Qualitative Data Analysis

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Qualitative Data Analysis

• AEF 801
• Research Methods and Project Management
• Mary.Brennan_at_ncl.ac.uk
• 18/2/2005

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Session Aim and Objectives

• Aim
• To introduce students to the analysis of
  qualitative data
• Objectives
• By the end students will have an appreciation of
• The principles of analysing qualitative data
• The Qualitative Analytical Process
• Qualitative Data Management Tools
• How to present qualitative results
• Part1 Theory
• Part 2 Qualitative Analysis A worked example

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Qualitative Research

• Qualitative research is an interdisciplinary,
  transdisciplinary, and sometimes
  counterdisciplinary field. It crosses the
  humanities and the social and physical sciences.
  Qualitative research is many things at the same
  time. It is multiparadigmatic in focus. Its
  practitioners are sensitive to the value of the
  multimethod approach. They are committed to the
  naturalistic perspective, and to the
  interpretative understanding of human experience.
  At the same time, the field is inherently
  political and shaped by multiple ethical and
  political positions.
• Nelson et als (1992, p4)

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Qualitative Inquiry

• Purpose
• The purpose of qualitative inquiry is to produce
  findings. The Data Collection process is not an
  end in itself. The culminating activities of
  qualitative inquiry are analysis, interpretation,
  and presentation of findings.
• Challenge
• To make sense of massive amounts of data, reduce
  the volume of information, identify significant
  patterns and construct a framework for
  communicating the essence of what the data reveal
• Problem
• have few agreed-on canons for qualitative data
  analysis, in the sense of shared ground rules for
  drawing conclusions and verifying sturdiness
  Miles and Huberman, 1984)

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The Creativity of Qualitative Inquiry

• ..the human element of qualitative inquiry is
  both is strength and weakness - its strength is
  fully using human insight and experience, its
  weakness is being so heavily dependent on the
  researchers skill, training, intellect,
  discipline, and creativity. The researcher is
  the instrument of qualitative inquiry, so the
  quality of the research depends heavily on the
  qualities of that human being (Patton, 1988)

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The Science and Art of Qualitative
Inquiry(Patton, 1988)

• The Science
• The scientific part is systematic, analytical,
  rigorous, disciplined, and critical in
  perspective
• The Art
• The artistic part is exploring, playful,
  metaphorical, insightful, and creative

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The Critical and Creative Thinker

• Just as creative thinkers want to be creative,
  critical thinkers, it seems , want to be
  critical, or at least to be certain. Yet the
  critical attitude and the creative attitude seem
  to be poles apartOn one hand, there are those
  who are always telling you why ideas wont work
  but who never seem able to come up with
  alternatives of their own and, on the other
  hand, there are those who are constantly coming
  up with ideas but seem unable to tell good from
  bad. There are people in whom both attitudes are
  developed to a high degree, but even these
  people say they assume only one of these
  attitudes at a time. When new ideas are needed,
  they put on their creative caps, and when ideas
  need to be evaluated, they but on their critical
  caps
• (Anderson, 198066)

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Critical Thinking

• Critical Thinking
• Critical Thinking calls for a persistent effort
  to examine any belief or supposed form of
  knowledge in the light of the evidence that
  supports it and the further conclusions to which
  it tends (Glaser, 1941)
• or more simply!
• Critical Thinking means weighting up the
  arguments and evidence for and against.
• Key points when thinking critically are (Glaser,
  1941)
• Persistence Considering an issue carefully and
  more than once
• Evidence Evaluating the evidence put forward in
  support of the belief or viewpoint
• Implications Considering where the belief or
  viewpoint leads what conclusions would follow
  are these suitable and rational and if not,
  should the belief or viewpoint be reconsidered

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Analytical Thinking

• Analytical Thinking involves additional
  processes
• Standing back form the information given
• Examining it in detail from many angles
• Checking closely whether each statement follows
  logically from what went before
• Looking for possible flaws in the reasoning, the
  evidence, or the way that conclusions are drawn
• Comparing the same issues from the point of view
  of other writers
• Being able to see and explain why different
  people arrived at different conclusions
• Being able to argue why one set of opinions,
  results or conclusions is preferable to another
• Being on guard for literary or statistical
  devices that encourage the reader to take
  questionable statements at face value
• Checking for hidden assumptions
• Checking for attempts to lure the reader into
  agreements

