Analyzing Qualitative Data with MAXQDA: Text, Audio, and Video

293 Pages·2019·16.902 MB·English

by  Udo Kuckartz, Stefan Rädiker

Udo Kuckartz · Stefan Rädiker
Analyzing
Qualitative
Data with
MAXQDA
Text, Audio, and Video
Analyzing Qualitative Data with MAXQDA
(cid:129)
Udo Kuckartz Stefan Rädiker
Analyzing Qualitative Data
with MAXQDA
Text, Audio, and Video
UdoKuckartz StefanRädiker
Berlin,Germany Verden,Germany
TranslationfromtheGermanlanguageedition:
AnalysequalitativerDatenmitMAXQDAbyStefanRädiker,UdoKuckartz
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Preface
“To begin at the beginning” is the opening line of the play Under Milk Wood by
WelshpoetDylanThomas.So,wealsowanttostarthereatthebeginningandstart
with some information about the history of the analysis software MAXQDA. This
story is quite long; it begins in 1989 with a first version of the software, then just
called“MAX,”fortheoperatingsystemDOSandabookintheGermanlanguage.
Thebook’stitlewasTextAnalysisSoftwarefortheSocialSciences.Introductionto
MAXandTextbaseAlphawrittenbyUdoKuckartz,publishedbyGustavFischerin
1992. Since then, there have been many changes and innovations: technological,
conceptual,andmethodological.MAXQDAhasitsrootsinsocialsciencemethod-
ology;theoriginalnameMAXwasreferencetothesociologistMaxWeber,whose
methodology combined quantitative and qualitative methods, explanation, and
understanding in away that was unique atthe time, thebeginningof the twentieth
century.Sincethefirstversions,MAX(laternamedwinMAXandMAXQDA)has
always been a very innovative analysis software. In 1994, it was one of the first
programswithagraphicaluserinterface;since2001,ithasusedRichTextFormat
withembeddedgraphicsandobjects.Later,MAXQDAwasthefirstQDAprogram
(QDAstandsforqualitativedataanalysis)withaspecialversionforMaccomputers
that included all analytical functions. Since autumn 2015, MAXQDA has been
availableinalmostidenticalversionsforWindowsandMac,sothatuserscanswitch
between operating systems without having to familiarize themselves with a new
interface orchangedfunctionality.Thiscompatibilityandfeature equalitybetween
Mac and Windows versions is unique and greatly facilitates team collaboration.
MAXQDAhasalsocomeupwithnumerousinnovationsintheinterveningyears:a
logically and very intuitively designed user interface, very versatile options for
memos and comments, numerous visualization options, the summary grid as a
middle level of analysis between primary data and categories, and much more, for
instance,transcription,geolinks,weightscoresforcoding,analysisofPDFfiles,and
Twitteranalysis.Lastbutnotleast,themixedmethodsfeaturesareworthmention-
ing,inwhichMAXQDAhaslongplayedapioneeringrole.
This list already shows that today MAXQDA is much more than text analysis
software:thefirstchapterofthisbookcontainsarepresentationofthedatatypesthat
MAXQDAcananalyzetoday(inversion2018)andshowswhichfileformatscanbe
processed.Thelargevarietyofdatatypesiscontrastedbyanevengreaternumberof
v
vi Preface
analysismethods.Thevarietyofpossibilitiesisfascinatingontheonehand,butalso
poses us, as authors of this book, the question of what content we should select,
whichmethodsandproceduresweshoulddescribe,andwithwhatdegreeofdetail?
It makes a huge difference whether videos from school lessonsareanalyzed inthe
contextofdidacticalclassroomresearch,whethernarrativeinterviewsareanalyzed
in biographical research, or whether mixed methods evaluations of development
policymeasuresarecarriedout.Inallthethreecases,aspecificmethodisrequired,
each of which would deserve its own treatise, its own step-by-step guide—and, of
course,therearemanyotherfieldsofapplicationinadditiontothese,suchasnursing
research, environmental research, and technology research. We have tried to deal
with as many topics as possible; above all, we focus on those aspects that have a
multi-use character and play the same role in many fields of application, in many
typesofdataandmethods.Thisincludes,firstandforemost,questionsrelatingtothe
formationofcategories,towhichwepayparticularattention.
Structure of the Book
In the first main part, the basic functions of MAXQDA are presented after a
methodical introduction. The structure follows the logic of the research process.
Thefirstchapter“Analyzingqualitativedata with software”contains ashort meth-
odologicalintroductionandgivesanoverviewoftheanalysisoptions.Thefollowing
chaptersdealwiththemanagementoftheinterfaceofMAXQDA(Chap.2),prepa-
ration and import of data (Chap. 3), and handling and transcription of audio and
videodata(Chap.4).
