Deck 15: Analysis of Qualitative Data

Question 1

What is an "ideal type"? Describe two ways in which "ideal types" can be used for the analysis of qualitative data.

Answer 1

-Ideal types are pure standards against which the data or "reality" can be compared.
-Contrast contexts:
-"Ideal type" is used to bring out the specifics of each case and to emphasize the impact of the unique context.
-Making contrasts between contexts requires choosing cases with dramatic contrasts or distinctive features.
-A researcher who uses ideal types can show how unique features shape the operation of general processes.
-Analogies:
-A statement that two objects,processes,or events are similar to each other.
-Analogies transmit information about patterns in data by referring to something that is already known or an experience that is already familiar to the reader.
-Analogies are useful for comparing social processes across different cases or settings.

Question 2

What is successive approximation? Where does successive approximation get its name from? How is successive approximation used in the analysis of qualitative data?

Answer 2

-Successive approximation involves repeated iterations or cycling through steps,moving toward a final analysis.Over time,or after several iterations,a researcher moves from vague ideas and concrete details in the data toward a comprehensive analysis with generalizations.
-A researcher begins with research questions and a framework of assumptions and concepts.He or she then probes into the data,asking questions of the evidence to see how well the concepts fit the evidence and reveal features of the data.He or she also creates new concepts by abstracting from the evidence,and adjusts concepts to fit the evidence better.The researcher then collects additional evidence to address unresolved issues that appeared in the first stage,and repeats the process.At each stage,the evidence and the theory shape each other.
-This is called successive approximation because the modified concepts and the model approximate the full evidence and are modified over and over to become successively more accurate.

Question 3

After formulating concepts,qualitative researchers link them together.Which of the following is NOT one of the types of links qualitative researchers make between concepts?

A) Sequences
B) Correlations
C) Oppositional sets
D) Similar categories woven into statements
E) None of the above

Answer 3

B

Question 4

What kinds of explanations are relevant to qualitative research? What form do they take?

Question 5

While pouring over data,Nathan Notetaker created a special folder and filled it with his thoughts and ideas about the coding process.Which kind of notes are in Nathan's special folder?

A) Analytical memos
B) Ideal type notes
C) Reflexive codes
D) Axial codes
E) Meta-notes

Question 6

According to the grounded theory approach,in what order should a researcher code qualitative data?

A) Open coding, selective coding, axial coding
B) Open coding, axial coding, selective coding
C) Selective coding, open coding, axial coding
D) Axial coding, selective coding, open coding
E) Selective coding, axial coding, open coding

Question 7

When analyzing his qualitative data,Professor Morton Moskowich made a last pass through his notes,skimming previous codes.He looked for specific information or data that was related to the main themes he had already identified.This is called

A) open coding.
B) axial coding.
C) selective coding.
D) contingency coding.
E) divergent coding.

Question 8

In what ways are qualitative data analysis and quantitative data analysis similar? Identify and briefly describe each of the three general commonalities between qualitative data analysis and quantitative data analysis.

Question 9

How is the illustrative method used in the analysis of qualitative data? Describe two variations of the illustrative method.

Question 10

Explain the process of concept formation in qualitative data research.What role or function do concepts play in qualitative research?

Question 11

What are the three main steps in coding qualitative data? What happens at each step in relation to the development of themes? How are the steps related to each other? What distinguishes each step from the others?

Question 12

________ refers to a process whereby researchers systematically gather or record data and make it accessible to others.

A) Inferential research
B) Combined methods
C) The comparative method
D) Empirical research
E) A public method

Question 13

Compare the key differences that set qualitative data analysis apart from quantitative data analysis.What four features differentiate these two approaches? Identify and briefly describe each one.

Question 14

The analytical memo builds a link between _______ and ________.

A) the raw evidence; abstract theoretical ideas
B) abstract theoretical ideas; the final report
C) concepts; themes
D) data notes; other files
E) the raw evidence; the final report

Question 15

Describe the features of the analytical memo.In what ways is it related to the coding process during the analysis of qualitative data?

