Content Analysis

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Content Analysis
How to deal with a whole lot of words
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Aims for today
Types
Definition
Content Analysis
Strengths and Weaknesses
Application
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Brits vrs Texans

• Are the Texans less capable of understanding
  sarcasm.?

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The Definition - Content Analysis

• The method by which you take qualitative data and
  analyse it in order to draw conclusions.

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Types of Content Analysis Qualitative to
Quantitative 1

• Frequency Analysis - the number of times certain
  words come up (e.g. number of times that sexual
  references come up in day-time television)

• pick categories (e.g. roundness)
• count frequency of occurrence for each category

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Types of Content Analysis Qualitative to
Quantitative 2

• Concordance Analysis - the number of times
  certain phrases come up.

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And finally, the difficult one...
Qualitative data
Qualitative results
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How can we analyse this data?

• Are there any ways you can chunk this evidence?
  Any themes in how Dibs feels or thinks?

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Types of Content Analysis Qualitative to
Qualitative

• Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPS)

• Read transcript several times
• Identify emergent themes
• Order and organise themes into clusters
• Table of themes

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Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPS)
Well! You are welcome, too, Dibs exclaimed.
And now I will open the window so fresh air can
come in. (Opens Window) Come in, air! Come on
in and be with us. (He grinned at me) Papa
doesnt like me to talk to the air, but in here I
will if I feel like it. In here if you feel
like it okay I remarked. Papa says people just
talk to people. Papa says I ought to talk to him,
but I dont. I listen to him, but I dont talk to
him. No, often I do not answer him. It upsets him
very much. Good morning he says to me. I
dont look at him. I dont answer him. What is
the matter with you he says I know you can
talk But I dont say anything. I dont look at
him. He gets so upset! (Dibs laughs)
Category - Fathers disapproval
Papa says I ought to talk to him
Papa says people just talk to people
Papa doesnt like me to talk to the air
What is the matter with you
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Aims for today
Types
Definition
Content Analysis
Strengths and Weaknesses
Application
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Evaluation
What is good about using content analysis vrs
just doing a questionnaire or psychometric test?

• Individual Differences
• Great to study emotions and motivation
• Can establish what caused the behaviour
• Can study rare behaviours in detail (for
  example, Dibs)

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Evaluation
Why should we not use content analysis?

• Not Scientific (I.e. its hard to statistically
  prove anything)
• Cant really generalise
• Reliability - how one person views the
  report/data may be different from someone else
• Validity - the language is ambiguous and may be
  misinterpreted.

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Application

• What areas of environmental psychology might use
  content analysis in its research? Why?

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For Example
The study by Rogan et al on the effect of
changing environment on human experience. (2005)

• Took subjects from Western Australia
• Did an in-depth qualitative study
• Used content analysis to identify themes
• Results showed a wide range of feelings about
  changes in the environment, but overall there was
  a demonstrable relationship between environment
  and feelings of family and emotional regulation.

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Homework yeah!
Review evaluation and try and apply to current
studies (use worksheet)

• Idea
• Explanation
• Example

The first advantage of using content analysis is
Individual Differences This is an advantage
because using content analysis allows us to show
that each individual feels differently about an
issue For example, in the study by Rogan on the
influence of environmental change on human
experience, she found that different groups of
people in the community felt differently about
the impact of environmental degradation .
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Summary
Types
Definition
- on handout

• Frequency
• Concordance
• IPS

Content Analysis
Strengths and Weaknesses
Application
Studies on human perception of environment (e.g.
about architecture or environmental change).

• Individual Differences
• Helps determine Cause
• In depth data on rare cases

• Not scientific
• Open to bias
• language misinterpreted