Reading, reflecting, and exploring are the beginning of intensive work with the
data(Chap.5).ThecentralanalyticalactivityofcodingisthesubjectofChap.6(text
data and PDF) and Chap. 7 (video data and images). The following Chap. 8
“Building a coding frame” focuses on the important question of the construction
ofthecategorysystem.Followingthelogicofastep-by-stepguide,theninthchapter
then deals with the question of how coded segments can be retrieved and which
forms of further work follow, for example for the differentiation of codes.
Chapter 10 “Using variables and quantifying codes” is of particular interest for
mixedmethodsapproaches,butthechapterisalsoimportantforallthosewhohave
collected additional data, such as sociodemographic information, in the context of
problem-oriented interviews and want to combine it with qualitative data.
Chapter 10 concludes the basic part of the book. Up to this point, the chapters
should be read sequentially, as they are largely based on each other. This recom-
mendation applies in particular to readers who do not yet have any knowledge of
computer-assistedanalysisofqualitativedata.
Thesecondmainpartofthebookisproblemoriented(Chaps.11,12,13,14,15,
and16);specialanalysisproblemsarediscussedhere.Whilethefirstmainpartcould
bestbereadsequentiallyfromfronttoback,thechaptersofthesecondapplication-
relatedpartcanbereadindependentlyofeachother.Forexample,whenitcomesto
howtocreatealiteraturereview,itissufficienttoreadonlyChap.14afterthefirst
Preface vii
part.Bystructuringthispartofthebooktofocusonapplications,wehopetoavoid
the acquisition of “lazy knowledge,” which one unfortunately forgets very quickly
accordingtoexperience.Here,inthesecondmainpartofthebook,specialtypesof
analysis or special data types are discussed: Chapter 11 deals with paraphrasing
techniques,case-orientedsummaries,andcasecomparisons.Chapter12isdevoted
to the questions of how to discover relationships, how to perform group
comparisons, and which forms of presentation and visualization of the results are
possible with MAXQDA. Chapter 13 is devoted to mixed methods approaches, in
particular the possibilities of integrating qualitative and quantitative research. The
following two chapters deal with special forms of analysis: literature reviews
(Chap. 14) and focus group analysis (Chap. 15). Chapter 16 focuses on a very
popular form of mixed methods research, namely the analysis of (online) survey
datawithclosedandopenquestions.
Thethirdmainpartofthebook,coveringthelastfourchapters,isagaindevoted
togeneraltopicsthatareindependentofspecifictypesofanalysis:Chapter17deals
withthevisualrepresentationofrelationships,forexampleintheformofinforma-
tiongraphics,conceptmaps,causalnetworks,andmodels;Chap.18dealswiththe
possibilitiesforteamwork,includingthetechnicalimplementationofcollaboration;
andChap.19dealswiththequestionofthequestionofconsistencywhendifferent
peoplesharetheworkofcodingthedatamaterial.ThefinalChap.20isdevotedto
questionsofdocumentationandarchivingthatariseattheveryendofaprojectsuch
ashowtheanalyticalwork,forexample,thecodingframe,canbedocumented.
ThisbookisconsciouslywrittenwiththegoalofoptimalhandlingofMAXQDA.
Althoughreferenceismadetomethodologicalliterature,anyonewhowantstolearn
how a qualitative content analysis works, for example, or which methods of video
analysisexist,shouldfallbackonthemultifacetedmethodologicalliterature.Inthis
book, we convey the knowledge necessary to implement existing methods with
MAXQDAascomprehensiblyandclearlyaspossible.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank Sean Ohlendorf for translating
this book into English. We are very grateful for the insightful comments and
suggestionsprovidedbyGrahamHughes.Inaddition,wewouldliketothankDenise
Gider, Malte Hilker, and Aikokul Maksutova as well as Anne Kuckartz, Isabel
Kuckartz, Jonas Ringler, Fabrice Mielke, and Ann-Kathrin Fischer for their
comments.
