Qualitative_data_analysis

38 QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS
shape human action. Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in the potential for
misunderstandings, confusion and conflict associated with dating and mating.
We also know that strong social forces—obsequiousness towards power, pressures
for conformity, fears of embarrassment or conflict—can distort behaviour and
disguise individual motivations. On a more positive note, deception and denial can
also derive from more generous qualities—such as politeness, civility, and the desire
to protect others. Perhaps a mixture of these motives explains why those who
exercise power rarely receive an undisguised reaction from those on its receiving
end.
Thus we cannot rely on subjects to give a rational account of their intentions, nor
can we infer intentions unequivocally from their behaviour. Neither in action nor in
intention can we find an unequivocal guide to interpreting behaviour, and such
interpretations are therefore inherently contestable. The communication of meaning
is always negotiable.
PROCESS
Since meaning is negotiable, it can also evolve and change over time. An orientation
to process is the third characteristic we noted of qualitative description. Qualitative
research often seeks to illuminate the ways individuals interact to sustain or change
social situations. Qualitative data may sometimes be produced through snapshot
methods, such as a one-off survey; but more typically they are a product of data
collection over a period, such as the material produced through participant
observation or successive interviewing. Unlike the snapshot survey, these methods
produce data which can illuminate more directly the interactions and
interconnections between action and consequence. The data is descriptive of social
relationships and interchanges which unfold in the succession of actions and events
in which the actors are engaged.
The significance of process in qualitative analysis is also exemplified in interactive
methods through which qualitative data is often produced. Data collection can itself
be conceived as an interactive process through which the researcher struggles to
elicit meaningful interpretations of social action. Analysis often proceeds in tandem
with data collection, rather than commencing on its completion. The resulting
analysis is contingent in character, since it in turn stimulates and is modified by the
collection and investigation of further data. The researcher meanwhile becomes a
participant in his or her own research project, for their own interpretations and
actions become a legitimate object of subsequent analysis. Information on the
researcher’s own behaviour and thinking, in the form of fieldnotes, memos, diary or
whatever, can become a vital source of data for the analysis.