Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches

Comparison of Methods of Data Analysis

Coding and Concept Formation

Analytic Strategies for Qualitative Data

Other Techniques

Conclusion

Analysis of Qualitative Data

Much of the best work in sociology has been carried out using qualitative methods

without statistical tests. This has been true of research areas ranging from

organization and community studies to microstudies of face to face interaction

and macrostudies of the world system. Nor should such work be regarded as

weak or initial “exploratory” approaches to those topics.

—Randall Collins, “Statistics versus Words,” p. 340

In field research, historical-comparative research,
and a few other research areas, we collect a great
deal of qualitative data to describe details about
people, actions, and events in social life. The data
are in the form of text from documents, observa-
tional notes, open-ended interview transcripts,
physical artifacts, audio- or videotapes, and images
or photos. It is not enough to collect the data; we
also must analyze it. In qualitative approaches to
research, analysis begins while gathering data, but
such analysis tends to be tentative and incomplete.
To analyze data means systematically to orga-
nize, integrate, and examine; as we do this, we search
for patterns and relationships among the specific
details. To analyze, we connect particular data to
concepts, advance generalizations, and identify
broad trends or themes. Analysis allows us to
improve understanding, expand theory, and advance
knowledge.
The data used in quantitative studies are almost
exclusively in the form of numbers. Compared to
the vast volume, variety, and mutability of nebulous
qualitative data, numbers are precise, uniform, stan-
dardized, and compact carriers of information.
Applied mathematics has a large, highly developed

area devoted to the analysis of numbers. Moreover,

the statistics we use to analyze quantitative social

science data are the same as those used across all

quantitative science and many applied areas (e.g.,

business, education, medicine, agriculture, engi-

neering, and so forth). As computer technology has

advanced over the past 40 years, statisticians and

computer scientists have developed a large array of

sophisticated software and widely available pro-

grams to assist in quantitative data analysis.

Little of the vast statistical knowledge and

related computer software is applicable for the

analysis of qualitative data. Qualitative research

allows us to be systematic and logically rigorous but

often in different ways from statistical analysis.

Until about 20 years ago, qualitative researchers

rarely explained how they analyzed data. In fact, a

frequent criticism of qualitative research was that

data analysis is not explicit or open to inspection, but

its analysis has become more explicit and system-

atic.^1 We now have computer software for qualitative

data analysis, some grounded in mathematical and

other logical relations. Nonetheless, we use many

approaches to qualitative data analysis.

From Chapter 15 ofSocial Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches,7/e. W. Lawrence Neuman.
Copyright © 2011 by Pearson Education. Published by Allyn & Bacon. All rights reserved.