— instead of
providing a description of the social world. Conversation analysis qualitatively analyses the
details and the sequential organization of a conversation. Narrative Analysis, Grounded theory
etc. are also a part of it.
 Mixed Methods describe various qualitative and quantitative methods used together on a set of
data. In realistic scenarios boundaries cannot be drawn among different approaches. Using quan-
titative measurement with qualitative interviews often enriches a research design.
 Due to Advancement in technology, software and online tools are available for analysis of
Qualitative data. Programs designed for qualitative data make experimenting with diverse codes
easier, speed up the analysis process, testing different hypotheses, preparation of research reports
also facilitate diagrams of emerging theories.

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