Analyzing Qualitative Data

247 Pages·1994·1.04 MB·English

by  Alan Bryman

Analyzing qualitative data
The last decade has witnessed considerable growth in the development of qualitative
research. Most methodological development has been concerned with data
collection. As a consequence, texts, readers and monographs remain relatively
silent on the conduct of data analysis, yet this is an area on which most researchers
require some guidance.
This collection brings together a range of distinguished contributors who have
worked with qualitative data. Among the examples provided are accounts of
ethnographers, case study workers, lone researchers, team-based investigators and
those who use specialist approaches including discourse analysis.
Together they demonstrate that a range of approaches are involved in qualitative
data analysis, and suggest different ways in which qualitative data can be handled
to overcome problems with these data.
The book will be essential reading for undergraduates and postgraduates
following research courses and conducting empirical studies, as well as for those
coming to qualitative research for the first time.
Alan Bryman is Professor of Social Research, Loughborough University, and
Robert G.Burgess is Professor of Sociology, University of Warwick.

Analyzing qualitative data
Edited by Alan Bryman
and Robert G.Burgess
London and New York
First published 1994
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002.
© 1994 Alan Bryman and Robert G.Burgess, selection and editorial
matter; copyright for individual chapters resides with the contributors

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or
other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of
Congress
ISBN 0-415-06062-1 (hbk) ISBN 0-415-06063-X (pbk)
ISBN 0-203-41308-3 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-72132-2 (Glassbook Format)
Contents
List of illustrations vii
Notes on contributors viii
Preface xiii
Developments in qualitative data analysis: an introduction 1
Alan Bryman and Robert G.Burgess
1 Thinking through fieldwork 18
Judith Okely
2 From field notes to dissertation: analyzing the stepfamily 35
Christina Hughes
3 Analyzing discourse 47
Jonathan Potter and Margaret Wetherell
4 ‘Second-hand ethnography’: some problems in analyzing
a feminist project 67
Marilyn Porter
5 Linking qualitative and quantitative data analysis 89
Jennifer Mason
6 Analyzing together: recollections of a team approach 111
Virginia Olesen, Nellie Droes, Diane Hatton, Nan Chico
and Leonard Schatzman
7 Four studies from one or one study from four?
Multi-site case study research 129
Robert G.Burgess, Christopher J.Pole, Keith Evans and
Christine Priestley
8 From filing cabinet to computer 146
Lyn Richards and Tom Richards
vi Contents
9 Qualitative data analysis for applied policy research 173
Jane Ritchie and Liz Spencer
10 Patterns of crisis behaviour: a qualitative inquiry 195
Barry A.Turner
11 Reflections on qualitative data analysis 216
Alan Bryman and Robert G.Burgess
Name index 227
Subject index 231
Illustrations
FIGURES
3.1 Scrolling table of cancer incidence 54
6.1 Use of health care providers 125
8.1 Conveying concepts 156
8.2 Different uses of indexing trees 159
9.1 Key features of ‘Framework’ 176
9.2 Development of a thematic framework 181
9.3 Example of an indexed typescript 183
9.4 Example of subject chart headings 184
9.5 Example of subject chart entries 185
9.6 Process of defining dimensions of a concept 187
9.7 Mapping motivations 188
9.8 Typologies of sexual life-styles 189
9.9 Mapping patterns 191
9.10 Developing strategies 192
TABLES
5.1 Example of a survey vignette 90
5.2 Examples of descriptive categories 92
5.3 Conceptual categories in an extract of transcribed text 93
5.4 What the categories mean and why they are applicable 94
5.5 Status of data and strength of claims 105
7.1 The four case study schools 133
9.1 Summary of research studies used for illustrative purposes 177
9.2 Plotting associations 190
Contributors
Alan Bryman is Professor of Social Research in the Department of Social Sciences,
Loughborough University. His main research interests lie in the fields of
organization studies and research methodology. He has a special interest in
leadership in organizations, an area in which he has co-directed a number of funded
research projects. He is author or co-author of the following books: Leadership
and Organizations (1986), Quantity and Quality in Social Research (1988),
Research Methods and Organization Studies (1989), Quantitative Data Analysis
for Social Scientists (1990), and Charisma and Leadership in Organizations (1992).
