Qualitative Research Methods 19 June 2017
Content analysis – coding
Coding – the central process of qualitative research (giving meaning to the words that you are reading).
Analysing the content (e.g. interviews) and dividing the answers into categories in order to get an overview and
find similarities
Transparent
Consistent
Inductive / deductive
Sensitizing concepts – are constructs that are derived from the research participants' perspective,
using their language or expressions, and that sensitize the researcher to possible lines of inquiry
Inductive – not really a preparation but you create theory from your collected data up
Deductive – you already think about data that is important and search for information that support that theory
(you already think of concepts in advance)
Tip! Try not to repeat what is already in the text, but label them – under which category does it belong?
If you interview 10 people why they drink and they give 10 different reasons what they think when they
drink (confidence, happiness, sadness) the label is attitude towards drinking
Look at the examples in PowerPoint at BB
Even though amnesia as a result of drinking can be merged with bad results of drinking, when the
concept of amnesia is a very frequent answer in multiple interviews it is important to label them
separately from bad results of drinking
Stage 1: process of open coding
1. Read the whole document
2. Re-read the text line-by-line, determine beginning and end fragment
3. Determine meaningfulness fragment (what is really important?): do this by highlighting the important
sentences but keep the research question in mind!!
4. Judge relevance fragment for study
5. Create an appropriate label (code)
6. Assign this code to the fragments: keep in mind why people say something (what is the reason they say
something and what does it really refer to)
7. Code all relevant fragments
8. Compare the different fragments. If fragments address the come topic they should get the same code
Open coding example in PPT: labels on the right fragmenting the argument that the interviewee is giving (what
can you make up from the argument the interviewee is giving?)
Purpose of open coding: exploration of the field, coverage of the field with codes, manageability of data files,
familiarity with the data (answering question: what large domains am I seeing in the data?)
Phase – beginning stage
Activities – reading, asking questions, assigning codes
Starting point: data
Result: list of codes, memos
Content analysis – coding
Coding – the central process of qualitative research (giving meaning to the words that you are reading).
Analysing the content (e.g. interviews) and dividing the answers into categories in order to get an overview and
find similarities
Transparent
Consistent
Inductive / deductive
Sensitizing concepts – are constructs that are derived from the research participants' perspective,
using their language or expressions, and that sensitize the researcher to possible lines of inquiry
Inductive – not really a preparation but you create theory from your collected data up
Deductive – you already think about data that is important and search for information that support that theory
(you already think of concepts in advance)
Tip! Try not to repeat what is already in the text, but label them – under which category does it belong?
If you interview 10 people why they drink and they give 10 different reasons what they think when they
drink (confidence, happiness, sadness) the label is attitude towards drinking
Look at the examples in PowerPoint at BB
Even though amnesia as a result of drinking can be merged with bad results of drinking, when the
concept of amnesia is a very frequent answer in multiple interviews it is important to label them
separately from bad results of drinking
Stage 1: process of open coding
1. Read the whole document
2. Re-read the text line-by-line, determine beginning and end fragment
3. Determine meaningfulness fragment (what is really important?): do this by highlighting the important
sentences but keep the research question in mind!!
4. Judge relevance fragment for study
5. Create an appropriate label (code)
6. Assign this code to the fragments: keep in mind why people say something (what is the reason they say
something and what does it really refer to)
7. Code all relevant fragments
8. Compare the different fragments. If fragments address the come topic they should get the same code
Open coding example in PPT: labels on the right fragmenting the argument that the interviewee is giving (what
can you make up from the argument the interviewee is giving?)
Purpose of open coding: exploration of the field, coverage of the field with codes, manageability of data files,
familiarity with the data (answering question: what large domains am I seeing in the data?)
Phase – beginning stage
Activities – reading, asking questions, assigning codes
Starting point: data
Result: list of codes, memos
