Section 7: This section will teach novice researchers:

1. How to conduct streamlined and efficient analysis of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods data that can be done by research novices including community members in community-based participatory research (CBPR) studies.
2. To perform four steps in the forms of data analysis, including: preparing data for analysis, performing analysis, displaying the results of analysis, and interpreting findings.
3. To follow procedures in qualitative analysis in a systematic way, and how to perform quality checks on the analysis.

Example of what you will find in this section:

Levels of qualitative analysis. We will address three levels of qualitative data analysis in this curriculum:

Using codes as measurement devices. The second level of qualitative analysis described here would be appropriate for times when the implementation team has a fairly weak quantitative section and wants to measure the intensity of some variable (such as intensity of specific attitudes, beliefs, opinions, feelings). Bernard (2006) argues that there are several forms of codes—one that includes information such as the research site and participant, another is the just-discussed topical code, and another is the code that measures. These codes measure the intensity of the topical code.

Performing the analysis: defining categories. Most steps in this level of analysis are the same as they were for the topical coding, except that the implementation team wishes to measure the strength or intensity of the topics that are coded. Recall in the hypothetical study just cited, some focus group participants gave reasons for not wanting to be tested for AIDS. We can know how many times the reasons were cited from simple counting. But particularly in social research settings such as focus groups or interactions documented during observation, occurrences can make the researcher believe that one expressed attitude or stance is much stronger than others, even though it may not explicitly be stated more often. One person may express an opinion and the others in the group applaud the opinion by a clapping of hands or sighs or grunts. The implementation team may then seek a way of defining codes on intensity levels in the codebook, and defining the contexts quite specifically. A way of measuring the intensity of expressed needs is to watch for certain words in the texts that relate to intensity, such as “some,” “none,” “a lot,” “very,” “strongly,” “serious,” and on and on. A scale can then be developed as part of the code. Then the implementation team could establish the rules for measuring intensity. The team might specify a list of adverbs and adjectives that will connote “no need” and give this a value of 0, specify a list of adverbs and adjectives that connote “low need” with a value of 1, and so on for “medium need” (value of 2) and “high need” (value of 3).

Bernard, H.R. (2006). Research methods in anthropology: Qualitative and quantitative approaches (4th ed.). Lanham, MD: AltaMira.