Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches

ANALYSIS OF QUALITATIVE DATA

CHART 1 Forms of Relationships in Cultural

Domains

SEMANTIC

RELATIONSHIP EXAMPLE OF USE

Is a type of A bus is a type ofmotor vehicle

[types of vehicles].

Is a part of/is A tire is a part ofa car

a place in [parts of cars].

Is a way to Cheating is a way toget high

grades in school [ways students

get high grades].

Is used for A train is used fortransporting

goods [ways to transport goods].

Is a reason for High unemployment is a reason

forpublic unrest [reasons for

public unrest].

Is a stage of The charge is a stage ofa battle

[stages of battle].

Is a result of/ A coal power plant is a cause of

is a cause of acid rain [causes of acid rain].

Is a place for A town square is a place fora

mob to gather [places where

mobs gather].

Is a Wearing spiked, colored hair

characteristic of is a characteristic ofpunks

[characteristics of punks].

example, in the domain of a witness in a judicial set-
ting, the cover term is witness.Two subtypes or
included terms are defense witnessand expert wit-
ness.The semantic relationship is “is a kind of.”
Thus, an expert witness and a defense witness are
both types of witnesses. Other semantic relation-
ships are listed in Chart 1.
Spradley developed domain analysis by ana-
lyzing the argot of members in ethnographic field
research, although we can extend it to other quali-
tative data. For example, Zelizer (1985) studied
the changing social value of children by examin-
ing documents on attitudes and behaviors toward
a child’s death in the late nineteenth century.
She could have used a domain analysis in which
“attitude toward child’s death” was a domain, and

the statements of various attitudes she discovered

in documents were included terms. The attitudes

could be organized by the semantic relationship

“is a type of.” Spradley identified three types

of domains: folk domains, mixed domains, and

analytic domains.

1. Afolk domaincontains terms from the argot
   of the members in a social setting. To use it,
   you pay close attention to language and usage.
   The domain uses the relationship among terms
   from a subculture’s argot or in the language of
   historical actors to identify cultural meaning.


2. Amixed domaincontains folk terms, but you
   add your own concepts. For example, types of
   runners are named by the terminology of run-
   ners (e.g., long-distance runner, track people),
   but you observe other types of people for whom
   no term exists in the argot and assign them labels
   (e.g., infrequent visitors, newcomers, amateurs).


3. Ananalytic domaincontains terms from the
   researcher and social theory. They are most
   helpful when the meanings in a setting are tacit,
   implicit, or unrecognized by participants. You
   infer meaningful categories and identify pat-
   terns from observations and artifacts and then
   assign terms to them.

You can construct domains from data notes by

proceeding as follows: read your notes and look for

common semantic relationships (e.g., is a type of

place, is a type of person, is a type of feeling) in

order to find the organization of social relationships.

Next, identify a list of cover terms. For example, a

witness in a judicial setting could be a cover term.

Once you have a list of cover terms, you next orga-

nize the information from the notes as included

Folk domain A cultural area based on the argot and

categories used by the people being studied in a field

site.

Mixed domain A cultural area that combines the

argot and categories of members under study with cat-

egories developed by a researcher for analysis.

Analytic domain A cultural area developed by a

researcher using categories or terms that he or she

developed to understand a social setting.