Qualitative_data_analysis

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substantive connections between categories which are ‘contingent’ i.e. not true by definition, then we should be concerned to make an empirical (and numerical) assessment of our evidence. If we want to claim that transpositions of temperament result in infliction of suffering on patients, we want to know whether and how far the evidence supports this connection. Of course, within the context of qualitative analysis, an enumeration of this kind is not the whole story by a long shot. The cells in a qualitative evaluation are never mere numbers. The numbers summarize our category decisions, and express information about databits in aggregate form. Associations between categories are suggestive not conclusive evidence of connections between categories. For one thing, the existence of an association is not sufficient evidence that such a connection exists. We need to look beyond the evidence of association, to a qualitative account of how and why the categories may be connected. Moreover, the existence of a regular association may be misleading. There are many occasions where we identify connections between events regardless of regularities (Sayer 1992: 131). For example, as I write these lines (in March 1992), the poor performance of the Conservative Party in the current election campaign is widely attributed to the ‘grey’ personality of the incumbent Prime Minister. In everyday life, we identify connections through analysing the capabilities and liabilities of actors, not merely nor perhaps even primarily through some regular association between events. The existence of such regularities is not irrelevant, but it is indirect and inconclusive evidence of connections between categories. For direct evidence of whether or not a connection exists between categories, therefore, we must still look closely at the data on which the numbers are based. CONNECTING WITH LINKED DATA MAKING CONNECTIONS 189 One reason qualitative analysts have relied—rather surreptitiously, perhaps — #8212;on quasi-quantitative assessments may be the lack of more direct methods of identifying connections between categories. By allowing us to make hyperlinks between different bits of data, the computer has now opened up new and more direct ways of connecting categories. Let us look at how we can use linked data to connect categories more effectively. As we are considering the most recent innovations in computer applications for qualitative analysis, it may be some time before software supporting these procedures becomes widely available. First let us recall that linking data has a mechanical and conceptual aspect. The mechanical aspect refers to hyperlinks created between different databits. The conceptual aspect refers to the identification of the nature of the link between the databits—e.g. is it causal, explanatory or whatever. Linking allows us to treat our databits as individual points in a complex web of relationships, rather than as
190 QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS Figure 12.3 Following a trail of links through the data Figure 12.4 Two trails of links through the data unrelated bits of data. What does this mean in practice? Hyperlinks allow us to do two things. First, we can follow hyperlinks through the data, going from one databit to any of the others linked to it, and so on until our links are exhausted or we reach full circle and start again. Instead of browsing through the data sequentially, or selectively through keywords, or categories, we can browse through the data using the links we have created between the databits. We can therefore focus our attention on the relationships between different parts of the data, and peruse more effectively the processes which unfold within it (Figure 12.3). In Figure 12.3 I have presented only one pathway through the data. We can identify as many different pathways as we have identified different types of links. In Figure 12.4 I have overlaid the first pathway with another, representing a different link between the databits.
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Qualitative data analysis Learning
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First published 1993 by Routledge 1
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Glossary 283 References 285 Index 2
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9.1 Categorizing data—1 120 9.2 C
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3.1 Personal ads 42 5.1 ‘The libr
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Preface A new book on qualitative d
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analyse humour from any number of p
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Q. What colour is snow? A. White. C
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INTRODUCTION 3 approaches, interest
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INTRODUCTION 5 qualitative methods.
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INTRODUCTION 7 First of all, I take
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INTRODUCTION 9 the purposes of anal
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WHAT IS QUALITATIVE DATA? 11 distan
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WHAT IS QUALITATIVE DATA? 13 contem
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WHAT IS QUALITATIVE DATA? 15 ‘ric
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classified. Take the example in Ill
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Figure 2.1 Describing a bit of data
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WHAT IS QUALITATIVE DATA? 21 home;
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Figure 2.4 Nominal variable with mu
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Figure 2.6 Interval variable with f
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ILLUSTRATION 2.2 EXAMPLE OF A GRADI
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WHAT IS QUALITATIVE DATA? 29 what a
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Chapter 3 What is qualitative analy
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Figure 3.2 Three aspects of descrip
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WHAT IS QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS? 35 co
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WHAT IS QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS? 37 en
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WHAT IS QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS? 39 Th
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CLASSIFICATION WHAT IS QUALITATIVE
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nature; photograph preferred but no
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WHAT IS QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS? 45 vi
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WHAT IS QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS? 47 Fi
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Figure 3.6 Formal and substantive c
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WHAT IS QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS? 51 ne
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WHAT IS QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS? 53 If
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Figure 3.10 Qualitative analysis as
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Chapter 4 Introducing computers ‘
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ecording of an index of information
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Figure 4.1 A link between text held
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Computer transformations • Search
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Chapter 5 Finding a focus A Zen sto
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FINDING A FOCUS 67 Sheila The solic
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FINDING A FOCUS 69 to reflect upon
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For example, here are some question
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Transposition: Doctor: ‘I’m afr
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Figure 5.2 Main themes for analysin
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Chapter 6 Managing data Piles of pa
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MANAGING DATA 79 setting, by source
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MANAGING DATA 81 Interviewer Maybe
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Figure 6.1 Case documents kept in a
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MANAGING DATA 85 ‘Show the full r
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Chapter 7 Reading and annotating Ac
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• Official/bureaucratic commitmen
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READING AND ANNOTATING 91 women wer
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Techniques for interactive reading
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we can write our comment on a separ
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Figure 7.1 Relating data to key the
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READING AND ANNOTATING 99 may retur
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CREATING CATEGORIES 101 types of ph
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CREATING CATEGORIES 103 conceptual
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CREATING CATEGORIES 105 Categorizat
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Table 8.1 Alternative category list
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This is only a starting point. Our
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CREATING CATEGORIES 111 undertaking
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Figure 8.2 Weighing up the degree o
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CREATING CATEGORIES 115 Although co
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CREATING CATEGORIES 117 for an adeq
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CREATING CATEGORIES 119 well as con
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Figure 9.2 Categorizing data—2 Fi
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are entitled to expect some consist
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ASSIGNING CATEGORIES 125 we ought t
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ASSIGNING CATEGORIES 127 the data.