Question 16

How does the narrative method differ from other qualitative analytical strategies? What is an important argument against using the narrative method?

Question 17

Professor Lars Lonsdale identified several characteristics that made up a hypothetical university student.Next,he examined many university students and compared them to his model.He discovered that students at private universities fit the model better than students at public universities.He also learned that women fit the model better than men and that the model fits students from small towns better than those from large cities,suburbs,or rural areas.What type of analytical technique was Professor Lonsdale using?

A) Successive approximation
B) Analogy
C) Narrative analysis
D) Ideal type analysis
E) Illustrative method

Question 18

Which one of the following features is a specific benefit of axial coding?

A) Axial coding reinforces the connections between evidence and concepts.
B) Axial coding serves the benefit of reducing mountains of raw data into manageable piles.
C) Axial coding makes it possible to quickly retrieve relevant parts of the data.
D) Axial coding allows the researcher to locate ideas in the data and assign initial codes to these ideas.
E) Axial coding makes it possible for the researcher to scan the data and also the previously developed codes in order to determine a core category around which any remaining categories can "fit."

Question 19

While analyzing qualitative data,research assistant Evan Evangelista made a first pass through his notes.He read slowly and put a preliminary label in the notes to identify themes in the data.Evan was using

A) open coding.
B) axial coding.
C) selective coding.
D) contingency coding.
E) divergent coding.

Question 20

Which of the following statements describes both qualitative and quantitative approaches to data analysis?

A) In both forms of data analysis, the researcher carefully examines empirical information to reach a conclusion.
B) Quantitative analysis is a private process, whereas qualitative analysis is a public process.
C) Qualitative and quantitative researchers manipulate numbers that represent empirical facts to test theoretical hypotheses.
D) Both qualitative and quantitative researchers choose from a limited number of specialized, standardized sets of data analysis techniques.
E) Qualitative and quantitative researchers do not begin data analysis until they have collected all of the data.

Question 21

analogy

Question 22

Which of the following reflect the organizational schemas of research subjects,as opposed to researchers?

A) Multiple sorting procedures
B) Quantitative tables
C) Quantitative graphs and charts
D) Spatial maps
E) Sociograms

Question 23

empty boxes

Question 24

NVivo and ATLAS are examples of

A) qualitative coding strategies.
B) quantitative coding strategies.
C) coding software.
D) online resources that assist qualitative researchers with coding.
E) common multiple sorting procedures.

Question 25

Professor Terry Tanker asked the people she was studying to look at a set of 150 photos she had collected of their community.Each person was instructed to take a set of the photos and sort and organize them into piles that represented categories that made sense to them.Professor Tanker then asked the participants to explain the criteria they used to organize their photos.The method used by Professor Tanker in this instance was

A) the illustrative method.
B) the flowchart development.
C) time allocation analysis.
D) successive approximation.
E) multiple sorting procedure.

Question 26

Coding involves two simultaneous activities.What are they?

A) Analytical data categorization and grounded theory construction
B) Selective data elimination and analytical data sorting
C) Systematic data collection and creative data integration
D) Mechanical data reduction and analytical data categorization
E) Pragmatic data distillation and organic data reconstruction

Question 27

Professor Shelly Gizmo asked 10 nurses to describe,in as much detail as possible,their duties during the first hour at work during a typical working day.Each nurse was also asked to write down the decisions they made during the course of the first hour of work on a typical day and to sketch out how each decision was related to others.This type of research procedure is known as

A) decision sorting procedure.
B) ideal type analysis.
C) temporal diagram analysis.
D) flowchart and time sequence analysis.
E) time allocation analysis.

Question 28

Qualitative researchers employ narrative as one strategy for analyzing and presenting qualitative data.What other name(s)have researchers used to refer to the narrative strategy?

