Analysis

• Qualitative v.s. quantitative


  • quantitative easy to analyse
  • qualitative allows respondent to say what they really think
• Content analysis


  • changes qualitative data to quantitaitive data
  • observational study where people are studied indirectly by examining communications

  STEPS

  1. decide on sample
  2. look over sources & produce a list of things that can be quantified (define coding)
  3. use time sampling or event sampling to produce the behavioural categories
• Thematic analysis


  • summarises data descriptively
  • involves identifying underlying themes within the data
  • data broken down into meaningful categories, a code is assigned to each unit
  • concepts combined into larger themes and even further sub categories can be identified
• Strengths- content analysis


  • replication of study is fairly easy once coding has been set up - easily tested for reliability
• Weakness - content analysis

  • an individuals judgement used to define coding units and so they can be subjective
• Weakness- thematic analysis


  • time consuming
  • subject as researcher has to interpret data and decide what to leave out