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have annotated this data. Suppose w
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ASSIGNING CATEGORIES 131 suddenly t
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• What generally constitutes a
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Databits Categories 5. Now she is u
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Chapter 10 Splitting and splicing T
Page 154 and 155: Using Hypertext linking, whenever n
Page 156 and 157: SPLITTING AND SPLICING 141 databits
Page 158 and 159: Category Subcategories Suffering Di
Page 160 and 161: Figure 10.1 Levels of subclassifica
Page 162 and 163: ILLUSTRATION 10.5 SUBDIVIDING DATAB
Page 164 and 165: Figure 10.2 Initial relationships b
Page 166 and 167: If we want to make this change, it
Page 168 and 169: Figure 10.5 Reassessing relationshi
Page 170 and 171: SPLITTING AND SPLICING 155 Although
Page 172 and 173: Figure 10.8 Comparing subcategories
Page 174 and 175: Figure 10.9 Shifting the analytic e
Page 176 and 177: Chapter 11 Linking data Categorizin
Page 178 and 179: Figure 11.2 Multiple hyperlinks bet
Page 180 and 181: example, we may ask what it is abou
Page 182 and 183: Figure 11.5 Linking and categorizin
Page 184 and 185: Figure 11.7 An explanatory link bet
Page 186 and 187: Table 11.2 Multiple links between d
Page 188 and 189: our reasons for making decisions an
Page 190 and 191: Figure 11.11 Conditional and causal
Page 192 and 193: Chapter 12 Making connections Imagi
Page 194 and 195: Figure 12.1 The difference between
Page 196 and 197: Table 12.1 Concurrence between cate
Page 198 and 199: Table 12.4 Boolean operators for ca
Page 200 and 201: From Table 12.6 we can tell that mo
Page 202 and 203: Notice how this cross-tabulation co
Page 206 and 207: Figure 12.5 Following a trail of di
Page 208 and 209: Figure 12.7 Retrieving chronologica
Page 210 and 211: This approach is very exploratory,
Page 212 and 213: MAKING CONNECTIONS 197 Table 12.10
Page 214 and 215: MAKING CONNECTIONS 199 a consequenc
Page 216 and 217: Chapter 13 Of maps and matrices A n
Page 218 and 219: Table 13.1 Comparing information ac
Page 220 and 221: OF MAPS AND MATRICES 205 [In a calm
Page 222 and 223: Table 13.5 Data indices by case and
Page 224 and 225: Table 13.7 Recoding data to express
Page 226 and 227: Table 13.11 Cross-tabulating ‘occ
Page 228 and 229: Figure. 13.4 The history of the uni
Page 230 and 231: Figure 13.7 Incorporating detail by
Page 232 and 233: Figure 13.10 Comparing differences
Page 234 and 235: Figure 13.13 Adjusting scope of mos
Page 236 and 237: Figure 13.17 Comparing strength of
Page 238 and 239: Figure 13.20 Identifying positive a
Page 240 and 241: OF MAPS AND MATRICES 225 undercurre
Page 242 and 243: Chapter 14 Corroborating evidence
Page 244 and 245: CORROBORATING EVIDENCE 229 There is
Page 246 and 247: CORROBORATING EVIDENCE 231 describe
Page 248 and 249: CORROBORATING EVIDENCE 233 of these
Page 250 and 251: Figure 14.1 Concurrence between cat
Page 252 and 253: CORROBORATING EVIDENCE 237 possibil
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CORROBORATING EVIDENCE 239 that the
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CORROBORATING EVIDENCE 241 seductiv
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CORROBORATING EVIDENCE 243 research
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Chapter 15 Producing an account ‘
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PRODUCING AN ACCOUNT 247 An analysi
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Figure 15.2 The whole is greater th
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Figure 15.3 Tree diagrams represent
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PRODUCING AN ACCOUNT 253 associatio
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worrying unduly about the connectio
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Figure 15.5 Different writing strat
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PRODUCING AN ACCOUNT 259 the vibrat
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Figure 15.7 Procedures for assignin
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PRODUCING AN ACCOUNT 263 consistent
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Table 15.1 Databits assigned to cat
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Table 15.3 Distribution of response
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PRODUCING AN ACCOUNT 269 To be subj
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PRODUCING AN ACCOUNT 271 analysts t
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Figure 16.3 Analysis as an iterativ
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CONCLUSION 275 empirical analysis o
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Appendix 1 ‘If the Impressionists
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APPENDIX 1 279 though it had been o
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Appendix 2 Software The reader look
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Glossary Associating categories the
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References Allen, Woody (1978) ‘I
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REFERENCES 287 Sperber, Dan and Wil
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Capra, F. 29, 64, 99 case studies 1
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Galtung, J. 14 Geer, B. 7, 8, 29, 5
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connections; description qualitativ
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