A) Realist tale approach
B) Discourse analysis
C) Natural history
D) A & C
E) B & C

Question 29

concept map

Question 30

Graduate student Hannah Hubert developed an abstract model of the "perfect" poem.Her model included five factors: (1)clear cadence of words when spoken,(2)expressive emotional tone or mood,(3)powerful imagery,(4)creative word choice,and (5)overall appearance on the page.She used the factors to evaluate how well a group of 50 poems fit her model.In this case,Hannah used ________ as her research technique.

A) successive approximation
B) analogy
C) narrative analysis
D) ideal type analysis
E) the illustrative method

Question 31

Finding the sheer amount of data she had generated in her qualitative investigation into the agency of young persons diagnosed with cancer overwhelming,Gertrude Gordon decides to visually illustrate emerging themes and their relationships with each other.Which sort of illustration will Gertrude most likely produce?

A) Concept map
B) Flowchart
C) Code map
D) Multiple sorting procedure diagram
E) Successive approximation cloud

Question 32

With which method of data analysis does a researcher begin with "empty boxes" or concepts and then go looking for empirical evidence showing that the concepts are useful in organizing information?

A) Narrative analysis
B) Fixed point-in-time analysis
C) Successive approximation
D) Ideal type analysis
E) Illustrative method

Question 33

The methodological tool "ideal type" lends itself to searches for common causes with common outcomes.What is this method called and who is credited with advancing it?

A) Agreement; Weber.
B) Agreement; Mill
C) Association; Weber
D) Association; Mill
E) Comparison; Weber

Question 34

Which of the following statements best represents a specific criticism of the narrative approach in qualitative methods?

A) Narrative analysis tends to put off data analysis until all the data has first been collected-it is too deductive.
B) It provides an overwhelming array of particular and specific details without providing much of a general explanation that researchers can apply to other settings or contexts.
C) Qualitative researchers who are critical of the narrative approach argue that it has a tendency to contain too much rich data.
D) Narrative analysis produces too many generalizations at the expense of including concrete details.
E) Narrative analysis is too abstract because it gets away from the facts and focuses too much on the generation of theoretical concepts.

Question 35

analytical memo

Question 36

Which of the following is NOT a qualitative diagram?

A) Sociogram
B) Chart
C) Typology
D) Spatial map
E) Temporal map

Question 37

axial coding

Question 38

Which sociologist(s)is/are credited with devising the "ideal type" as a methodological tool for social scientific inquiry?

A) Mill
B) Durkheim
C) Strauss and Corbin
D) Miles and Huberman
E) Weber

Question 39

Graduate student Howard Harmsworth was eager to get started with data collection for his Ph.D dissertation,but his supervisor told him to slow down and begin by finding some "empty boxes." What is Howard's supervisor telling him to do?

A) Draw conceptual categories from pre-existing theory
B) Open coding files
C) Open files for analytical memos
D) Develop the physical infrastructure for storing data
E) Find unanswered questions in pre-existing literature

Question 40

Which of the following statements is true about the use of analogies when analyzing qualitative data?

A) Analogies involve repeated iterations where a researcher repeatedly moves back and forth between the empirical data and abstract concepts, ideas, or models in order to better reflect the evidence.
B) Analogies are used in instances where the researcher wishes to make dramatic contrasts or highlight distinctive features as a way of drawing attention to what is considered to be specific and unique.
C) Analogies are used in cases where the researcher-author wishes to "disappear" from the analysis in order to present the concrete details in chronological order as if they were the product of a unique and naturally unfolding series of events.
D) Analogies are used for helping make sense of or explain data by referring to a deep structure or an underlying mechanism.
E) Analogies are a type of empirical evidence that help to illustrate or anchor a theory.

Question 41

illustrative method

Question 42

infer

Question 43

method of agreement

Question 44

ideal type

Question 45

successive approximation

Question 46

multiple sorting procedure

Question 47

qualitative coding

Question 48

flowchart

Question 49

narrative

Question 50

selective coding

Question 51

data analysis

Question 52

open coding

Question 53

quantitative coding