Qualitative
Data Analysis
SWRK 176
One way of describing the difference between
qualitative and quantitative methods is to talk
about the purpose of the research. Studies can be:
• Exploratory – looking at a situation about which
little is known. (Qualitative Data Collection and
Analysis)
• Descriptive – finding out what happens in specific
situations. (Primarily quantitative methods, but
some qualitative questions – statistical analysis
requires descriptive statistics)
• Explanatory – looks at whether there is a
relationship between cause and effect
(Quantitative – uses inferential or nonparametric
statistics).
Qualitative Research
• Is used to describe behaviors, actions,
feelings, perceptions, and interaction
among people
• It assumes that respondents or people
observed have unique views of their
personal experiences or the surrounding
environment.
• Is used to help us understand lifestyles
and cultural values, actions, and symbols.
Symbols are short-hand ways of describing
complex situations. Symbols may include:
• Words
• Documents (including videos and
films)
• Music
• Graphical reproductions printed on
books, flyers, or posters
• Specific types of actions taken within
a cultural context
Examples of symbols
• The Eagle on the United Farm Workers’ posters.
• The use of “Baby Boomer” music by political
candidates. For example, Cruz Bustamante used
a song called “Small Town.”
• Among some immigrant groups, wearing
traditional clothing might symbolize a person’s
respect for his or her own culture.
• In a TV commercial, specific types of behavior –
such as women cleaning or men fixing cars may
symbolize things that we as a society expect from
men and women.
• Street gang-related graffiti
We use qualitative research
to:
• Develop an understanding of people
or groups that we know very little
about
• Develop new theories that are
relevant to women, people of color,
and other groups in society that
might have been excluded from
previous studies.
For example, qualitative research can be used to
understand the lives of:
• Women
• Gay men, lesbians, or transgendered
people.
• People of color
• Low income communities
• Nudists
• Members of the hip hop community
Applications of qualitative research
in social work include:
Developing culturally competent practice methods.
Understanding how practice is undertaken within
social service organizations.
Understanding how social service organizations
operate or how and why interventions actually
work.
Understanding service user and social worker
behavior.
Understanding what it feels like to be a client or
worker
Specific types of qualitative
research:
Type
Purpose
Ethnographic
Understanding culture, values, or perceptions
Grounded Theory
Conducting research without any
preconceived ideas or theories; using it to
develop new theories.
Feminist
Understanding how women are oppressed in
society
Narrative
Understanding how people assign meaning to
their life stories. This is also used to analyze
transcripts of therapy sessions
Case Studies
Understanding how or why an individual,
group, organization, or community has
experienced a problem or intervention
Participatory Action
Research
Bringing groups of people (including clients)
together to conduct research. The purpose is
to use research to document social problems
and bring forth social change.
For qualitative interviewing, content
analysis, and observation, tools must be
used to record data
• For individual and group interviews, use a
combination of tape recording and note
taking.
• For observation, field notes should be
taken.
• For content analysis, copies of the
documents can be made or some type of
measurement or note taking device is
needed to record common words, phrases,
or themes.
In addition to frequency, both qualitative and
quantitative analysis can measure:
• Whether something happens during specific times
in the observation (occurrence).
• Length of something that happened (duration).
• Degree to which something happened
(magnitude) – for example, sound or brightness,
etc.
• Whether a particular product was produced
during the period of observation (for example,
completion of a project by team members or
empty beer bottles in a park in which homeless
people hang out).
Three types of data
collection
• Observation
• Interviewing
• Content analysis
(You may use all two or three methods
in one study)
Qualitative Content Analysis
can include:
• Case records
• Audio tapes, videotapes, TV shows,
and films.
• Books
• People’s diaries
• Newspaper accounts of events
Using observation or interviews, in addition to what
respondents said in the interview or what we saw,
we should collect information on:
• What the participant did.
• His or her appearance.
• Body language and affect ( how they
appeared to be feeling).
• The surrounding environment
• Interaction among two or more research
subjects.
• Your own reactions to the interview or
observation
Data to be analyzed will
consist of:
• Words recorded on tape or
transcribed.
• Your notes.
• Documents or other pre-existing
items.
Richardson (2000 as cited in Montcalm & Royse,
2002) identifies four types of notes you should keep
on your research.
• Observational notes – description of what
you saw, heard, and felt.
• Methodological notes – what decisions did
you make about doing the interview or
observation and analyzing your data.
• Theoretical notes – your initial impressions
or hypotheses.
• Personal notes – statements reflecting
what you are thinking or feeling about
your work.
Components of qualitative
analysis
• Organizing words or behaviors into
categories, patterns, and themes.
• Sample quotations.
• Written narratives that summarize
what you found out.
Where to start – basic or “first level”
coding (establishment of categories)
•
•
•
•
•
Creation of data transcript. Organizing this transcript into units of analysis
– easiest way is to do this question by question in your interview guide
(assumes that you have asked all of most of the questions to each of the
respondents).
Choose a unit of analysis in a written document or transcript. This might
be a whole interview, page, paragraph, sentence, phrase, or word.
Across all respondents, count the number of times a particular word,
similar phrase or sentence occurs.*
Establish categories for similar phrases or thoughts.
Put together a frequency table to indicate how many times this common
element occurs or simply describe how many times it occurred in your
narrative
*You may want to double check or triple check your categories and the
assignments of responses to each. You might also want to have someone
else do the analysis over to make sure there is nothing that you missed.
** You can also present your results in terms of occurrence, magnitude,
duration, or whether products were produced).
The next step is making comparison across
categories and among questions (axial or second
level coding)
• Are there similarities among the
categories
• Does one category precede another
• Do two categories occur at the same time
in the same statement
• Are there overlaps among the categories
• Are there obvious patterns or themes
• Can a hypothesis be generated about
cause and effect relationships (based on
these patterns).
For example, if we were to use the following
interview guide, we would transcribe all responses
underneath each question in a WORD processing
program. (Sample interview guide)
1.
Can you describe how you first became aware of your deafness?
Respondent #1
Respondent #2
Respondent #3
2. How do you see yourself today, in terms of your deafness?
Respondent #1
Respondent #2
Respondent #3
From Janesick, V. (1998). "Stretching" exercises for qualitative researchers. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage, p. 75.
We enhance reliability of our
data analysis by:
•
•
•
•
Comparing our categories to pre-existing frameworks.
Having an additional person redo the analysis.
Comparing notes from more than one source.
Using more than one type of qualitative data in our analysis
(observation, interviews, document analysis).
• Supplementing the qualitative analysis with information
from another quantitative source (for example, a survey).
• Keeping a record (audit) of how you established data
categories and identified themes.
• Establishing a feedback loop so that participants can verify
whether or not the analysis is accurate enough to reflect
their views.
Exercise
Focus Groups:
Form a group of 4 to 5 people.
One person should be the interviewer. Another
should take notes. Address the following three
questions:
1. What are the best things about the
BA program in social work?
2. What are the worst things about
the BA program in social work?
3. How can the BA program in social
work be improved?
Next week:
• We will talk more about making
comparisons among respondents.
• We will describe how to write up
results of qualitative research.
• We will analyze a written narrative.
Qualitative
Data Analysis
SWRK 176