He is also editor of Doing Research in Organizations (1988).
Robert G.Burgess is Director of CEDAR (Centre for Educational Development,
Appraisal and Research) and Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick.
His main teaching and research interests are in social research methodology,
including qualitative methods and the sociology of education, especially the study
of schools, classrooms and curricula. He has written ethnographic studies of
secondary schools and is currently working on case studies of schools and higher
education. His main publications include: Experiencing Comprehensive Education
(1983), In the Field: an Introduction to Field Research (1984), Education, Schools
and Schooling (1985), Sociology, Education and Schools (1986), Schools at Work
(with Rosemary Deem, 1988) and Implementing In-Service Education (with John
Connor, Sheila Galloway, Marlene Morrison and Malcolm Newton, 1993), together
with fourteen edited volumes on qualitative methods and education. He has been
President of the British Sociological Association for the last two years and is
currently President of the Association for the Teaching of the Social Sciences. He
is a member of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Training Board
and the ESRC Research Resources Board.
Nan Paulsen Chico, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor of Sociology at California State
University, Hayward. She has published on sterilization and reproductive issues.
She is currently doing a qualitative analysis of alumni of several California State
University campuses on their undergraduate experiences and is beginning a
Contributors ix
quantitative study of students at Hayward who have taken a ‘death and dying’
course to assess death anxiety, experience of loss, etc.
Nellie Droes, D.N.Sc. is currently Assistant Professor of Nursing at the Orvis School
of Nursing, University of Nevada, Reno. Her research interests include health in
correctional institutions and health among the under-served. She has published on
nursing in correctional settings and on the image of nursing. She and Diane Hatton
are currently involved in a study of self-care among homeless women and children.
Keith Evans is the Technical and Vocational Education Initiative (TVEI) Co-
ordinator for Central Warwickshire. Prior to this he was a Schoolteacher Fellow at
CEDAR where he worked on the Records of Achievement projects. He has held
senior and middle management positions in schools, where his subject specialism
has been history. His whole-school interests include assessment, staff development
and school-based evaluation. Among his research interests are leadership and
management in comprehensive schools, together with the work on records of
achievement.
Diane Hatton, D.N.Sc. is currently Assistant Professor of Nursing at the Philip
Y.Hahn School of Nursing, University of San Diego. Her research interests include
health and illness among vulnerable populations. She has published on the work
of translators in bilingual health-care settings and on the image of nursing. She
and Nellie Droes are involved in a study of self-care among homeless women
and children.
Christina Hughes is a lecturer in Continuing Education at the University of
Warwick; she was previously a research fellow in the Centre for Educational
Development, Appraisal and Research at the University of Warwick. Her
publications include Stepparents: Wicked or Wonderful? (1991) and Educating the
Under Fives in Salford (with Robert Burgess and Susan Moxon, 1989). She is
currently writing Stepmums, Stepkids, Step by Step. Her research interests continue
to focus on the family and education and the development of research
methodologies.
Jennifer Mason is a lecturer in the Department of Applied Social Science at
Lancaster University. She has had a long-standing interest in the use of qualitative
research methods to explore family, kin and gender relations. During the past six
years she has been researching with colleagues on ESRC-funded research projects
designed to exploit the potential of integrating ‘qualitative’ and ‘quantitative’
methods: first in a study entitled ‘Family obligations’, and currently in one entitled
‘Inheritance, property and family relationships’. She is co-author, with Janet Finch,
of Negotiating Family Responsibilities (1993), a book based on the ‘Family
obligations’ research.
Judith Okely is Reader in the Department of Social Anthropology, University
of Edinburgh. She was a lecturer in the Department of Sociology, University of