Discussion Questions 3

Analyzing Qualitative Data

How do you analyze qualitative data?

Data reduction Data display Drawing and verifying conclusions

Give examples from Griggs Article.

Data Reduction: Organizing data to make it more meaningful

Summarizing and paraphrasing Selecting some themes and exluding

others Putting specific instances into larger

patterns Quantification into numbers and ranks

(coding into categories) Look for differences across groups

Data Display Forms

Narrative text and quotations Tables, matrices and graphs Checklists Always arrange in a systematic way Lets look at:

• Example 1: Tables 1 and 2 (p. 24-25)

• Example 2: Table 3 (p.26)

• Example 3: Figure 2 (p.28)

Drawing Conclusions

Remember the research question and note for regularities and patterns

Derive explanations Draw causal flows Come up with propositions

Verifying Conclusions

Verifying is checking results by:• Triangulation for validity

• Use different measures for the same sample

• Use different samples and look for common results

• Get feedback from respondents

• Compare two set of respondents known to differ

• Do not ignore the outliers

• Replicate findings ina second study

How do you evaluate validity and reliability with qualitative data?

Validity: Meaningfulness of results• Apparent

• Internal

• Instrumental

• Theoretical

• Construct

• Consultative

Skyes Article

Reliability: Consistency of results• Two different

researchers?

• The same researcher?

• Transferability

• Confirmability

• Dependability

• Interrater agreement methods

Content Analysis

What is it? What is the unit of analysis? How is it done? Procedure?

• Coders?

• Judges? How to assess reliability in content

analysis?Zimmer and Golden Article

Content Analysis Methodology Formulate the research question Select the unit of analysis (content):

• Single word, theme, symbol Fiction, movie, drama, TV program• Entire article, book, etc.

Code the content Quantify the coded data Check reliability by:

• Ability to form categories• Extent of agreement between/among coders

Analyze and interpret the findings

Holsti, O.R. (1969), Content analysis for Social Sciences and Humanities, Wesley Publishing Co.

Content Analysis Methodology

Sample: 894 respondents out of 1600 people selected as representative population

Research question:• Please describe your image of ___________?

Stages:• Stage 1: Content Analysis of Themes

• Stage 2: Aggregation of Themes

• Stage 3: Selection of Final Categories

• Stage 4: Reliability Analysis

Methodology: Stages in Content Analysis

ReliabilityReliability Analysis 2:Researchers reduced 47 dimensions to 10. Inter-rater reliabilities of all 3 pairs of judges were again calculated and found to be significant

Judges # of matching

(Out of 220)

Percent Match

A & B 132 59.73 %

A & C 137 61.99 %

B & C 161 72.85 %

ReliabilityReliability Analysis 1: Three judges independently coded 220 themes into 47 dimensions and the probability that any two judges will assign any one theme to the same category by chance alone is found to be extremely small using binomial probability distribution

Stage 4:

Judges # of matching

(Out of 220)

Percent Match

A & B 90 40.72 %

A & C 107 48.42 %

B & C 119 53.85 %

Testing the significance of Judge Agreements: Interjudge reliability

Binomial Test of proportions (z-Test)• Appendix of Zimmer and Golden Article

Cohen’s Kappa• Reading will be provided

Several Others• Wiil be discussed as we proceed in the

course

Cohen’s Kappa Measure

J1 A

B

C

D E Total

A 8 0 0 0 0 8

B 2 21 1 0 0 24

C 1 0 18 2 1 22

D 0 0 0 24 6 30

E 1 0 0 1 14 16

Total 12 21 19 27 21 100

How to calculate Cohen’s Kappa

Probability of Observed Agreements Probability of Expected Agreements Take the difference Divide by expected agreements Formula:

• Kappa: PO-PE

PE