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Guidance for Creative Thinking

• Be open
• Generate Options
• Divergence before convergence
• Use multiple stimuli
• Side track, zig-zag, and circumnavigate
• Change patterns
• Make Linkages
• Trust yourself
• Work and Play at it

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The Credibility of Qualitative Analysis

• The credibility for qualitative inquiry depends
  on three distinct but related inquiry elements
• Rigorous techniques and methods for gathering
  high-quality data that is carefully analysed,
  with attention to issues of validity,
  reliability, and triangulation
• The credibility of the researcher, which is
  dependent on training, experience, track record,
  status, and presentation of self
• Philosophical belief in the phenomenological
  paradigm, that is, a fundamental appreciation of
  naturalistic inquiry, qualitative methods,
  inductive analysis and holistic thinking

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A Credible Qualitative Study

• A credible qualitative study needs to address the
  following issues
• What techniques and methods were used to ensure
  the integrity, validity, and accuracy of the
  findings
• What does the researcher bring to study in terms
  of qualifications, experience, and perspective
• What paradigm orientation and assumption
  undergrid the study

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Qualitative Research Common Features of
Analytic Methods(Miles and Huberman, 1994)

• Affixing codes to a set of field notes drawn from
  data collection
• Noting reflections or other remarks in margin
• Sorting or shifting through the materials to
  identify similar phrases, relationships between
  themes, distinct differences between subgroups
  and common sequences
• Isolating patterns and processes, commonalties
  and differences, and taking them out to the filed
  in the next wave of data collection
• Gradually elaborating a small set of
  generalisations that cover the consistencies
  discerned in the data base
• Confronting those generalisations with a
  formalised body of knowledge in the from of
  constructs or theories

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Principles of Analysing Qualitative Data

• Proceed systematically and rigorously (minimise
  human error)
• Record process, memos, journals, etc.
• Focus on responding to research questions
• Appropriate level of interpretation appropriate
  for situation
• Time (process of inquiry and analysis are often
  simultaneous)
• Seek to explain or enlighten
• Evolutionary/emerging

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The Analysis Continuum
Raw Data
Descriptive Statements
Interpretation
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The Qualitative Analytical Process
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1. Analysis Considerations

• Words
• Context (tone and inflection)
• Internal consistency (opinion shifts during
  groups)
• Frequency and intensity of comments (counting,
  content analysis)
• Specificity
• Trends/themes
• Iteration (data collection and analysis is an
  iterative process moving back and forth)

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2. The Procedures

• Coding/indexing
• Categorisation
• Abstraction
• Comparison
• Dimensionalisation
• Integration
• Iteration
• Refutation (subjecting inferences to scrutiny)
• Interpretation (grasp of meaning - difficult to
  describe procedurally)

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The Qualitative Analytical Process(Adapted from
descriptions of Strauss and Corbin, 1990, Spiggle
1994, Miles and Huberman, 1994)
Components
Procedures
Outcomes
Data Reductions
Description
Coding Categorisation Abstraction Comparison Dimen
sionalisation Integration Interpretation
Data Display
Conclusions Verification
Explanation/ Interpretation
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Qualitative Data Management Tools

• QSR NUD.IST
• (Non-numerical unstructured data indexing
  searching and theorising)
• Enables efficient data management by supporting
  the processes of indexing, searching and hence
  data theorising
• Creates an environment to store and explore data
  and ideas, it does not determine the research
  approach.
• The major advantage of the package is that it
  enables an efficient and flexible approach to
  rigorously and systematically analysing
  qualitative data.

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SAFEFOOD Interactive WorkshopsA worked example

• Preliminary qualitative data analysis
• (information to be provided)

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QSR NUD.IST

• The QSR NUD.IST software tools are incorporated
  into two interlocking systems a document system
  and an index system
• Document Database
• Enables text to be stored, edited and retrieved
  memos to record ideas can be attached to text
  and word and phrase searches can be conducted on
  the documents
• Index Database
• Enables the researcher to code the data conduct
  multiple concept or coded category searches
  thereby providing responses to research questions
  and theory development and provides the means to
  record ideas about the data through memos
  attached to the various indices