Qualitative_data_analysis

Table 12.1 Concurrence between categories
MAKING CONNECTIONS 181
connected: we have organized the data into distinctive and separate categories.
However, we can compare the data assigned to the two categories, and look for
evidence of a possible connection between them.
To compare the categories, we need to retrieve all the databits which have been
assigned to one category, but not the other. We can also retrieve all the databits
which have been assigned to both categories. This gives us a cross-tabulation in
Table 12.1. One virtue of cross-tabulating the data in this way is that it obliges us to
take account of all the databits which do not meet our criterion. This data which
shows no concurrence between the categories is no less important than the data
which does show concurrence.
In three of the ‘cells’ of this table we have a list of databits which fulfil the
conditions of our retrievals. The first cell, for example, contains all the databits
which were assigned to both ‘temperament’ and ‘suffering’. Note though that the
last cell contains no data, as there can be no retrieval for data which has not been
assigned to one or other of our categories! This means that there are limits to what
we can do with our cross-tabulation—for example, we cannot total the data and
work out proportions for all the rows and columns.
These retrievals do let us do three things (Table 12.2). First, we can see how
many databits have been assigned to either or both categories. Second, we can
compare the databits within the first cell, which contains the data where the
categories concur, looking for evidence of connections between those databits
assigned to both categories. Third, we can compare the databits across the different
cells. Is there any difference between those databits where both categories have been
assigned, and those where only one category has been assigned but not the other?
In cross-tabulating databits, it may be more convenient to refer to them by an
indexing title (here I have used the first words of each databit) rather than the
whole databits, which can be listed separately (Table 12.3) or retrieved as required by
the computer.
Comparing the databits within the first cell, we can see that where ‘temperament’
and ‘suffering’ have both been assigned to a databit, the data does tend to confirm a
pattern whereby artistic temperament results in patient torture. By contrast, where