Berlin,Germany UdoKuckartz
Autumn2018 StefanRädiker
Contents
1 Introduction:AnalyzingQualitativeDatawithSoftware. . . . . . . . 1
WhatIsQualitativeData?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
WhatTypesofDataCanBeAnalyzedwithMAXQDA?. . . . . . . . . . 3
TheAnalyticalFunctionsofMAXQDA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
MethodsforQualitativeDataAnalysis. . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
IsMAXQDAaMethod?. . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . . .. . . .. . . .. . . . .. 8
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2 GettingtoKnowtheInterfaceofMAXQDA. . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . 13
MAXQDA’sStartDialog. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
MAXQDA’sUserInterface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
TheContextMenusandtheIconsintheMainWindows. . . . . . . . . . . 17
TheUndoFunction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
TheHelpFunctions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
ImportantTermsinMAXQDA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3 SettingUpaProjectandImportingData. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
WhatShouldYouThinkAboutinAdvance?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
PreparingData. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
ImportingTextFiles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
ViewingandEditingTextsUsingthe“DocumentBrowser”. . . . . . . . 29
ManagingDocumentsandDocumentGroupsWithinthe“Document
System”. . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 30
ImportingPDFDocuments,Images,andTables. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
ImportingandPlayingAudioandVideo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
ImportingWebPages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
RecordingMeta-InformationinMemos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
DocumentingYourProgress. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4 TranscribingAudioandVideoRecordings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
NoTranscriptionWithoutRules. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
TranscribingAudioFiles:InterviewsandFocusGroups. . . . . . . . . . . 43
TranscribingVideoFiles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
TheOverviewofTimestamps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
ix
x Contents
ImportingExistingTranscriptionswithTimestamps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
CheckingaTranscript. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 48
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
5 ExploringtheData. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
ExploringYourDataandMakingNotesinMemos. . . . . . . . . . . .. . . 52
HighlightingTextPassageswithAssortedColors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
SearchinginTextswithLexicalSearch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
WordClouds:VisualizingtheMostFrequentlyUsedWords. . . . . . . . 57
ExploringVideoFiles. . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . .. . . 59
LinkingData. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
ParaphrasingTexts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
6 CodingTextandPDFFiles. . . . .. . . . .. . . . .. . . .. . . . .. . . . .. . 65
AboutCodesandCategories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
WhatDoes“Coding”ActuallyMean?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
CreatingNewCodesandBuildingaCodingFrame. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
CodingText. .. . . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . .. . . 70
MoreTechniquesforCoding. .. . . .. . . . .. . . . .. . . .. . . . .. . . .. . 71
TheDisplayofCodesinthe“DocumentBrowser”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
WorkingwithCodedSegments:Comment,Weight,andDelete. . . . . . 75
OverviewofCodedSegments:KeepingTrackofYourCoding. . . . . . 77
CodingPDFDocuments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
AutocodingSearchResults. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
7 CodingVideoData,AudioData,andImages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
CharacteristicsofVideoAnalysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
CodingVideoDataDirectlyorTranscribingFirst?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
CodingVideoDatainthe“MultimediaBrowser”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
AttachingMemostoVideoFilesandLinkingVideoClips. . . . . . . . . 88
CreatingStillImagesandIntegratingTheminPublications. . . . . . . . . 89
CodingAudioDatainthe“MultimediaBrowser”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
CodingandAnalyzingImages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
8 BuildingaCodingFrame. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
DifferentTypesofCodingFrames. . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . 94
PathstoaStructuredCodingFrame. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
CreatingConcept-DrivenCategories(DeductiveCategory
Formation). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
CreatingData-DrivenCategories(InductiveCategoryFormation). . . . 100
CreativeCoding:AToolfortheVisualDevelopmentofaCoding
Frame. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
DocumentingtheEvolutionoftheCodingFrame. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Contents xi
TipsforCodingFrames. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
9 WorkingwithCodedSegmentsandMemos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
RetrievingCodedSegments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
RetrievingCodedVideoClips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
DifferentiatingCodes:SplittingUpCodedSegmentsintoDifferent
Codes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
MergingCodes:CombineCodedSegmentsfromDifferentCodes
intoaSingleCode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
SmartCodingTool:WorkingEffectivelywithCodesandCoded
Segments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
ExportingRetrievedSegments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
SmartPublisher:PresentingCodedSegmentsinaReport. . . . . . . . . . 119
KeepingTrackofMemosandTheirContent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
WorkingwithandPrintingMemos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Reference. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
10 AddingVariablesandQuantifyingCodes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
BenefitsofUsingVariablesforQuantitativeData?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
ManagingVariablesinthe“ListofVariables”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Entering,Changing,andViewingVariableValuesWithinthe“Data
Editor”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
TransformingCodeFrequenciesintoDocumentVariables. . . . . . . .. . 131
CreatingFrequencyTablesandChartsforDocumentVariables. . . . . . 132
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
11 WorkingwithParaphrasesandSummaries,CreatingCase
Overviews. . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 135
WritingandCategorizingParaphrases. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
SummaryGrid:WritingThematicSummariesBasedonCoded
Segments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
SummaryTables:CreatingCaseOverviews. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
CreatingDocumentVariablesFromaSummaryTable. . . . . . . . . . . . 144
AlternativeDisplayofCaseOverviews. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
CreatingIntegrativeSummaries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
TheOverviewofSummaries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
12 ComparingCasesandGroups,DiscoveringInterrelations,
andUsingVisualizations. . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . 151
AboutCaseandGroupComparisons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
FormingGroupsBasedonVariableValues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
QualitativeContrasting:ComparingStatementsofCasesandGroups. . . 154
QuantitativeContrasting:ComparingFrequencyofStatementsofCases
andGroups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155